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The Canadien Champion, Tueaday, Febrî (19, 1999 -17 Milton wins first contest By STEVE LeBLANC The Champion Milton's AA midgets have struck the firsi blow in what prom-ises to be a highly entertaining and competitive round two provincial showdown. They forechecked well and dominated the neutral zone ail night en route t0 a 4-2 decision over Caledon in the best-of-five series opener Monday at Memnorial Arena. Following Uic victory bencit boss Glynn Hancott admitted to initial concemrs about bis teain coming out fiat, after a first- round cakewalk againat St. Catharines and then a week layoff. "I Uiought Uiey miigitt not have any legs, but Uiat certainly wasn't Uic case," hie said. "We skated well and our transition gaine was there too. Overaîl, I was quite pleased with Uic effort." Providing the heroica was blucline anchor Bryan Gent, who deposiled the gaine winner by way of a long-range but- let titrougit trafflc 25 seconds into Uic third period, and then iced the gamne with an empty-nctterjust as Uic final homn began to sound. Earlier on hie executed terrific trap defence, with help from an attentive Kis Beal. Trevor Saluts backstopped Uic Spectruin Airways Winterhawks to their fourth straight OMHA win, turning back two dozen shots and looking superb when challenged downstairs. His goaltending counterpart - Chris Kovachik - delivered the biggest shock of the evening when out of nowhere hie and Uic visitors' backup cager began whal- ing on each oUier at Uic end of lte second. It tumned out Uiat Uiey had been yapping back and forth aIl evening, just not in an overly apparent manner. A tigitt checking affair afforded neither side mucit roomn 10 manocuver. Only about a handful of open-ice breaks werc crcaled - and aIl on special-teains situations. Caledon's goals came four minutes spart in lte middle stanza, which gave temn a brief upper hand before Kevin Heffron .eses ONE on page 19 3i'-une-up games see Milton slam league doormats By STEVE LeBLANO The Champion The Merchants flexed their scoring muscles earli- er this week and humbled a couple of the division doormats. Caledon and Vaughan - neither of whom are playoff bound - each feit the sting of the defend- ing provincial champions' firepower, which is start- ing to heat up at precisely the riglit time. "~B rn to Photo by GRAHAMPAN Jonathan Volpe, sean here lest summer flying off a ramp at the skate- board park baside Memorial Arena, placed tiraI at a skateboarding com- petition last weekend ln Burlington. Drury looking ready'for the titie tilt E.C. Drury's wrestlers tuned up for Uic capturcd by Sean Buritan, Adanm Scott and Chuchmach took silver and Malt Devries Halton/GHAC finals with slrong showings Andy Wadeson. Rounding thinga out wiUi came away wiUi bronze. aI a couple of loumainents last week. a bronze was Justin Billinghin. EC lied Uieir hoats for Uic rookie chain- At Lourdes in Guelpit, the Spartans led Saturday in Georgetown, a dozen local pionship. Gold medalisîs were Wes Uic Imedal parade as nine of il grapplers wrestlers plrbd top four in Uic open divi- McDougall and Jason Zinc. Silver wenî t0 secured top-three finishes. sion. Josit Caswell, Paul Cracknell, Jordan Strilcing gold were Blair Beaulicu, Brad Kevin Heffron won bis sixUi slraight title Lumb and Tyler Saliba. Madden and Chad Merritt while silver was whilc Madden, Nick Barkley and Jeremy Bnian Felstemn claimed bronze. Back-to-back blowouts pushed the West Conference front-runners' regular season record to 42-4-3. They're now unbeaten in their last 13 out- ings, have officially clinched top spot in the division and matched last season's win total - with two more games remaining this weekend. Tuesday night, which marked the return of veteran fnrward Ryan Ehy, the local club managed a 10-2 annihila- tion of Caledon. The one-sided affair came without the services of captain Kevin O'Flaherty, Chris Bahen and Mike Wheelihan who were ail enjoying reapites before the postseason begina. Milton staked theinselves to 4-0 and 7-0 period leada on the way t0 victory and out-chanced thc visitors 55-28. The biggest slice of the scor- ing pie went to Nathan Gillies, who unloaded with a hat trick and two assista. Rob Meanchoff tallied twice and added an assist while Geoff Schomogyi collectcd three helpers, which complimented bis second-period tally. Also denting the twine were Eby, Matt Bannan, Mark Beisel and Ed McGrane. Daniel Jacques was solid in thc cage and lowered bis goals- againat average to 2.48. He was beaten both limes by D.J. Marchese, who scored four minutes aparl in the final fratre. The Merchants carnied lowly Vaughan forI'nuch of Monday night before amassing eight third-period goals for an even- tuaI 13-3 drubbing. Nathan Gilles McGrane - who leada teain scoring with 110 pointa - sel a single-game assist record with six while picking up a pair of goals. Ryan Robichaud also tallied twice and waa just one point back in Uic adt-up depart- ment. Capitalizing on ail Uieir pass- es was linemnate Schomogyi, who scored three times. Singles went 10 Bannan, Beisel, Gillies, O'Flaherty, Ryan Carrigan and Ryan Stewart. This lelhargic conteat fea- îured just three minor infrac- tions and only one fight - between baby face blueliner Adam Sturgeon and Vaughan's Jonathan Ceci. Belween lte pipes for lte victors was Jeremy Wenzel, who's on the verge of going the season without tasting defeat. Merchant notes: Milton remains undefealed on te road this season with just one away game left tomnorrow evening against Georgetown, who before st night were on a six- gaine winning streak