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The Canadian Champion, Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - A15 SPORTS SPORTS EDITOR: STEVE LeBLANC e-mail sieblanc@haltonsearch.com GRAHAM PAINE / CANADIAN CHAMPION READY FOR BATTLE: Craig 'Cyclone' Cyr made a triumphant return to martial arts competition recently in Michigan. For full results, see page A20. Haydar garners AH L's MVP award Friday the American Hockey League confirmed what many fans and experts already believed ta be a given. Namely, that Darren Haydar was this year's MVP The 27-year-old Miltonian is the Chicago Wolves' first player to ever win the Les Cunningham Award as the league's most valuable player - highlighting what's been a monumental season. The engine driving the leagues most high-octane offence all year long, the five-foot- nine-inch, 170-pound right winger amassed 41 goals and 81 assists in 73 games - handily winning the league scor- ing race and finishing with more points than anyone in North American pro hockey. His 124-point total - 14 shy of the AHL sin- gle-season record - included at least one point in 64 of 73 games, and 37 multi-point outings. H "I's a real honour (to be named MVP). l'm real proud of it and hopefully its another step toward my ultimate goal of playing in the NHL," said Haydar, who put up 32 more points than last season with the Milwaukee Admirais and set a league record with at least one a a point in his first 39 games this year. "But at the end of the day we play for team success, not individual achieve- ment, so Ive got to thank my teammates for their contribution to this award." While missing a chance to steal top spot in the Western Conference away from the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights in regular season-ending play Sunday evening - losing 4-2 - Haydar's Wolves head into the playoffs having won six of its last nine games. Two of those victories came against his former Admirais, whom they'll face in first-round play, starting Friday rren That certainly provides some incen- ydar tive for the 2004 Calder Cup 6 champion, as does the memory of getting so close ta another league title last spring - losing in the finals to the Hershey Bears. "Yeah, I've definitely got that redemption factor going for me and t feel 've still got a lot left (for the playoffs)." 'Hawks sold Duo assume ownership By Steve LeBlanc CANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF It's official - the IceHawks have been sold. Bringing an end to several weeks of rumours, Rick Heinz confirmed Friday morning - via e-mail - that he has handed Miltons Jr. A hockey club over to Dean Piett and Rob DeVincentis. The two are longtime friends and past business partners who'd been looking to buy a junior team for some time. "Unfortunately, due to other pressing business obligations, I have made the decision to sell the team. It was a real pleasure to own this great franchise," said Heinz, a former NHL goalie and prominent hockey school operator who owned the team for just over nine months. Contrary to a number of pre-sale reports, Keith Pandovski will not be staying on as general manager. Piett said finding a new GM and head coach are top priorities, as the lceHawks' annual rookie camp - at Etobicokes Westwood Arena - is just a couple of weeks away "We want to make the right decisions, not hurried ones, barring in mind that time is of the essence," said the Burlington resident, who in commercial real estate and expects to be the more 'public face' of the ownership duo. Hailing from Ancaster, DeVincentis - who owns a con- struction business - said he's thoroughly excited about taking over the lceHawks, adding, "This is a great oppor- tunity to be part of a community with great support for its hockey." While still needing to put some major pieces of the puzzle in place in terms of a GM and coaching staff, the new owners come into a far more favourable position than Heinz did last summer - when he took over a club with- out a single returning player, and a mere six weeks before training camp. Milton bas more than a dozen players eligible to return, including 65-point centre David Vallorani, from the team that finished eighth in the Western Conference this season and was eliminated in five games in opening-round play. As far as a team philosophy goes, Piett said he hopes to continue developing local talent, but at the same time wants to ice the best team possible. "Its going ta be a balancing act." He said he has no immediate plans for significant change to the club, other than to perhaps switch alternate home games from Tuesday nights back to Sunday after- noons - which was originally established under the Forgione era. April 14-21 TE HMILON SPECTATOR lm e u _1m n--a