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Halton Hills This Week, Wednesday, January’6, 1993 — Page 9 TELS GHEGH) 40 MARTIN ST., MILTON if Oe eee NORTHEND NISSAN SALES, SERVICE 610 Martin St, Miton 878-4137 IN ST. S. GEORGETOWN. (ENTRANCE OFF REAR PARKING LOT) 873-2441 GMHA midget hockey tournament Markham, Aeros claim puck titles i ta The Sunny Acre Farm midgets officially said goodbye to team member Jeremiah Fendley last Wednesday, retiring his jersey before playing their final game in the 26th annual Georgetown Minor Hockey Association tournament. Fendley, 17, died suddenly last month during high school physical education class. Here parents Bob and Paula Fendley pose with their son’s sweater. Photo by Wendy Long. Raiders hopeful about playoffs The New Year is here, and with it comes a renewed optimism for the Georgetown Chrysler Raiders. For even though the Central Ontario Junior Hockey League team is riding a 27-game winless streak, a playoff berth still remains on the horizon. The Raiders could take a giant step towards a port season berth Saturday with a win over Royal Yor! Currently the Rangers hold down & sixth and final playoff spot in the East Division, three points ahead of the seventh-place Raiders. Georgetown opens 1993 in Brampton on Thursday night, and is in Caledon on Sunday to complete the busy first week back. “It’s a big game for us because we could invariably be one point out of sixth or five,’’ Ford said. “But, ally, we can’t put a lot of emphasis on it because we’ ve still got a lot of steps to go. “The first one will be putting together some wins and ee ahead of Royal York. < id as it has been, that (still being in playoff coe has been the salvation. This can be sal- vi aa with some wins. That makes every game impor- tant Ford i is still looking for his first win since taking over the Raiders early last month after coach Charlie Hanman and assistant Bert Osborne both stepped down, feeling a change was needed. Although Ford is 0-6-1, the club’s play leaves him encouraged. Only one of those defeats has been by more than three goals, and Georgetown has scored 35 goals since Ford took over. The only problem is, the Raiders have given up 50 goals. However, Ford isn’t about to point the finger of blame at anyone in particular. “We've given up too many goals, that’s for sure,’” he said. “There have been times when our goalies have given up a soft goal, but I’ve also seen times when guys have been allowed to stand in front and get three and four shots on goal before scoring.’’ Having been without right-winger Bryan Gendron hasn’t helped either, Ford said. Gendron, who returned to the Raiders earlier this year after three-plus seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, has been out of action for the past four games after receiving an 11-game sus- pension for head butting and molesting an official in a contest against Caledon. Ford figures with Gendron in the lineup, the Raiders could’ ve possibly turned. a 4-4 tie with Burlington and close losses to Royal York, Milton and Mississauga into wins. “You don’t want to put the pressure all on one guy’s shoulders, but Bryan has a lot of experience and I Continued on page 10 The 26th version of the Georgetown Minor Hockey Association’s annual midget tour- hament offered event director Brian James.a crash course in on-the-job training. James, in his first year as the tournament’s director, was sailing right along with virtually a worry- free event through the competi- tion’s first six days. James’s biggest wofry up to that point was having a player pass out in the lobby after suffering a suspected concussion during a game. The player was taken to hospital, where he was treated and released. However, that record was to be broken come last Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, James figured he had decided the four semifinalists in the AA class. Deciding on three of the teams was easy as those were the respective winners of the. three divisions. The remaining position went to the second-place club with the best record. When the tie ‘breaking formula was applied, tournament officials decided Thornhill would advance to the playoff round. However, officials with the Sarnia entry disputed the formula, saying that Thornhill had the advantage based on having played more games because it was in a five-team division (the two others were made up of four teams). Officials from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association and the host GMHA were called in, and after deliberation it was decided Sarnia would become the wild-card entry. That meant telephoning Thornhill team representatives and letting them in on the bad news. Later Saturday, James was informed by Brooklin-Whitby, one of four teams competing in the AAA ranks, that there was a possi- ble’ conflict with Sunday’s playoff times. The Brooklin team had a league contest slated for 8 p.m., but if it had won its playoff game earli- er Sunday morning, it would have to'play for the AAA title at 6 p.m. But Brooklin team officials said they would work on getting the league game rescheduled. Well, during the second-period intermission of the Brooklin- Guelph playoff game Sunday, which the Whitby team was leading handily, James was informed that the league game couldn’t be rescheduled and that Brooklin would have to bow out of the tour- nament. So then the decision was made to have the Toronto Aeros- Central Ontario Wolves playoff contest stand as the AAA final. The decision paid off handsome- ly as the Aeros claimed the champi- onship with a trilling 5-3 overtime in. The Sarnia team also made the most of its chance, defeating Brampton 4-1 before dropping a 6- 2 decision to Markham in the AA championship. Markham advanced with a 9-2 semifinal victory over Humberview. Georgetown was represented by the Sunny Acre Farms midgets, who finished the tournament with an 0-3 record. After losing 6-2 to Ajax and 10-6 to ,Etobicoke, the Raiders dropped a 9-2 decision to Humberview on Wednesday. Prior to the game, in a very classy move, died suddenly last month during a high school physical education ass. 2 James said he would welcome getting the opportunity to run the 1994 event, particularly after the lessons learned from this year’s event. Ideally, he would like to see the tournament attract 24 teams, which would include eight in the AAA category, so as to make it easier to a from a schedul- ing point of vie A big ricobles James had this year was trying to attract teams to Georgetown during a time when a host of other tournaments were underway. That, combined with many teams deciding not to travel during the Christmas break for financial reasons, made it difficult to get the 17 teams which did take Having the tournament start in the New Year, which had been the norm excluding the past couple of years, would also prevent the Georgetown event from having to compete against other tournaments. “Getting 24 teams would take care of the problem of having a wild-card team,’’ James said. “Even if we have to have the wild- card team next year, we'll have to have a better formula than we did this year.” After the respective champi- onships were decided, the top per- formers in each classification were honored. Robert Koh of the Toronto Aeros was voted the AAA MVP, with Chris McCarthy of the Central Ontario squad being named the top goaltender. Markham’s Miguel Torres was the AA MVP, with teammate Shawn Fryberg being named the top goaltender. 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