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Wednesday, March 22, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER -- Ape « o T a e Friday, Mar. 24th, 10pm GRAFFITI PARK Friday, Mar. 31st, 10pm do w n s tro k e la w n C e n tre I D urvtf » qcw 844-8703 An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@ haltonsearch.com Oakville skaters (left to right) Laura Douglas and Kara White are off to the worlds with Burlington's Ice Image Photo by Peter C. McCusker Oakville skaters offto the worlds with Ice Image By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR couple o f Oakville skaters are gearing up for the world championships which they will attend next month with Burlington's national silver medal winning Ice Image synchronized skating team. Kara White, 19, a first-year Sheridan College student \ in computer science and Laura Douglas, 17, a Grade 12 Iroquois Ridge High School student are members of the 20-plus team which skated to its second consecutive silver medal in the senior division at the national championships earlier this month in Kitchener-Waterloo. Prior to the two silver medals, the team had been slow ly making their way up the national depth chart, finishing 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively, the three previous years. Although the Burlington-based team didn't knock off defending champion Black Ice from Toronto, they easily achieved their primary goal -- which was a top-two finish as it carried with it a berth to this year's world champi onships which are being held April 6-8 in Minneapolis. With a fourth place finish at the last two world `chal lenges', the team 's goal this year is "to medal," said Laura Douglas. Her five-year association with the team has taken her around the country and around the world as she was with the team for their fourth place finishes in Sweden and Photos by Peter J. Thompson Hornets house league finals this weekend at Ice Sports What a year! The 1999-2000 sea son has been the best ever for the O akville H ornets G irls Hockey Association. The house league will have their championship games this Saturday at Ice Sports (complete schedule included) while the rep teams will wrap up over the next couple of weeks. The association this year has grown to 451 players, a 27 per cent increase over last season. There are a total o f 22 house league teams with more than 300 girls playing hockey, many for the first time. In addition, there are nine rep teams from novice to intermediate. This past weekend, the house league completed the round-robin portion o f its playoffs. Each o f the five divisions -- tyke, novice, atom, peewee, and ban tam/midget -- played a three or four game round-robin to determine the two teams that will advance to this Saturday's cham pionship at Ice Sports. Here's the schedule ... 8:15 a.m., tyke championship 9:45 a.m., novice championship 11:15 a.m., atom championship 12:45 p.m., peew ee cham pi onship 2:15 p.m., bantam/midget REP TEAMS The rep teams are currently involved in league playoffs, hoping to advance to the league cham pi onship weekend, April 1st and 2nd in Etobicoke. The Provincial C ham pionships are being hosted in M ississauga this year. Team s from all over the province, at every level, play the weekend o f April 15th and 16th just follow ing the W om en's W orld Hockey Championships. There are also some rep games on tap this Saturday at Ice Sports ... 4:15 p.m., bantam A 5:15 p.m., novice BB 6:15 p.m., tyke select The key to girls' hockey is fun. Many thanks to the Hornets' spon sors, coaches, trainers and managers, (See 'Hornets' page D3) A (See Ice Image' page D3) TOP PHOTO: Amy Pulford of the OakviUe Hornets atom `black' team battles for the puck with an uniden tified `blue' team opponent BOTTOM PHOTO: the `blue' team celebrates their 7-2 playoff win last week end. The championship games run this Saturday. THE SLOTS A R E H ER E M ohaw k Racetrack Slots features 750 slot machines ranging from 25^ to $5. W e 'v e got progressive jackpots, great meals at the Market Place Eatery and the Terrace Lounge restaurant. W e 're open from 11 am to 2 am, 7 days a w eek for full gaming fun. Sim ply follow the sound o f excitement to H ighw ay 401 and G uelph Line. For information call (905) 854-4053. F T T I f MaSsswdt