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Winning Clarkson Cup a special achievement for Oakville pair By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff 47 | Thursday, March 17, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com The Clarkson Cup may not be as big as the Stanley Cup in size or stature, but to be fair, Lord Stanley's mug did have a 116-year head start in building its reputation. And for the players who will have their names engraved on the women's hockey's championship trophy, they have an appreciation for their place in a sport that, like the Clarkson Cup itself, they hope will continue to grow. "It was exciting to touch that trophy," said Oakville's Brianne Jenner. "Women's hockey is still pretty early in its history, so to have our team on one of those top rings and be added on there with my teammates is pretty cool." As the captain of the Calgary Inferno, Jenner had the honour of accepting the trophy from Canadian Women's Hockey League commissioner Brenda Andress Sunday following her team's 8-3 victory over Montreal. Inferno teammate Hayleigh Cudmore won a gold medal with Canada at the World Women's Under-18 championships but said winning the Clarkson Cup is a unique opportunity. "It's a championship on a professional level," she said. "You grow up watching the Stanley Cup playoffs on TV and wonder what that would be like. This is our version of that so it's pretty cool." While Calgary boasts a lineup that includes national team members Rebecca Johnston, Meaghan Mikkelson-Reid, Hayley Wickenheiser and Jenner, it was actually the underdog against a Montreal team that led the league with a 21-3-0 record and had beaten Calgary in four of their six meetings this season. The Inferno jumped in front just 2:23 into the game when Jenner set up Rebecca Johnston. Jenner then scored a power-play goal late in the period after Montreal had tied the game. Calgary would not relinquish the lead again, upping the score to 4-1 in the third and capping the victory with Jenner's second goal of the game in the final minute. "Getting the lead was super important," Cudmore, an Oakville native, said. "We knew solving (Montreal goalie Charline) Labonte was going to be one of our biggest challenges. Those goals just let you breathe easier. You still have to stay dialed in because they're capable of coming back, but it was a good feeling when we kept pouring it on." She finished fourth among CWHL blueliners with 15 points in 24 games and led the Inferno at plus-17. Jenner paced Calgary with 28 points, seventh overall in the league, and added another two goals and four assists in three playoff games. She said though the team struggled at times during the season due to injury, it pulled together when it counted most. "We were one of those teams that peaked in the playoffs," she said. Jenner hopes to have another chance to celebrate a victory in the weeks ahead. She'll now join the national team for the world championships in Kamloops. "(The U.S.) have a really strong team and they've had our number at worlds the last few years so we're looking to change that," Jenner said. "Having the chance to throw your sticks in the air and celebrate with your teammates twice in a three- or four-week span is a pretty unique opportunity." MacPherson paces OAK at provincials After a long training schedule, the Oakville Aquatic Club travelled to Nepean earlier this month for the Long Course Provincial Championships. OAK came home with 10 medals, including three golds by Callum MacPherson. MacPherson and Dylan Li added silvermedal efforts while bronze medals went to Collyn Gagne, with two, Kiera Brough, Anthony Ivakhnenko and Bjoern-Ole Schrader. OAK also sent swimmers to the Cobra Power Meet in Brampton on the same weekend. Top finishers included Finn DuncanSnobel, Selim Hamad, Emily Markwart and Aidan Zhang. Following a short break, OAK swimmers will focus on Olympic trials and the start of the long-course season. Qin accomplished the feat in the 50m breast. Also accompanying their teammates to Olympic Trials in April will be Qin in the 200m breast, Kristen Olvet in the 800m free and Luka Tomic in the 200m back. · · · · OAK won the Central Region Short Course Championships in Etobicoke with an overall team score of 988 points. Top finishers from OAK at the meet included Olivia Breen, Duncan-Snobel, Anton Kaploun, Paige Lavergne, Alyna Liu, Emily Ma, Nicolas Miron, Louis Sharland, Blaze Slavkovski, Claire Sutherland, Lauren Van Laare, James Vann and Ally Woo. · · · · Ethan Ma, 11, had three first- and three second-place finishes at the Winter Short Course Festivals held at Markham's Pan Am Pool. He was also part of two successful relay teams consisting of Thomas Clinton, Patrick Williams and Hamza Hamad which won both the 200m and 400m medley. Clinton, Ma, Hamza Hamad and Colin Shakespeare also went on to win the 200m and 400m free relays. · · · · At the Central Region Winter Team Championships for mediumsized teams, OAK collected 3,636 points at the Etobicoke Olympium Feb. 27-28 to win the team title. Julian Legault won six races, Wyatt Leroux won three and Sarah Tsang, Kassandra Nagy and Alexander Mihajlovski each won two races. · · · · On the same weekend, OAK swimmers were in Newmarket for the Steve Kingston Memorial Meet. Kevin Booth, Carly Jazbec, Moustafa Khalifa, Camden Malowany, Kate O'Hare, Sarah Peros, Ava Sergio and Vann were top finishers for the Oakville club. Oakville's James Hinchcliffe (inset) crosses the finish line (above) at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Sunday. Hinchcliffe finished 19th in the season-opening race after a cut tire on the opening lap put him a lap down.| Joe Skibinski -- Indy Car Hinchcliffe's first race since accident spoiled by flat tire in St. Petersburg James Hinchcliffe's return to IndyCar got derailed before it even got started. The Oakville driver, racing for the first time since his crash in practice for the Indy 500 last May that threatened both his career and his life, was hit from behind by the car of Josef Newgarden as the cars were getting up to speed for start of Sunday's season-opening race, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The contact left him with a cut right rear tire and by the time he made it around the track with the flat tire to get back to the pits, he was already a lap down. Hinchcliffe went on to finish 19th. Despite the early setback in his return, Hinchcliffe didn't lose his sense of humour. At one point, the Schmidt-Peterson engineer radioed to him, "We need a yellow (flag) to get your lap back. We just need to be patient." To which Hinchcliffe responded: "I'm a Maple Leafs fan. I know how to be patient." Hinchcliffe eventually did get that yellow flag to get back on the lead lap, only to be caught up in crash that collected nine cars shortly after the restart. That once again put him a lap down. "Certainly it wasn't the day we planned. I joke that when you make plans from A to P going into the first corner at St. Pete and by Turn 1, they all go out the window. That was definitely the case for us. We got tagged and cut a tire, then ended up spending the whole race a lap down. We finally got the yellow we needed, got the lap back, just to get caught up in Turn 4 on the restart." Hinchcliffe qualified ninth for the race but was bumped to eighth when pole sitter Will Power wasn't able to start due to a concussion. Despite not getting much of a chance to race for position, Hinchcliffe was encouraged by the "I'm happy for the progress we made on the car. I think we had a pretty decent fast lap there and we learned a lot about the new street course tire," he said. "Hopefully we can just take this knowledge and move forward to Phoenix." Hinchcliffe's patience will be tested again. The series takes a three-week break before resuming for the Phoenix Grand Prix on Apr. 2. · · · · In a busy February, OAK athletes produced a number of standout performances. More than 20 club members qualified for individual races at the Speedo Eastern Canadian Open in Montreal. A number of OAK members earned a spot at Olympic Trials facing some of Canada's top swimmers. Rosie Zavaros won the 400-metre individual medley and the 200m backstroke. Mabel Zavaros won the 200m fly. Tessa Cieplucha was first in the 400-IM. The Zavaros sisters also broke some long-course club records in Montreal, including the 200m back, 200m fly and 100m fly. Leon