34 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday March 22, 2006 Oakville connection sparks Canada to sledge hockey gold By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Before leaving for Italy, Greg Westlake said he w asn't worried about having a couple of linemates making their Paralympics debut. Fellow Oakville resident Billy Bridges and Bradley Bowden reward ed Westlake's confidence as they team ed up to score all three Canadian goals as Canada blanked Norway 3-0 in the sledge hockey final to claim the gold medal at the Paralympics in Turin, Italy on Saturday. "It was the perfect game and it came on the perfect occasion," Westlake said on the Hockey Canada It remained that way until late in the sec Web site. "You can't ask for more, a shutout against Norway in the final, ond period when Bowden got around a Norwegian defender in the final our goalie (Paul Rosen) "It was the seconds of a Canadian power play. had a great night. It was perfect game and He dropped a pass for Westlake, just perfect." who fired it home to give Canada a Canada took the lead it came on the 2-0 lead with 31 seconds to play in when Bridges took the perfect occasion. the period. puck off a Norwegian You can't ask for Norway came out strong in the defender. He circled the third and pressed to get back in the net before passing to more... it was just game. It outshot Canada 10-2 but Bowden in front. Bowden perfect." couldn't beat Rosen. made no mistake, cash Bridges removed any hope for a ing in on Canada's first Greg Westlake Norwegian comeback when he shot on goal. "The players were nervous before scored into an empty net. It was Bridges' to u r the game but once we got that early nament-leading 11th goal. He also chipped in goal they settled down," Canadian with seven assists to lead the Canadian team in coach Jeff Snyder said on the Hockey Canada Web site. "It was great for us to score early. We knew we had to do that against Norway to have any chance." scoring. Bridges also delivered when it m at tered. He had a hand in seven of Canada's eight goals in the final and semifinal. Westlake also had a strong tournam ent, scoring three times and adding five assists in five games. He scored in both the final and semifinal. Despite getting only one shot on goal in the second period, Norway outshot the Canadians 18-9. It was the other way around in the round robin when Canada outshot Norway but lost 41. That proved to be Canada's only loss of the tournam ent -- in fact, the only goals they allowed in five games -- but the Canadians avenged it with .their win Saturday in front of a capacity crowd of 4,020 at Torino Esposizioni. MEN'S & WOMEN'S · Monday-Thursday · 5 Divisions* Save Over $500 905- 335-6837 PRESENTEDBY SUMMER NON-CONTACT The Oakville Beaver NAME OF YOUR SCHOOL, GROUP OR ORGANIZATION: A D U L T ||OCKEy Trophies Balanced teams LEAGUE HALTON MEN'S HOCKEY LEAGUE Non-contact Prime time games 40th season of operation Individual entries COLLECTOR_____________ __ Send or drop off your collected coupons to: THE OAKVILLE BEAVER, 467 SPEERS RD. OAKVILLE ON L6K3S4 No copies or reproductions accepted Excellent officiating Sweaters/socks provided INFORMATION AND/OR REGISTRATION BY PHONE (905)849-9712 www.hmhl.bizland.com R egistration: Sat. March 25 12-3 pm River Oaks Arena BRONZED AGAIN: MembeYsand coaches of the Oakville Vytis bantam girls AA basketball team celebrate their fourth bronze-medal win of the season recently at St. Thomas Aquinas. The Oakville Beaver Hi! My name is Marissa Baseball, volleyball, and basketball are my favourite sports, and my favourite player is Reggie Miller. I am a girl guide and I enjoy softball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, readin and writing. I also help other classes and malce bracelets for charity. On the weekends I play with friends and family. I own a lizard named Pattern. My favourite food is pizza. I am saving my points: I want to try to reach the top! Another bronze for bantam Vytis The Oakville Vytis bantam g irls' AA bas ketball team won its fourth bronze medal of the season recently at its hom e to u rn am en t at St. Thomas Aquinas. The Vytis defeated the Toronto Triple Threat 33-19 in the bronze-m edal game of the eight-team tournam en t. . After defeating the Belleville S pirit 40-20 and the H am ilton Transway 43-21 in pool play, the Vytis lost a back-and-forth sem ifi nal game against Bram pton 38-35. Key offensive perform ers for the Vytis in the bronze-m edal game were Nevena Aksin, Marti Killeen and Ellie H annaford, who com bined for 28 of the team 's 33 points. S P O Jm B R IE J R S I released ju st after the buzzer and disal lowed. The girls m anaged to regain th e ir com po sure in the bronze-m edal game and defeat Kingsville 43-28. The te a m 's leading sco rer was Tory MacLeod with 55 points in th e five to u rn a m ent games. Duffy earns three skating gold The Oakville Speed Skating Club had six sk aters particip ate at th e 2006 O ntario W inter Games earlier th is m o n th in Collingwood. Patrick Duffy earned th ree gold medals racing in the 777-m etre, 1,000m and ju n io r boys' relay race, com peting in the latter race along with team m ate Jerem y Lin. Gary Browne was Oakville's only other m edallist, w inning gold for th e senior m en 's relay race. O ther Oakville Speed Skating Club repre sentatives at the Games were Zachary Lin, Graeme Stewart and Sean Stew art. Marissa Winning Carriers receive a large 3 topping pizza courtesy of: Wrigley's Vytis also claims bronze W rigley's Oakville Vytis m ajor m idget girls' AA basketball team also earned bronze at a recent tournam en t, finishing th ird in the Brantford CYO com petition. Oakville's only loss of the to u rn am en t was a heartbreaking 28-25 to the Ancaster Magic, which w ent on to win the to u rn a m ent cham pionship. The Vytis' game tying th ree-p o in ter was Onta y to 's # / P iz z a ,/ To join our delivery team call 905-845-9742