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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Wednesday, March 19, 2014 | 26 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Appleby College goaltender Mishel Abudi watches teammate Daniel Devlin clear the puck during the Blue Dogs' Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations A/AA boys' hockey tournament opener yesterday (Tuesday) in Burlington. Appleby defeated Jean Vanier 3-1, then downed Grey Highlands 3-2 later in the day. | photo by Riziero Vertolli --Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog Another OMHA title for 2002born Rangers Only an overtime loss in last year's final prevented four straight crowns by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Appleby coach feeling blue despite win in OFSAA opener Dan Poliziani would like to see a bit more blue collar in his Blue Dogs. The Appleby College coach wasn't too pleased with his squad yesterday (Tuesday) morning, even though it had just won its first game of the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations A/ AA boys' hockey tournament. "We're not going to go anywhere playing like that," Poliziani said after eighthseeded Appleby needed two third-period goals to defeat No. 19 Jean Vanier 3-1 at Burlington's Appleby Ice Centre. "A/AA is hard to win, but no matter how many times you tell (the players) that, they refuse to believe it. We play in the Conference of Independent Schools... so they like to believe they can drop down to A/AA and dominate. Not true. "We should be okay at this level," he added, "if they go in with a blue-collar attitude, thinking they need to outwork teams and keep games simple." Morgan Macdonald, Brandon Saarloos and Andrew Tarasca scored for the Blue Dogs, who improved to 2-0 yesterday afternoon with a 3-2 win over No. 14 Grey Highlands. Tarasca had two goals and an assist in the second game, with Macdonald notching Appleby's other marker. The Blue Dogs return only five players from last year's squad that was the top seed at OFSAA but was upset in the quarter-finals. "I would rather be the underdog coming in with the attitude you have to earn everything you get," said Poliziani, noting Appleby was the only team in its league that was eligible to attend the A/AA championships. "If you don't respect that and have the attitude we have to earn something, it's not going to go well." St. Thomas Aquinas, Oakville's other representative at the A/AA tournament, opened with a 6-2 loss to Monsignor J. Pereyma at Appleby Ice Centre. Luke Derango and Reece Feijo scored for the 20th-ranked Raiders, who were to face St. Charles last night (beyond the Beaver's press deadline) in their second game. The tournament's round-robin consee Abbey on p.28 The word `dynasty' doesn't get thrown around too often at the minor hockey level, but it is quickly becoming an appropriate term for the Oakville minor peewee AAA Rangers. Oakville won its third Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship in four years Sunday, defeating the York-Simcoe Express 5-3 in the final of the AAA tournament in Niagara. It would have been the Rangers' fourth consecutive OMHA title had it not been for an overtime loss to the Niagara North Stars in last year's gold-medal game, a contest in which Oakville dominated play but could not solve a hot Niagara goaltender. "I count last year as one that got away. We outshot them 36-12 or 36-13 and outchanced them 3-1. It was one of those games," Rangers head coach Jaan Luik recalled somewhat wistfully. "We probably rightfully should have been on the right end of that one and having four in a row. It's a pretty unique group of kids. Most of them have been together since the tyke days, and there has been pretty good supportive development from all the coaches as some kids have gone from the A level to AA to our team. It's a real testament to the depth of the coaching group and the depth of talent we have in this age group." The depth of the 2002 birth year in Oakville is so great, in fact, that the Minor Oaks Hockey Association will ice two AAA teams at the peewee level next year. The current minor peewee team is expected to remain see Minor on p.27 AVIGAYIL CASHED IN $1,384 FROM HER CLOSET! #EXCITED www.TrendTrunk.com Cash in your closet today at TrendTrunk.com