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20- Th Canadian Champion, Tuosday, November 3, 1998^ C R SPORTS TI1 E CANADIAN CHAMPION TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3,1998 Photo by GRAHAM PAINE Merchant Chad Blundy (right) looks for a pass while being shadowed by Rob Woolfenden of Mississauga Sunday at Iceland. Milton won the contest 7-1. Looking good in tune-up With eliminations for the $3.5 million U.S. Breeders Crown at way to get in an easy trp." Colonial Downs only a week away, Artiscape, one of the horses Artiscape, a Breeders Crown champ expected to make a splash in Virginia, took full advantage of his of 16 races this season for owners final tune-up in a $23,000 conditional event Saturday evening at Monieson of Illinois. Mohawk. His career eanings are a handsome Tbe three year-old son of Artsplace, projected as a favourite for "He's a lot like his dad," added Con. the $440,000 U.S. Colt Pace, was a confident winner for local dri- "He's very easy on himself. He tums ver Steve Condren in 1:53.2. Artiscape floated away from the gate on the outside before tak- In the $36000 Free For Ail pace, ing the lead at the quarter and never relinquishing command. time mark for the second time in five He came to the wire one-and-a-quarter lengths up on Ryancoke, Driven by Trevor Ritchie for new with Take Down The Flag a closing third. five-year-old Denali gelding stopped "He was handy. That's a nice easy race into him and that was defeat runner-up Galyn Mack. the plan," said Condren. "I really didn't want to be on the front The win was the lth in 25 starts end but there wasn't any early speed so I thougbt tbat was the best bis season bankroll to $283,758. race ion at two, has now won 11 Brittany Farms and Brian $1,248,461. dren of the slick-gaited colt. the button on when he has Robitaille lowered his life- days. trainer Cal Campbell, the d the teletimer in 1:51.2 to for Robitaille, who boosted Beisel is back as Milton deals By STEVE LeBLANC The Champion There was plenty of news out of Merchant land this past weekend, although hardly any of it con- cerned their latest Ontario Jr. A contests. Milton's lead story revolved around a four-way trade - the first in recent memory for the defending provincial champs. It reunites local sports fans with a familiar face. Headed back to town is 19-year-old left winger Mark Beisel, an ex-Brampton Capital who played junior lacrosse here two years ago. The Merchants' other half of the musical chairs deal sent char- acter veteran Mo Alvarez to the Vaughan Vipers. The Central Conference Thomhill Rattlers completed the redistribution pic- ture, though at press time there was no word on who they acquired or gave up. The player exchange was finalized Sunday night. In Beisel, Milton gets a gritty 6'1", 190-pounder with a fierce slapshot. He's also quite dominant in the corners. "Mark gives us a few new things," said skipper Marty Williamson. "Alvarez was a character guy in the dressing room but we had a lot of that already. We needed something different." Thrown together with Mike Wheelihan and Jeff Seeds for his Merchant debut Sunday at Iceland Arena, Beisel jumped out of the gate and scored twice in the opening frame. While neither came by way of an upstairs blast, he doesn't plan on keeping that part of his arsenal bottled up for long. "You'll see a couple of top-shelfers pretty soon," assured Beisel. "I had a couple of great linemates tonight who really helped me out. They helped make my debut a smooth and suc- cessful one." On the mend Milton's blueline is back to near full strength thanks to the speedy recovery of veteran John Nadalin. The second-year rearguard's convalescence from a broken ankle bone is at least a couple weeks ahead of schedule. He retumed Sunday and picked up an assist on bis first shift back. This gives the West Conference frontrunners a little extra depth from an upcoming stretch that features two games each against top contenders Brampton and Bramalea. Fellow defencemen Adam Sturgeon and Chris Bahen took time out last week to nurse minor injuries but both should be back by the time these big tests begin. Weekend sweep The Merchants closed the books on the opening third of their season with back-to-back 7-1 cakewalks over lifeless Mississauga. At 15-1-1 Milton is in good position to equal or even improve on last year's 42-8-1 record - the best in team history. Daniel Jacques and Jeremy Wenzel split the netminding duties, each lowering their goals-against average without much trouble. Round one saw rookie winger Chris Rowan stand out with impressive set-ups for Carter Trevisani and Craig Irvine - up from the affiliate Erin Jr. C Shamrocks for just the second time this year. Nathan Gillies matched an individual season high three assists while Alvarez, Matt Bannan, Dave Csumrik, Ryan Robichaud and Geoff Schomogyi completed the scoring. Captain and leading scorer Kevin O'Flaherty exploded with • see MOVES on page 22