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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Wednesday, April 3, 2013 | 18 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Major Series Lacrosse team gets approval to move to Oakville by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Rangers rebound to capture OMHA title by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Oakville minor peewee A Rangers goalie Easton Lindsay (right) turns away a shot in Saturday's 2-1 win over Napanee. The win clinched the OMHA title and the Rangers celebrated (above) with the championship trophy.| Wei Lu, special to the Oakville Beaver The few times that things went wrong for the Oakville minor peewee A Rangers this season, it didn't take much time for them to get back on track. When the Rangers lost their first game of the Tri-County Minor Hockey League campaign, they went on to win their next eight contests. When the Rangers lost in overtime in the semifinals of their hometown Richard Bell tournament shortly after Christmas, they bounced back to win all their games in the qualifying round of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association playdowns. And when a controversial goal forced the Rangers to play a fifth and deciding game in the OMHA semifi- nals, Oakville responded with a 2-1 victory in Grimsby. The Rangers continued that bounce-back trend last weekend in Napanee. Having missed out on a chance to clinch the OMHA championship on home ice in its previous game, when it tied the Stars 4-4 at Joshua's Creek Arenas, Oakville came from behind to defeat Napanee 2-1 Saturday and claim the series 3-1-1. "Whenever we were down this season, we said it's what we do next that matters," said Rangers head coach Jamie Church, whose team did not lose consecutive contests during their 69-game season, going 54-6-9. "It's true to the character of the players we have. They're 11-yearolds, but they believe in each other. You believe in yourselves and you believe in your teammates. Every single parent, player and coach was on the same page all season long." Jodh Dhillon scored the gamewinning goal Saturday, breaking a 1-1 deadlock in the third period. Ethan Paulos scored earlier for the Rangers, who allowed the game's opening goal and relied on the strong goaltending of Easton Lindsay to avoid falling further behind in the first period. Though the Rangers weren't able to finish the series off on home ice the previous weekend, they did enter Saturday's contest with momentum. Oakville trailed 3-0 in the first period of Game 4 before rallying for two goals in the final two minutes of regulation time to earn a point. The OMHA title caps a season in which the Rangers also won an early bird tournament in Humberview and a Can/Am competition in Lake Placid. In addition, Oakville reached the championship game of a AA tournament in Stoney Creek. The Rangers were 23-3-3 in TriCounty play, finishing first in the Smith Division. "It was a dream season," Church said. Other contributors to the Rangers' success this year were Noah Church, Owen McLean, Dylan Greenhalgh, Francesco Commisso, Cooper Elliott, Tristan Kerec, Isaac Boutin, Robbie Gauthier, Curtis Hui, Kyle Misztal, Tyler Adams, Matt Tani, Curtis Goddard and Yuhan Lu. Dave Kerec and Keith Elliott also coach the team, Jat Dhillon and Al Paulos are the trainers, and Maria Hui is the manager. Oakville's Wilson leads UMass Lowell into NCAA Frozen Four Oakville's Scott Wilson scored with 30 seconds to play in the second period to open the scoring and set up Adam Chapie's insurance marker in the third as the UMass Lowell Riverhawks beat New Hampshire 2-0 Saturday to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four. Wilson gathered the puck behind the New Hampshire net, circled in front and was stopped on his initial attempt but put in his own rebound in the final minute of the second to give the Riverhawks the lead. With UMass Lowell still clinging to a 1-0 lead with six minutes gional all-tournament team. to play in the third, Wilson UMass entered the NCAA broke up a rush by diving to men's hockey tournament poke check the puck away as the No. 3 seed after edgfrom an opponent in his own ing Boston University 1-0 in zone. Chapie scooped up the the Hockey East championpuck and went in to beat the ship game. Wilson set up the New Hampshire goalie. game's only goal. Wilson also had an assist The Pittsburgh Penguins on the game winner Friday, draft pick leads the RivScott Wilson a 6-1 victory over Wisconsin erhawks in almost every in the Northeast Regional semifinal. offensive category, including goals Last year's Hockey East rookie of the (16), points (37), power-play goals year was named to the Northeast Re- (6) and game-winning goals (5). UMass Lowell plays Yale Thursday in Pittsburgh at 4:30 p.m. in the national semifinal. Oakville's Mark Bennett and the Union College Dutchmen were eliminated in the East Regional final, falling 5-1 to Quinnipiac. The loss snapped Union's seven-game winning streak, which included a 3-1 win over Brown University as Union won its second straight Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference title. The Dutchmen followed that up with a 5-1 victory over Boston College in the East Regional semifinal. Oakville, get ready to Rock. The Oakville Rock is coming to town after Ontario Lacrosse Association approved the move of the Ajax-Pickering Major Series Lacrosse team to Oakville Monday morning. The Rock will play the majority of its home games Monday nights, with its home opener May 27 against Six Nations. There are also three Saturday night home dates on the schedule. The team will play out of the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. "We're really pleased to have a team in this area," said MSL commissioner Jim Brady. "The people in Oakville are lucky. They're going to see the best lacrosse that's played indoors. These players are so accomplished." Major Series Lacrosse draws most of its players from the National Lacrosse League. Oakville's Alex Crepinsek, who plays for the NLL's Minnesota Swarm, is a member of the Rock. Owner Rob Roche decided to move because the team was having trouble drawing fans and securing affiliate teams in Ajax with the Brooklin Redmen in such close proximity. Ajax was 1-13 last year -- its third season in the league -- but was often competitive, losing three times by a single goal. Brady believes the team will be much better this year, especially with Terry Sanderson taking over as general manager. Not only is the veteran lacrosse executive well connected, but his presence also greatly reduces the chances of a player not reporting, which was often a problem with the team in Ajax. "Most teams have an NLL coach or GM," Brady said. "The players get a chance to impress someone involved with an NLL team." Major Series Lacrosse teams voted 4-1 in favour of the move last month, but the OLA still needed to give final approval. It wanted all other lacrosse organizations in the area on board before giving it the go-ahead. The Rock got the approval to move after receiving letters of support from the area junior and senior teams as well as from the Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association. The OLA conducted a vote by email and approved it Monday. The Rock will be affiliated with the Sr. B Oakville Titans, the Jr. A Burlington Chiefs and the Jr. B Oakville Buzz.