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D6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, March 14, 2001 SportsM/ednesday An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@haltonsearch.com `Be proud!' The O akville R angers atom AA rep team had th eir O ntario M in o r Hockey A ssociation (O M H A ) drive end Saturday at the hands of Burlington. The Rangers w ere dow n 5-3 in th eir sixpoint series and w ere elim inated w ith a 33 overtim e tie. Coach Bill C handler pulled the goalie in the o vertim e period but his troops co u ld n 't notch the gam e w inner w hich would have tied the series up at five points apiece and forced a sixth and deciding gam e in the hard fought series. "I was very proud of th eir effo rt," said coach Chandler, of his own troops. "If you have players th at are n 't playing 100 per cent you m ight be a little bit dis appointed. "B ut I just w alked in -- cause they're 11-year-olds and they start crying and so on -- and I just said, no, be proud of your selves." Photo by Riziero Vertolli ALL A BLUR: this photo aptly shows why hockey is one of the fastest sports on two feet. Oakville settled for a 3-3 overtime draw, losing their OMHA series to Burlington. It' s showtime for minor bantam AAARangers, OMHA finals kick off Friday morning, 10 a.m. The Oakville Rangers minor ban tam AAA rep team had a free ticket into this week's Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championship playdowns. But they went and earned their way in to it, anyway. As the defending Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) champi ons, who then went on to become Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) finalists (at the major peewee level), the Rangers earned the right to host this year's championship, affording them a direct bye. The five-team championship opens up this Friday at 10 a.m. with Oakville taking on St. Catharines. Oakville then plays its second game Friday afternoon at 2:20 p.m. A complete schedule is enclosed. All of Oakville's games are at River Oaks, as indeed are all of the games in the tour nament, save for one (Niagara Falls plays Markham Friday, 2 p.m. at Glen Abbey). Games Win 2 2 31 30 27 22 9 8 69 62 Loss 0 0 4 Tie 0 The Oakville Rangers certainly did n't rest on their laurels this year. In fact they were undefeated in league play with a stellar record of 30 wins and one tie, earning them a first-round bye. They opened up their playoff drive with a second round, three-game sweep over Stoney Creek, followed up by a three-game sweep o f Grey Bruce in their third round series. In a fourth round, best-of-three tuneup series (with both teams assured of a berth in the OMHA finals), which they just completed, the Rangers did drop a game in winning the series 2-1. The Rangers won the deciding game 4-2 to sweep divisional playoff honours. It was actually a close series with the first two games going into overtime. Oakville lost the opener 4-3, unable to hang on to a 2-0 lead and then needed to pull out a 3-2 overtime victory to force the rubber match. The Rangers held a wide margin in shots throughout the series but ran into (See 'Rangers' inside page D5) GF 16 175 106 52 349 GA 2 52 54 19 127 GFA 8.00 5.65 3.93 5.78 5.06 GAA Oakville Rangers minor bantam AAA regular season totals Exhibition League Tournament Playoffs Over-all 1 1 1 1.00 5 0 2 1.68 2.00 2.11 1.84 File Photo by Barrie Erskine Ben Heersink and an unidentified teammate celebrate a goal earlier this year. Their goal this week is to defend their Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship, which will be played mostly at River Oaks Rec Centre. Achievements... League champs, undefeated; SCTA playoff champs: Tomnto Red Wing tourney champions; Hamilton Tim Hortons toumey quarte/finalists; Whitby Silver Stick North American semifinal ists; Oakville Christmas toumey champions; Barrie International toumey semifinalists. Bruins kick off nationals Thursday By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR The Sheridan Bruins, which shocked favoured Humber in double overtime to win the Ontario men's col lege basketball championship, have just one thing in mind when they kick off the national playdowns in Toronto on Thursday. "To win it," said veteran Bruins coach Jim Hack. "There's no other Elvis Dennis (#25) and David Martin (#10) fight for the ball in action from earlier in the season. File Photo by Ron Kuzyk goal. We're going in to win three games." Seeded third, the Bruins will open up Thursday, 4 p.m., against sixth seed ed, Langara B.C. Host Humber College, which dropped to fourth seed (the first time this year they've been ranked behind Sheridan) drew fifth place Champlain from Quebec. But Flack is dubious about the ben efit of the improved seeding to his Oakville-based team. "The team Humber drew, we beat by 15 points. The team we drew has won two of the three last national champi onships." Not that coach Flack was in any way complaining, just pointing out that at this national level there's very little sep arating the top seeds at this tournament. "I guess we're favoured to beat Langara. But I think it's bit of a stretch. To me it's a pick 'em game." After burning up the cross country phone lines, coach R ack said he's man aged to compile some advanced scout ing on his opening round opposition. "I have a couple of video tapes and I have some moles around the country, shall we say, who have given me a bit of a breakdown on them," he said, chuckling. (See 'Bruins' inside page D4) Here's what we'll do: SHOPPING CENTRE Tipper Middle & 8 th Line / 0AKTOW N SHOPPING PLAZA 5 5 0 K e rr S tre e t · Drain transmission fluid · Replace transmission fluid and pan gasket · Clean or replace filter Fees for used automotive product disposal may apply. See details in store. Maintenance tip: Automatic transmission should be services every 40,000 km. See details in store. 849-8473 844-0202 . §TORE HOURS'Mon. -Fri. 8:30am-9pm Sat 9anv6pm, Sun. 9am-5pm Look for our flyer in Friday's Oakville Beaver Our new store is opening at Trafalgar and Dundas early April. The Gar Bar and Car Wash Are Now Open. i