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36 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2008 No goalie, no problem Blades rally around backup Wren, earn bye to Dudley final By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR NEWMARKET -- Third-period deficits haven't fazed the Oakville Blades all playoffs. Apparently, losing their starting netminder for the rest of the year doesn't faze them either. With backup goaltender Oliver Wren seeing his first meaningful action in nearly two months, the Blades scored four unanswered goals in the final period Thursday to defeat the host Newmarket Hurricanes 5-2 in the final round-robin game of the Dudley Hewitt Cup Central Canada Jr. A hockey tournament. The win completed a 3-0 preliminary-round showing by Oakville and earned the Blades a spot in today's championship game (an 8 p.m. start at Newmarket's Ray Twinney Recreation Complex), while Newmarket (2-1) had to face the Dryden Ice Dogs in a semifinal contest yesterday. Thursday marked Oakville's first postseason game without Scott Greenham starting in net. Greenham turned 21 Thursday, meaning he could not continue playing for the Blades this season without forfeiting a year of NCAA eligibility at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Wren more than picked up the slack for his departed teammate. He stopped 21 of 23 Newmarket shots -- including several acrobatic saves seconds before the Blades tied the game 1-1 late in the first period -- and was named Oakville's player of the game. "I've never been the type of guy who needs a long time to prepare. I just wanted to be ready for when the coaching staff called on me," said Wren, who had been aware of Greenham's potential eligibility issues for the past several months. "To be honest, I was never the most talented goalie, growing up playing AA hockey and high school hockey. I kind of bloomed late and have always been a hard worker in the gym and on the ice. That's what's got me where I am." The Hurricanes got goals from Adam MacArthur and Jeff Henderson to offset an Oakville marker by Jeremy Welsh and carry a 2-1 lead into the third period. That's when the Blades took over, however, outshooting Newmarket 20-4 in the final frame. Geoff Guimond tied the game before the six-minute mark of the third, and Lindsay Sparks put the Blades ahead with eight minutes to go in regulation. Nick McParland added two late insurance goals, his seventh and eighth tallies of the tournament. -- More Blades coverage, page 37 EXTREME ATHLETE: Rob Kent stands in the middle of the Sahara Desert, the venue for a 235-kilometre endurance race he recently completed. The trek through the Sahara is only one of several gruelling athletic challenges the 43-year-old Oakville resident has taken on in the past few years. Walking on sunshine in the Sahara R ob Kent doesn't focus on the 55 degree Celsius heat, or the 243-kilometre trek through the dry desert over mountains of sand, or the agonizing blisters that leave many feet as raw as a roll of sushi. Instead, when reflecting on the endurance race he recently completed through the Sahara Desert, Kent chooses to discuss the sublime scenery and the intense friendships that he forged. "It's more the experience you have and the actual adventure of seeing a corner of the world that 99 per cent of the world would never see. A big chunk of it as well, outside of the race itself, is the people you meet," said the Oakville resident. "There are people -- you don't know their last name -- but you know them inside and out; you've seen them at their worst and at their best because you've experienced so much in such a short period of time." Heat, blisters and punishing terrain are just a few potential hazards in an event like this. The race -- which took place March 27 to April 7 and is widely considered the toughest footrace on earth -- also included deadly scorpions, dehydration, and sleep depravation caused by gusting winds that blew away tents as the participants slept in them. where others might not see them. Still, Kent believes there are just as "It isn't a total juxtaposition in that many reasons to compete in such a treach- things like this teach you about discipline erous event as there are not to. However, and hard work," said Kent. "You can apply he knows those incentives are hard for oth- (this experience) to education and your ers to comprehend. job, and if you look at it from that point of "It's more the subjective view it isn't as strange as it might appear." things, that aren't as tangiKent doesn't plan on calling it quits ble," said Kent. "There is a bit anytime soon either. He admits that of a rush doing something like attending these types of competitions only this; it only lasts for a minute adds to the laundry list of feats he would and then you realize that your like to accomplish. feet are killing you or your "That (kind of race) is a bad place for pack is killing your back." that because all you do is bump into people Kent, an avid marathon and that have done amazing things and you go, triathlon participant, attempt- `oh, I'd like to do that'. Unfortunately, I live ed to swim the English in the real world with a job and a wife and Channel -- a 38-km stretch of three kids and you have to juggle all these near-frozen water things, but all it did was make -- in 2006, but "I won't do (things) my list of things to do longer." was dragged from the channel that are just sheer With that being said, he unconscious after 12.5 hours. dangerous. I want does have limits to the type of Despite his enthusiasm to challenges he would attempt. to experience as compete, he doesn't fit the "There are ones out there stereotypical mold of an much as I can, but I that I wouldn't do; not extreme athlete. His family don't want to die." because I wouldn't want to, I and professional lives seem won't do ones that are just juxtaposed to his athletic Rob Kent sheer dangerous," said Kent. endeavors. Kent, 43, is a hus"I want to experience as much band and father of three children, and as I can, but I don't want to die." works as the vice-president of treasury Kent was featured recently in an intersales for a prominent bank in Toronto. view on CBC and also chronicled his He is conscious that his extraordinary progress throughout the marathon in a lifestyle might seem reckless to some peo- blog for a Toronto major daily newspaper. See Kent page 37 ple, but, again, he notices the positives