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The Canadian Champion, Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - A17 SPORTS SPORTS EDITOR: STEVE LeBLANC e-mail slebIanc@haltonsarch.comf ___________________Heartbreaking finish to Sgarbossa's Jr. A career Raiders swept in West finals with 3rd OT loss By Steve LeBlanc CANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF ob Sgarbossa's Tier 2 Jr. A hockey career was longer and more prosperous than most players can hope for. But the 20-year-old Campbellville resident can be excused if he doesn't quite see himself as fortunate right now In fact he's likely feeling just the opposite. after an eight-day stretch that included three overtime losses for bis Georgetown Raiders in the Ontario Provincial Jr. A League Rob Sg Western Conference finals. The last of these came at Gordon Alcott Memorial Arena Saturday night GRAAM AIE I~ANOIN CAMPON and cemented a cbampionship sweep HARDWRE HUL: IC Ta KwonDo sudent (frm lei) Shn Segal, hantl VailforDanteeOncuamadtfortheeadi WinnRe ,Win ho wbfiin Martî Szamtulsk dispay te trohîes hey scuredaI te recnt Nîa KîmTaeishedD Ttueasentatt-seivth sho riiee s wrishwback-c Hamilton's McMaster University. In total the local club earned four firsts, six seconds and six third-place trophies. to-back 4-3 OT wins. Bignigt ptsHaydar over 100-point mark It was neyer a question of if Darren Haydar would bit 100 points - only when. Friday night the 27-year-old Miltonian made it officiai, reaching the century mark for tbe first time in his highly-productive - and decorated - five-year American Hockey League (AHL) career. The milestone certainly came under favourable circumstances. Continuing to distance himself from a somewhat mediocre stretch after being sent back to bis Chicago Wolves, following a 10- day call-up to the parent Atlanta Thrashers last month, the AHL scoring leader bit triple digits with a powerplay goal early in the second peri- od against the host Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. From there he'd light the lamp again a mere Haydar recorded his 29th multi-point game of 57 seconds later - once more with his club the year - punctuating an eight-point week enjoying the man-advantage -- and cap the * witb a goal and an assist in a 5-4 loss to evening with an assist on Nathan Oystrick's b is former Milwaukee Admirais. overtime winner. W h~Wile still having il games The 5-4 victory allowed the West , Wleft thts season, the 2002-03 Division-leading Wolves (40-22-2-5) to AHL Rookie of the Year bas pret- widen their lead on the second-place ty much locked up the league Knights. It was Chicago's AHL-leadmng sconng race already -- sitting 18 25th win on the road tbts season, which points ahead of his closest chai- puts them just two shy of both a fran-~ lenger, rookie teammate Brett chise and league record. Sterling, with 35 goals and 69 M e an w h ie, asststs in 62 games. Haydar is just the Darren That gives him 12 points third Wolves play- Haydar Wmore than he had last year, er to ever hit the 100-point plateau. which was good enough for Back in Chicago the following evening, fifth in league scoring. Dropping three sudden death deci- sions in just over a week would have been tough enough to swallow. However, an added measure of despair awaited the Raiders in game four - with Hamilton's Steve Mullin potting an equalizer with a scant 2.9 seconds remaining [n regulation time. From there, fellow Red Wing Mike Galbraith vanquished Georgetown 3:13 into the extra session. "It was pretty heartbreak- ing, all right," said five-foot-J0- inch, 1 72-pound Sgarbossa, whose five years with Georgetown included two reg- lar season division titles, a pair of Western Conference campionships, an all-Ontario Ddley Hewitt Cup triumph and most recently a irbossa Newmarket Showcase victory in Decemher. "Had those three over- time gamnes gone the other way we'd be up 3-1 rigbt now instead of donc for the year. Making the Raiders' quick departure from the conference finals ail the more difficult is that they had beaded into battle against Hamilton with plenty of rest and a fair amount of momentum, having knocked off the regular season champion Brampton Capitals in a rather efficient -- and surprising - five games. Noted Sgarbossa, "Yeah we definite- ly had some momentum going in, and we matched up well against Hamilton. They just got the breaks and we didn't." If there's any solace to be had for t.he veteran centre - an assistant captain over the past two seasons, who played somewhere in the vicinity of 400 Jr. A games -- it's that he made a tangible contribution to Georgetown's last stand Saturday. Netting his second goal of the play- offs, Sgarbossa dented the twine early in the first period - less than a minute •see SGARBOSSA on page A18