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Kevin Nagel Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Trailblazers reaching for new hockey heights By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Sports 31 | Friday, December 18, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Iroquois Ridge's unlikely playoff run may have fallen short last season, but it is still paying off for the Trailblazers. After going winless (0-8-3) against Tier 1 competition last season, the Trailblazers earned their first two victories with a pair of playoff upsets, including a 3-2 triumph over second-place Oakville Trafalgar. Watching from the stands last year was Iroquois Ridge student Lucas Ricci. "It looked pretty fun," said the netminder, who joined the Trailblazers this season after helping the Oakville midget AAA Rangers reach the OMHA championship last season. "They had a good run and got close to GHAC. Jake Grebenc (above) and Lucas Ricci have provided stellar goaltending for the Trailblazers this season. | photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Oakville Beaver They just needed to add a little more power." Ricci and Jack Grebenc have provided Iroquois Ridge with an outstanding last line of defence. Through six games, they have combined to allow just four goals. "I think we have the two best goalies in the league," said Colin McLeod, who scored the game winner in Wednesday's 3-0 victory over Holy Trinity. "Both are coming in from AAA so they're two strong goalies and you feel like you can trust them back there. That gives you confidence to do a little more offensively." Ricci earned the shutout against Trinity, a team that had been averaging more than five goals a game. With the league now being divided into two tiers, Iroquois Ridge will go into the post-Christmas schedule as one of only two undefeated teams, along with Burlington's Corpus Christi. It's a drastic turnaround from last season, when the Trailblazers squeaked into the top tier, but with all of their victories coming against teams relegated to Tier 2, they dropped to the bottom of the standings. Even then there were signs of a team capable of more. Abbey Park may have ended Iroquois Ridge's season in the semifinals, but in the regular season the Trailblazers tied the Eagles, who went on to win the Halton title and earn a silver medal at the provincial high school championships. This season, coach Tim Coe was encouraged by what he saw early on, but was still concerned about an offence that averaged less than two goals a game last season. "I knew we had a pretty solid team, but we didn't have much scoring last year," he said, "so I wasn't sure about that, but our Grade 11s (from a year ago) have matured and gotten Kyle Harvey of the Iroquois Ridge Trailblazers beats the Holy Trinity Titans goalie during Wednesday's Halton high school boys' hockey game at Joshua's Creek Arenas. It was one of three goals Iroquois Ridge scored on way to a shutout win, which kept it unbeaten as teams are redistributed into two tiers for the second part of the season. | photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Oakville Beaver better and we added some good Grade 11s." The Trailblazers still might not be an offensive juggernaut, but they are a respectable seventh among the 22 Halton teams in scoring. And with strong defensive play, they don't have to light up the scoreboard. Still, a nice move by Kyle Harvey and a breakaway goal by Spencer Vero against Trinity demonstrated they can finish. And while Coe said the team's goal every year is to simply qualify for Tier 1 play, it has demonstrated the ability to far surpass that. The Trailblazers were runners-up at a tournament in London on the weekend, losing 3-1 to Sault Ste. Marie's St. Mary's in the final. "I think they got a little taste of what they can accomplish," he said. "We've had a couple of tournaments where we've been able to play some OFSAA-calibre teams. They've seen them and now they know we can compete." While Halton teams were always believed to be at a disadvantage because rep players are not allowed to play high school hockey, Abbey Park disproved that last year. "It shows we can definitely compete. We know we have a good, strong team," McLeod said. "We might not have rep players but everyone on our team has played at that level so we're used to playing in big situations." There will be plenty of big situations ahead as Iroquois Ridge will now face a tougher schedule with the league tiered. But the Trailblazers hope to build on last year's playoff run and take it a couple, or more, steps further. "That would be crazy," Ricci said. 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