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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports HALTON TRANSMISSION "Connected to your Community" 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com 39 | Thursday, February 5, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Loss to Toronto hurts Blades' first-place hopes The Oakville Blades' hopes of finishing first in the Ontario Junior Hockey League South Division regular-season standings took a big hit Saturday with a 4-1 loss to the host Toronto Patriots. Oakville (26-18-2-2) trails the first-place Patriots by three points and is one point behind the secondplace Toronto Jr. Canadiens. All three teams have six games remaining in the regular season. Abbey Park defenceman Austin irvine (22) tees up a shot from the point during the Bur Bear hockey tournament Gold Pool final Saturday in Burlington. Abbey Park defeated the Holy Trinity Titans 3-1 in an all-Oakville clash to win the annual boys' high school hockey tournament for the second straight year. | photo by Eric Riehl -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog Abbey Park repeats as Bur Bear champ by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor The Blades will be home for four of their last six games, including tomorrow (Friday) against the Stouffville Spirit and Saturday versus the Lindsay Muskies (both 7:30 p.m. starts at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex). Their remaining schedule includes two games against the 10-33-0-1 Mississauga Chargers, though the Blades will also have to face the 36-7-0-3 Aurora Tigers, 27-162-2 Spirit and 26-22-0-2 North York Rangers. The Blades, Patriots, Jr. Canadiens and Rangers (the latter are two points behind Oakville) are already guaranteed playoff spots. Greg Campbell scored the Blades' goal Saturday against the Patriots, making the score 3-1 in the third period, but Toronto scored an empty-netter with 3:36 to go. Daniel Manella took the loss in net for Oakville, making 23 saves. It took the Abbey Park Eagles 30 years to win their first Bur Bear title -- dating back to their days as Queen Elizabeth Park High School -- and just one year to win their second. Abbey Park repeated as champions of the annual Burlington high school boys' hockey tournament Saturday, defeating the Holy Trinity Titans 3-1 in an all-Oakville final in the Gold Pool. Spencer Verdurmen, Ben Prentice and Austin Irvine scored for Abbey Park in the title game, and Eagles goaltender Michael Cookish allowed only a goal by Trinity's Jacob Patriquin to clinch tournament MVP honours. The Eagles, who also won the Halton Tier 1 championship last year and went on to represent the region at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA/AAAA tournament, went 5-0-1 at this year's Bur Bear and outscored their opposition 35-6. "What is most impressive about this team is how players who started the season as third or fourth line or as fifth and sixth defencemen have stepped up," Eagles coach Larry Rinaldo said. "Chris Boushy, who is on our top line with Ben Prentice and Spencer Verdurmen, sent me a message after the game: `To be honest, coach, my line does manage to score some goals, but we would not be anywhere close to how far we've come as a team without all the guys that don't play all that often. It's those guys that won us the gold today.' "The work ethic of the players on this team is exceptional." The Eagles began the tournament with an 8-0 win over Dundas Valley, then rode a hat-trick effort from Boushy to a 10-3 rout of Bolton St. Michael's. Following a 2-2 tie with Georgetown Christ the King, Abbey Park posted 6-0 wins over Sudbury St. Charles in the quarter-finals and Oakville rival T.A. Blakelock in the semis. Boushy recorded a natural hat trick against St. Charles, and Irvine -- a defenceman -- scored three times against Blakelock. Also scoring at least one goal for Abbey Park in the tournament were Ryan Sykes, Alex Harshaw, Matt Perruzza, Matt McLacchlin, Daniel Rasquin, Brandon Wood and Colin Semple. Scott Schiffner, Alex Hayami, Matt Fitzpatrick and Kevin Kocken also contributed to the tournament win. The Gold Pool final marked Holy Trinity's only loss at the Bur Bear. The Titans beat Waterdown 6-2, tied Lorne Park 2-2 and doubled up Corpus Christi 4-2 in round-robin play, edged Iroquois Ridge 3-2 in the quarter-finals and downed Mount Carmel 6-4 in the semis. "It was good (to play Holy Trinity in the final). I knew it would be a good hockey game. Sometimes when you're playing someone from outside (your region) you don't know what it will be like," Rinaldo said. "It was also nice to see three Halton teams in the semis, because a lot of the other teams have rep players. Some people say we should have them too, but I say we don't need them." -- A photo of the Eagles can be viewed online at bit.ly/1u9kHM9 PWHL Hornets roll sevens in back-to-back victories The Provincial Women's Hockey League-leading Oakville Hornets rolled a seven for the second straight time Monday, defeating the Brampton Canadettes 7-1 at Joshua's Creek Arenas. Madison Field and Loren Gabel each had two goals and an assist, with Olivia Atkinson and Amy Curlew both contributing a goal and a helper. Jaime Bourbonnais provided the other Oakville marker and Nikki Cece stopped 20 of 21 shots to record the victory. Two days earlier, the Hornets blanked the Leaside Wildcats 7-0 in Leaside despite playing without three of their four top scorers (Field, Gabel and Bourbonnais). Emma Maltais paced the Hornets with four assists and Christina Putigna and Atkinson had a goal and an assist each. Jazz Kennedy, Julia Edgar, Lauren Patterson, Meaghan Hector and call-up Sarah Fillier -- playing in her first PWHL game -- rounded out the scoring in support of Daniela Paniccia, who needed to make just eight saves to post her sixth shutout of the year. The Hornets (28-2-3 overall, and 6-0-1 in their last seven) will be home to the Durham West Lightning tomorrow (Friday) at Joshua's Creek. Game time is 8:30 p.m.