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20 stouffville sutitribimeutburulay dec 21 2006 stouffville suntribune stick em up spartan stouffville district sec ondary school spartan cassy britton attempts a block on an over the shoulder tip by unionville high school wolf samantha ruinsky during york region sen ior girls high school vol leyball play at markham district high school last week unionville high school won this game 2- 0 both teams were swept 20 by markham i v- p u jfybbbm staff photosjoerd witteveen defending ofsaa champs off to quick start dan mcconnachie acknowledged that winning a second straight ontario federation of school athletic associa tions aaa title will be a challenging task for this years edition of the stouf fville district secondary school spar tans girls hockey team still the spartans cocoach sees no reason why they cant be competitive last years team will be a hard act to follow he said but we have the tal ent and the desire to do some damage in york region and at the provincial level theyre 311 in york region play the cast of 16 skaters includes 11 returnees in kendall knox hayley hughes and her sister heather natalie geiger cassie britton carly ziegler and her sister jessica melody cun ningham lauren barber jaimie sparks brittany crago and kristy hem- bruff mcconnachie and cocoach brian shankman also have five enthusiastic grade 9 rookies the good thing about these kids grade 9s is that we will have them for four years shankman said mcconnachie thinks the clubs strength lies is in its offensive firepower with the return of six forwards and two defencemen whom he says loves to rush and score goals this has created a more balanced attack than last years ofsaa champi onship team had where the club could have some concerns though is between the pipes with the loss of liz knox through grad uation weve been spoiled with our goal- tending shankman conceded its like the montreal canadiens having patrick roy we enjoyed having liz when she was with us were not expecting our replacement to dupli cate what liz did we just tell our goalies to have fun and well get better as the season progresses most encouraging to shankman is that the spartans havent enjoyed the luxury offielding their entire squad yet due to players competing in other fall sports or being injured when they do though he feels they will be a tough team for anyone to play against im definitely up about our team shankman said spirit s johnston player of month in north division last week friday tied 44 against markham waxers sunday lost 54 against newmarket hurricanes now 181222 on season tied for second place in north conference with collingwood blues but with three games in hand coming up thursday vs seguin bruins 730 pm friday at huntsville otters 8 pm game notes veteran defenceman steve kapolnas came back to haunt his former markham waxers teammates as he scored a thirdperiod powerplay goal that enabled the spirit to salvage a 44 tie at markham centennial arena two goals by will acton including a shorthanded effort and a powerplay marker by daniel spivak vaulted the spirit to a 32 lead through 20 minutes but the waxers got two unanswered goals in the sec ond period to take a 43 lead and set the stage for kapolnas tying marker in the third period mark sul livan collected four assists for the spirit the waxers outshot the spirit 3330 former waxers netminder trevor oneill played in goal for the spirit playing in newmarket sunday afternoon the spirit bounced back from a pair of twogoal deficits before losing 54 acton mike foy tyler gubb and corey trivino scored tor the spirit the spirit also lost in the penalty department being given four power plays to newmarkets nine newmarket scored three goals with the extra man including the gamewinner with 230 to play the spirit remains in second place in the north conference notebook spirit centre and team captain randy johnston was named the provincial jr a hockey leagues north conference player of the month for november in earning the honour johnston became eligible to be named the 0ha player of the year the newmarket resident has tallied 47 points in 32 games for the spirit this seasonfhat included 14 points in 10 games in november of special note was a fourpoint night in colling wood johnstons total that evening included the gamewinning goal dur ing the battle for second place in the north conference with the blues the former ohler barrie and ottawa is the spirits no 1 penaltykilling cen tre taking all key draws when the spirit are down one or two players a fouryear veteran johnston also led spirit players on visits to stduffvilles elementary schools in november the spirit had three players named to the north squad that will compete in the future stars game jan 10 in georgetownselected to the team were gubb trivino and defenceman ben morse the games will be played at 630 pm and 830 pm forward brock van der gulik made his return to action sunday after being side lined with a concussion sullivans big brother mike sullivan is back in stouffville for the christmas holidays the spirit grad and los angeles kings draft pick isa senior at highlyranked clarksori university in pots dam ny he visited the spirit dressing room with clarkson teammate matt curley of madrid ny last thursday generally speaking weve had rough early starts spirit assistant coach pat madigan said of the clubs recent fortunes friday and sunday for the most part weve looked really good in the last 55 minutes of a game its just a little glitch we wont look at it too much we wont overthink it our team has played very well insider for live scoring and updates go to pointstreakcom for playby play of spirit games go to whistleradiocom for more on the spirit log on to wwwstouffvillespiritcom markhamspring homes how feb 23 24 25 2007 markham fairgrounds wwwmarkliamhomeshowcom if you would like to be part of this event please call karen 9052942200 x 265 johanne 9052942200 x 255 igzic wffi i fflfiatured guest speakers friday february 23at 130pm saturday february 24 at 1 30 330pm mark cullen daa gardening expert ihbmmbmss9tksm home f landscape ontario titanium exclusive ltodware htxnaammuracbasnaanon cookwarc