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18 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012 Seven more Rangers squads win OMHAs By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Eight, and counting. That's the number of Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championships won this season by Oakville Rangers rep teams., seven of those coming in the past week. The minor atom AE, minor atom A, atom AE, minor bantam AE, minor bantam AA, minor midget AE and minor midget AA Rangers are Oakville's latest OMHA champions. The minor atom AAA Rangers were the town's first champions of the season, winning their OMHA tournament earlier this month at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Following are details on the minor atom AE, atom AE and minor midget AA Rangers' victories. Coverage of the other four teams' recent wins will appear in an upcoming edition of the Beaver. Minor atom AE It didn't take long for Oakville minor atom AE Rangers head coach Barry Adams to realAtom AE ize his team needed bigger challenges than Despite all their success this hockey seathe Tri-County Minor Hockey League had to son, the Oakville atom AE Rangers also knew offer. "We recognized it fairly early," said Adams, to take nothing for granted. Oakville learned that lesson early in the whose Rangers outscored their opponents 225-22 en route to winning all 28 of their Tri- year. After winning an early bird tournament during the preseason, the Rangers opened County regular-season games. "We knew tough games were coming, and the Tri-County regular season with losses in it would be like going from zero to 100 (miles their first four games. "In retrospect, that was probably not a bad an hour)." So Adams scheduled exhibition games thing," said Oakville head coach Chris Charko. against stiffer competition, including minor "It kind of taught them that, yeah, we're a atom A squads and teams from the Minor good team, but in every game, you have to show up and play hockey. Hockey Alliance of Ontario. There's no entitlement." The Rangers also made sure "In every game, you When you don't take anyto play Barrie and have to show up and thing for granted, you celePeterborough, two minor play hockey. There's no brate the good times. And the atom AE teams also dominatentitlement." Rangers certainly celebrated ing their respective leagues. Saturday after winning the That foresight paid off last Oakville atom AE Rangers OMHA championship with a weekend with an Ontario head coach Chris Charko 6-3 victory over the Georgina Minor Hockey Association Blaze at River Oaks Recreation (OMHA) title. Oakville clinched OMHA gold Saturday at Centre, giving Oakville a 3-1 win in the firstOakville Arena, edging Barrie 1-0 to win the to-six-points series. "The energy in the building was just fanfirst-to-six-points championship series in four games. All four games in the final were tastic. The kids will never forget this," Charko decided by one goal, with Barrie claiming the said. "We had sparkling juice afterwards, and opening game 4-3 before Oakville bounced the kids drank it out of the (trophy). It was like winning the Stanley Cup for some of back with 4-3 and 3-2 victories. Adams felt the Rangers' previous contests them, I'm sure." Although the Rangers finished their Triagainst Barrie and other elite teams helped them prepare for the final because they got County league season in second place (19-7-2, experience playing in their own end of the one point behind Erin), they turned it on See Minor, page 19 rink, something they weren't often forced to do against Tri-County foes. Oakville players also learned how to make plays without much space to operate. But the Rangers head coach said simple effort also made a difference in the final. "When we played Barrie (this season), every time except once, it was a one-goal game," Adams said. "It pretty much felt to me that you could show your cards all you want, but in the end it was whichever team worked the hardest." Ryan Sheppard scored the championshipclinching goal in overtime Saturday, while Noah Darling recorded the shutout in net for the Rangers. Other members of the team are Jackson Weber, Blake Adams, Matthew McDougall, Mark Benn, James Carroll, Riley Cerovcec, Matt Gigeris, Jame Langill, Benjamin Lyytikainen, Cole Maddox, Jonathan Policelli, Avery Robertson, Patrick Stewart, Kyle Truffen and Cole Webster. Brent Robertson and David Weber are the club's assistant coaches, Chris Gigeris is the trainer and David Langill is the manager. ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @HALTON_PHOTOG SIGN OF THINGS TO COME: Oakville atom AE Rangers player Matthew Tani (right) cele- brates an Oakville goal Saturday at River Oaks Recreation Centre. A bigger celebration was in store for Tani and the Rangers later in the afternoon as Oakville defeated the Georgina Blaze 6-3 to win the Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship.