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24 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2008 MOHA rolls lucky seven into OMHA final series Seven Minor Oaks Hockey Association rep squads have reached the championship round of their Ontario Minor Hockey Association playdowns. The novice A, minor atom AA, atom A, atom AA, atom AE (additional entry), peewee AA and bantam AE Rangers were all victorious in their recent semifinal series. Oakville's bantam A and minor midget A squads were the other local semifinalists, but both teams were ousted last round. Oakville's novice A team will play Orillia in the final after disposing of Hespeler in five games. After losing the opener 5-1 in Oakville, the Rangers posted a pair of 2-1 wins, tied Hespeler 1-1 and then finished the series Sunday with a 3-1 win at Glen Abbey Recreation Centre. The minor atom AA Rangers needed six games to eliminate the Burlington Eagles last round. Oakville pulled out a 3-1 win Sunday in Burlington to earn a 7-5 victory in the first-to-six-points series. The Rangers won the first two games of the semifinal, 3-1 and 3-2, before Burlington managed to tie the series with a 2-0 win, 4-4 draw and 5-2 triumph. Oakville will play Peterborough in the final. In atom A play, Oakville easily advanced to the championship with a sweep of St. Thomas. The Rangers posted victories of 6-2, 2-0 and 1-0 and will next face Port Perry. The atom AA Rangers defeated Brampton 2-1, 4-0 and 2-0 in their series, dropping a 4-2 decision in the second game of the semis. They will play Aurora in the final. Oakville's atom AE squad finished off a three-game sweep of Belle River with a 4-3 overtime win Friday in Oakville. The Rangers, who opened the series with a pair of 5-1 victories, will take on Caledon next round. The local team also earned a sweep in the peewee AA semifinals as Oakville posted wins of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-0, earning a final matchup with Aurora. The bantam AE Rangers were the final Oakville team to reach the finals, beating Windsor by scores of 6-2, 3-1 and 2-0. They will play the winner of the other semifinal between Stoney Creek and Whitby. Falling in their semifinal series were the bantam A Rangers (losing 4-3, 5-4 and 3-0 to South Point) and the minor midget A Rangers (losing 7-5 Sunday after splitting the first four games of their series with Niagara Falls). Welcome to Oakville MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER EASTERN CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Morningstar Taekwon-Do student Scott Seguin (right) exchanges blows with Nova Scotia's Shaine Lynch during last weekend's Eastern Canadian Taekwon-Do Championships at Sheridan College. Seguin, a two-time competitor at the world championships, won the men's second degree black belt patterns and finished third in middleweight sparring. Teammates Mark Silva, Zachary Membrere, Brian Charbine, Louie Mendez, Antony Mendez, Ming Manktelow and Peter Macdonald also won medals and will join Seguin at next month's CanAm Championships in Quebec, where top performers will advance to the national championships. Blades making it worth price of admission My buddy and beer league hockey teammate, Brad, decided to accompany me to the Oakville Blades game Monday night. "Fifteen bucks?" he asked with a pained look on his face as he saw the adult admission prices outside the rink. "What does the American Hockey League cost?" Yes, they are not exactly giving tickets away to Blades home playoff games these days. And the sightlines aren't the best at Joshua's Creek Arenas either, as anyone who has sat in the upper stands would attest. But these Blades are making it difficult to suggest they aren't worth the price of admission. They are energetic, they are skilled, they are hard-working and, above all, they are successful. Oakville is one win away from its third Provincial Junior A Hockey League West Conference title in the past five years, having pushed the Georgetown Raiders to the brink of elimination with a 5-2 win Monday. The Blades will go for the sweep tonight in Georgetown (an 8 p.m. start). After beginning the series with a 4-3 victory Friday at home, the Blades exploded for five second-period goals to rout the Raiders 7-1 Saturday in Georgetown. Add in Monday's fivegoal output, and the Blades have already managed to put 16 shots past Georgetown netminder Marc Stuart -- hardly a slouch, having sported a goals-against average of 2.89 in 20 regular-season games. "He's a good goalie," said Oakville forward Kellan Lain, who played high school hockey last year with the T.A. Blakelock Tigers and was a surprise addition to this year's Blades squad. "We're just trying to get rid of it quickly, to get up on him quick and not let him get confidence." That's exactly what Lain did in the second period Monday to give the Blades a 2-1 lead, taking a pass from Dustin Alcock and one-timing it into the top corner. Julian Cimadamore later went top shelf on a breakaway before Luke Moodie provided the back-breaker with two seconds left in the period, converting a beautiful backdoor pass from Nick McParland and giving Oakville a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes. Georgetown did strike back in the opening minute of the third period, cutting the Blades' lead to 4-2, but McParland iced the win with a powerplay marker with 5:16 left in regulation. Geoff Guimond had the Blades' other goal, opening the scoring in the first period. The Raiders' Jeremy Wick and Chris Borges were the only players to solve Oakville goaltender Scott Greenham, who picked up his third win of the series. While the Blades entered the West final as a clear favourite, having finished the regular season 17 points ahead of the second-place Raiders, the notion of a one-sided four-game sweep once seemed a little far-fetched. Not anymore. "We're playing like we did in December (when the Blades were in the middle of a 20game winning streak). I knew if we could play that way and start skating, we had a chance to score a lot of goals," said Blades head coach and general manager Carlo Coccimiglio. "Did I expect this? No, I didn't." The Blades' top forward line of Moodie, Cimadamore and McParland has been a major factor, combining for nine goals in the first three games. Cimadmore scored twice in the series opener and added two more Saturday, while Lain also potted two in Game 2. Also scoring for the Blades in the first two games were Moodie (two), Sean Teakle, Alcock and McParland. Chris Haltigin, Alcock and Cimadamore each had a pair of assists Saturday, while Taylor Farris and Lindsay Sparks both drew two assists in Monday's contest. Georgetown's cause has not been helped by the loss of defenceman and captain Evan Zych, who suffered a knee injury in Game 1. If the Blades are unable to close out the series tonight in Georgetown, Game 5 would be contested Friday at Joshua's Creek Arenas (a 7:30 p.m. start). The winner of the West final will face either Stouffville or Aurora in the league semifinals. That series was tied 1-1 entering last night's action.