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The Canadian Champion, Friday, March 23, 2007 - A19 SPORTS SPORTS EDITOR: STEVE LeBLANC e-mail sIeblanc@haitonsearch.com Novak's Lakers capture D3 titie GRAHAM PAINE / CANADIAN CHAMPION SAVOURING HIS SUCCESS: Alan Moffat is all smiles as he tastes the silver medal he claimed last week- end at the national junior wrestling championships in PE.I. For full results, see page A21. OT win in national championship caps huge weekendfor local defenceman By Steve LeBlanc CANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF M ike Novak was passing blood one day, and passing around a national trophy the next. The combination made for the most eventful and exila- rating weekend of the 21- year-old defencemans hockey career, which was highlighted with Sundays 4-3 overtime victory against the three-time defending champion Middlebury Panthers in the NCAA Division 3 finals in Supenor, Wisconsin. Mike "ht feIt surreal," said the six-foot-three-inch, 202-pound bluelin- er, of his Oswego Lakers' sudden death deposit by fellow sophomore and Provincial Jr. A League graduate Garren Reisweber. "At first I didn't know it went in, and even then I don't think it (winning nationals) really sunk in until they gave us the trophy." While his teammates no doubt spent Saturday evening wrestling with anxi- ety over the monumental challenge that awaited - especially with Middlebury having won two dozen straight playoff games, dating back to 2003 - Novaks concerns lay with whether or not he'd even be able to compete. That's because just a few hours earli- er he'd taken a thunderous check into the boards in a 4-3 OT semifinal win over St. Nobert that left him severely banged up and his kidneys in bad shape. "i was passing blood and didn't know if I'd be playing Sunday. My whole left side was pretty screwed up," recalled the hard-hitting defenceman, whose perennial contender Lakers made the most of their huge second chance with a re-seeding into the national tournament after being knocked off by Fredonia in round one of the SUNYAC conference playdowns. I guess it kept me from actually wor- rying about the game, but it was still nerve-wracking, not knowing if I'd get to play" His condition would improve enough to get last- minute clearance to compete - less than a half-hour before the opening puck drop - and Novak was not only in the lineup for the epic showdown but on the ice when Reisweber clinched Oswegos first-ever Novak national titie 12:55 into the extra session. sIt was an incredible weekend," he said. The key to the Lakers' triumph, he suggested, was simply delivering a good solid effort and not getting too hung up on Middlebury's seemingly- endless playoff run. That latter part wasn't especially difficult, since Oswego was ranked much higher than its championship rivals throughout the season and headed into the finals with a 22-3-3 record. "We were careful not to give them too much respect." And the fact that the Lakers had won in overtime just the day before and gone to sudden death five other times this season likely gave them a level of • see OSWEGO on page A22