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/ durhamregion.com THE CANADIAN STATESMAN ♦ JANUARY 4,2006 ♦ PAGE 11 Sports ■ Canadian â>tate£tnan ♦ durhamregion.com Cold war freezes Eagles Shawn Caley Bricknell as in a learning mode ; It's one thing to be a hockey coach. It's another thing to coach a winning team in Junior C. But, perhaps the toughest aspect of being behind the bench is guiding a losing team through a tough season in a competitive junior A loop. | .Corey Bricknell, head coach of the Osha- Wa Legionaires, is learning first-hand just jidw difficult that can be. j But despite the losing season his new Çlub is going through, the 30-year-old is $till having fun. And he is learning a lot as well. As he shoulders loss after loss as the qègionaires bench boss this season, it has not been easy on the man who guided the Port Perry MoJacks to a third-place finish finish in the Central Ontario Jr. C Hockey feague with a 22-14-2 record last season. Prior to a tilt last night with the Ajax Attack, Bricknell's Legionaires. were the owners of a 4-26-2-1 record and sit 35th in the 36-team Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League. jijThat has to be tough for a guy who is i|sed to winning - but that is where the learning aspect comes into play. |!"To be honest, I'm down a little bit," he says of how he is handling this tough cam- paigh. "But in all honesty, I have learned rj)ore coaching the Oshawa Legionaires this year, then Ï did coaching the Port Perry MoJacks last year."" ' ' |!!So what has been the biggest adjustment e$> far in going from behind the MoJacks l|ench to becoming the head honcho of the Legionaires? njTve got to find new ways to motivate these guys, I've got to bring hope into the dressing room," he said. "When you're ginning, you don't have to do that, the \|ins do it themselves. •fit's been tough, but at the same time Ij jhave been learning from it," Bricknell ds. Jason Liebregts/Metroland Durham Region Media Group Bowmanville Eagles forward Mike Kavanagh (17) and Anton Zhdanov of the Siberian Junior All-Star team tangled tangled for a loose puck in an international exhibition game held at Iroquois Park in Whitby over the holidays. The Eagles came up short in a 3-1 setback. Bowmanville drops . 3-1 decision to Siberian team BY BRAD KELLY Sports Editor WHITBY - It didn't count in .the standings, but it may be the one game the Bowmanville Eagles played this season season that will leave a lasting memory. And they didn't even win. Getting a taste of international hockey, the Eagles came up. just short in a 3-1 loss to a touring Siberian Jr. A All-Star team in a game played at Iroquois Park Sports Centre in Whitby over the holidays. holidays. David Ross had the lone tally for the Eagles, who trailed 2-1 late in the game, giving up the third goal into an empty net in an attempt to draw even in the final minute. "They are a very skilled team and were pretty well what we expected," said general manager Perry Bowles of the opposition from Siberia. "The game was played at a very high tempo, had a fast pace and was exciting." exciting." While the loss didn't hurt the Eagles in the standings, they played to win despite the fact it was only an exhibition. "We always go out with the intention to win, but all the players knew that they put on a real good game to watch," added Bowles. The game broke up what is otherwise an extended break for , the Eagles, who last played on Dec. 23 in a 2-2 draw in - Peterborough, and won't return to Provincial Provincial Junior A Hockey League action until Friday, when they visit the Bancroft Hawks. While they are nearing the end of a 14 day break, there won't be as much time to. rest this weekend. Sunday they host Bancroft in a return meeting at 1:301 p.m., followed by a trip to Cobourg tqi face the Cougars one night later, leaving just eight games remaining before the end of the regular season. The Eagles enter the weekend in first place in the East Conference with a 28-, • 5-4-0 record. f [j[The woeful first half aside, Bricknell believes in his team, and says his players have the ability to make a run over the remaining 16 games (including last night) and qualify for the postseason. "All we have to do is finish ahead of Ajax," Bricknell said. "If we can finish ahead of Ajax, then we are in the playoffs, so that is what our focus is going to be on." One would think that it would be difficult for Bricknell to look north to Port Perry at his former mates and see them sitting pretty at the top of the Jr. C loop with an outstanding 23-4-2-0 mark. But that isn't so. "They are a great group of guys over there," he says of the MoJacks' players and management. "I am really happy for them. To see where they are at is great." As the learning continues, Bricknell hopes to see his Legionaires in a different light, that of the winning kind. If his past success in Port Perry is any indication, the Legionaires are on the right hack. Shawn Cayley's column appears every third Wednesday. E-mail: scayley@durhamregion.com Bill's Truck Shop gets late present : CLARINGTON - The Clarington Bill's Truck Shop Reewee AA Toros earned a late Christmas present. With the playoffs fast approaching, approaching, the last season game of the year against league leading Uxbridge was pivotal. Despite having the previous week off the Toros showed no signs of rust. Down 2-0 at the beginning of the third the Toros turned their game up a notch netting a goal early. With the entire team playing inspired hockey, . the boys finally netted the tying goal with 14 seconds remaining. The tie locks up fourth place for the team. Team members Include goalten- ders Tyler Maillett, Scott Williams, defencemen Nick Ratchford, Luke Garneau, Gavin Roberts, Brandon Hèsson, Robert McKay and Spencer Moore, forwards Ryan Lannon, Mike Peelers, Travis Whistle, Phillip Brown, Sean Bellamy, Ryan Dus, Matthew France, Ryan Ford and Courtland Black-Araujo. The team is coached by Rob Whistle, Dan Dus, Bill Peelers, Troy Maillett and Dave Roberts. over Five-point afternoons from Tsimikalis and MacLean and a hat trick from Biduke lead Oshawa BY SHAWN CAYLEY Staff Writer OSHAWA - Sunday afternoon marked a great start to 2006 for Peter Tsimikalis, Brett MacLean, Jesse Biduke and the rest of the Oshawa Generals. Tsimikalis closed out 2005 on Saturday night with three assists in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Brampton Battalion. However, the shifty centre put in his best performance performance of the weekend and perhaps the season, by registering five points and capturing first-star honours in a 7-3 New Year's Day romp over the Guelph Storm in front of 3,054 at the Civic Auditorium. Auditorium. "Peter has been phenomenal for us all year long," said Generals coach Randy Ladouceur, "The way he, Jesse and Brett played on the weekend certainly le'aves us optimistic considering we arc still without John (Tavares) and Dale (Mitchell)." (Mitchell)." With 68 points in 36 games, Tsimikalis, the team's captain, has already surpassed his single-season high - 61 points in 60 games - which he accumulated in 2003- 04 as an Ottawa 67 in his second 011L season. Last year, split between Ottawa and Oshawa, he had 49 points in 64 games. Tsimikalis, who turns 20 on Jan. 10, now sits fourth in OHL scoring just behind World Junior stars Robbie Schremp (London, (London, USA) 78 points, Bobby Ryan (Owen Sound, USA) 73 points, and David Holland Holland (London, Canada) 71 pints. MacLean, who appears to be rounding rounding into form, also picked up live points with two goals and three assists. In his Peter Tsimikalis had one goal and seven assists in games against Brampton and Guelph. 12. games since being acquired from the Erie Otters, the 17-year-old has 4-11-15 numbers and is a plus 6. "Certainly Brett MacLean has played very, very well for us and obviously we are pretty happy with that trade right now," Ladouceur said referring to the December swap that saw Adam Berti and Bret Nasby go to Erie for MacLean, Eric Regan and a pair of second rounders, Biduke, the third member of the Generals Generals top line, broke out of a season-long scoring slump in a big way by recording his first career OHL hat trick. The Whitby Whitby resident scored the first and last goals of the game, both on the [rower play, and also notched the eventual game-winner live minutes into the second frame. "He played an excellent game for us," said Ladouceur of Biduke, who started slowly after missing the beginning of season with a broken jaw and had just two goals on the season heading into Sunday's lilt, "It was really great to see him put some points up like that and it was even better to see that kind of production production out of our top line." All told, in the two games over the weekend, the trio combined for seven of Brett MacLean had three goals and three assists, and was a +5 in two weekend games. the Generals' 12 goals and 17 points in total. With the win, the Generals improved to 10-24-3-0 and have won four of their last seven games, marking their most successful successful stretch in quite some time, "Certainly, that was a great way to start the year off," said Ladouceur of his team's first win of 2006. "We started out strong, tailed off a bit in the second, but picked it back up in the third and closed things out, so vye were pretty happy with the outcome." Another bright spot for the Generals came in the form of goaltendcr Carlo DiRienzo. Sitting at home as an afterthought only a couple of months ago, DiRienzo appears to have worked his way back into the favour of Gens brass. He has received the start in four of the past five games and has picked up wins in three of them including Sunday's victory where he turned aside 39 of 42 shots. "Well, Carlo has played pretty well since getting back into the swing of things," said Ladouceur, while also praising praising the job Kevin Couture has done between the pipes. "He (DiRienzo) wants Jesse Biduke scored his first career OHL hat trick in a 7-3 victory over on Sunday. to be a player in this league and he has worked very hard to get to where he is and is making the most of this opportunity." opportunity." With three games in three nights this weekend, both DiRienzo and Kevin Couture Couture are likely to sec action beginning Friday night in Kingston, before the Generals Generals host Ottawa on Saturday at 2:05 and Toronto St. Mike's on Sunday at 6:05. GENERALLY SPEAKING: Generals Generals coach Randy Ladouceur expects defencemen David Halasz to miss at least the next 10 days with a recurrence of his season-long knee injury... Brad Pawlowski (shoulder) has returned to the lineup... There will be plenty of recognizable faces on the opposition this weekend as a trio of former Generals will bo in town. Chris Unlit will play against his old males with the 67's on Saturday, and the Donnli twins, 'Pyler and Justin, are in town with St. Mike's on Sunday... Orono's Bryan Bickcll, Oshawa's Matt Lahev and Whitby's Pat Daley will also Ire in town with the 67's, while Bowmanville's Jeff Lnrsli and Oshawa's Michael Haley will suit up with the Majors.