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56 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2007 Razor-sharp Blades Motivated by injury and tragedy, team enters break on 15-game winning streak Adversity might seem a tired cliché Added incentive aside, the Blades in sports, but the Oakville Blades defi- are still surprised to be where they are nitely faced their share of it in the early at this point in the year. Before the seaportion of their hockey season. son began, Corbeil said his team wasn't The Blades endured a debilitating the most talented in the league, but injury to one of their star forwards, as would have to rely on hard work to well as the passing of their long-time enjoy success. equipment assistant Hard work is certainmanager, before the sealy part of it, but perhaps son was two months this team is more talentold. Yet, the team has ed than Corbeil persevered, entering the thought. Christmas break on a "I didn't expect this 15-game winning streak talent, and maybe Carlo and owning a nine(Coccimiglio, the head point lead for top spot in coach) didn't expect it the Provincial Junior A either," said the captain. Hockey League's West "There are a lot of guys Conference standings. surprising us, and we Blades captain Chris acquired some guys, Corbeil said the broken additional talent. It's a neck suffered by teamcombination of hard mate Domenic Monardo work and talent. Do I Oct. 22 in Hamilton, eight days after think we're the most talented team in the death of Jean "Old Man" Lachaine, the league? No, not by any means, but has provided extra motivation for the I think we still have enough talent that squad. when we're working hard, we're win"If anything, I think the guys rallied ning." around it," said Corbeil. "We're dediDefenseman Chris Haltigin added, "I cating a lot of this season to Monardo honestly thought we'd be in first place, and Jean Lachaine. With adversity but not (by this much). We work our comes motivation... it has almost given butts off in practice and in the game, we us a purpose, and we have that backing have great goaltending, and everyone's us more than any other team in the coming out to play every day." league." Providing extra reason for optimism The night that the 19-year-old as the playoffs approach is the way the Monardo -- the team's leading scorer Blades are winning these games. Seven at the time -- suffered a of Oakville's 15 wins durcrack to his C2 vertebra "With adversity ing its current streak after being hit from comes motivation... have come by one-goal behind into the boards, it has almost given margins, including four the Blades owned an 8-3- us a purpose, and contests decided in over2 record. They won that time or shootouts. we have that night, 3-1 over the rival "Come playoff time, Red Wings, and are 18-1- backing us more those one-goal games than any other team 1 since. will be really important," Oakville goaltender in the league." Haltigin said. "We face Scott Greenham, himadversity really well. self a major factor in the Oakville Blades Even when we're down a Blades' stellar season captain Chris Corbeil goal or two, we don't thus far, offered another quit. Carlo doesn't let us, opinion as to what is inspiring Oakville and our veteran guys lead by example." players this year. The Blades also boast plenty of bal"We expect Dom to be back for the ance on offense. Nick McParland, Luke end of the season and the playoffs," Moodie, Julian Cimadamore, Jeremy Greenham said. "His recovery is going Welsh, Corbeil and the recentlyreally well; he has his neck brace off acquired Dustin Alcock all have at least and is pretty much back to normal. If 10 goals this season, while Trevor we go far in the playoffs, that means he Eckenswiller (29 points) and Haltigin gets more games and more exposure (22) have provided scoring from the (to scouts) and more of a season than blueline. he expected." Greenham is 21-2-0-2 this year, Initially, it was feared that Monardo with a 2.24 goals-against average and would miss the rest of the year -- dev- .926 save percentage. astating news for the local resident, Backup netminder Oliver Wren is 5who was pursuing a number of schol- 1-1. arship opportunities with American Oakville returns to action Jan. 4, universities. when it visits the Milton IceHawks. MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER ON A MISSION: Oakville Blades captain Chris Corbeil says his team is using the early-season adversity it faced as extra motivation. The Blades enter the Christmas break with a record of 27-4-3 and on a 15-game winning streak. Tavares, Mason shine in limited action John Tavares and Steve Mason have made the most of their limited opportunities so far at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. The 17-year-old Tavares played only five shifts in Canada's opening game Wednesday but still managed to score twice, helping the Canadians to a 3-0 victory over the Czech Republic. Mason, 19, stopped all 22 shots he faced to backstop Canada to a 2-0 win over Slovakia yesterday (Thursday) after sitting out the first game, when Jonathan Bernier played goal. Stefan Legein, the third member of the local trio on the junior team, also made an impact versus Slovakia. The 19-year-old forward was a physical presence and drew two penalties against the Slovaks. Canada's back-to-back shutouts to open the tournament marked the first time the junior team has posted consecutive blankings since 1998. The national junior squad has now won 20 consecutive games, a tournament record. Tavares, meanwhile, is expected to only receive power play time as Canadian coach Craig Hartsburg is utilizing the talented sniper as an extra forward. Canada is off today and will resume its roundrobin schedule tomorrow with a 2 p.m. (eastern) game against Sweden. The preliminary round will conclude Monday, when Canada plays Denmark at noon (eastern). All Canadian games are televised live on TSN.