The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

15 stouffville suntribune thursday jan 8 2004 stouffville suntribune sports hughes ontario win gold at world under- 1 7 tourney by jim mason staff writer while the canadian junior hockey team was losing the world champi onship final monday another squad was returning to ontario with gold medals from a prestigious international puck event team ontario including four york region residents defeated team pacific 52 sunday in the final of the world under17 hockey challenge in st johns nfld holland landings kyle lamb scored two power play goals in front of a sell out crowd of 6247 at mile one arena it was absolutely amazing said lamb a fivefoot 11 inch tall rookie defenceman with the sudbury wolves of the ontario hockey league who was named ontarios player of the game our team came together really quickly and wanted it more i guess the annual tournament had 10 teams including national squads from russia finland usa germany and czech republic plus five regional teams from canada also on the ontario roster was steve downie of queensville the windsor spitfire winger played with lamb for bobby hughes kingston frontenacs for ward earns praise from coach of champi onship team from ontario four years in the yorksimcoe express aaa hockey program andrew cogliano ofwoodbridge was second in tournament scoring with 12 points a rookie with the st michaels buzzers of the ontario provincial junior a hockey league he has accepted a scholarship to the university of michigan starting in 2005 stouffvilles bobby hughes who plays for the kingston frontenacs of the ohl was the other york region resident on the squad all four of the players from york were fantastic said ontario coach bob jones who is also associate of the st michaels majors of the ohl bobby hughes is a great kid a hard worker who plays both ends of the ice well he was a pleasure to have on our team ontario was 201 in the round robin portion of the tournament before beat ing quebec 21 in the semifinals while waiting for their flight in the st johns airport the ontario players caught the opening minutes of canadas 43 loss to the usa in the gold medal game of the world junior cham pionships in finland there is a connection fifteen members of the 2003 canadian junior team were under17 tourney alumnus nhlers who played in the tourney when they were teens include mats sundin toronto maple leafs ilya kovalchuk atlanta thrashers joe thornton boston bruins jarome iginla calgary flames and radekbonk ottawa senators staff photosteve somerville full speed ahead christopher evelyn right attempts to manoeuvre past blake hembruff during the whitchurchstoufrville minor hockey associations annual christmas house league tour nament at the stouffville arena spirit in tough tonight with nations no 1 team in town the stouffville spirit didnt kick off the new year well and the hangover could eas ily continue tonight at the stouffville arena the spirit which lost 52 to the oshawa legionaires saturday hosts the aurora tigers tonight at 730 pm aurora 39200 in first place in the north conference of the provincial junior a hockey league is the topranked team in canada its only two losses were to the sec ondplace newmarket hurricanes 29-10-1- 0 the spirit 241510 is in third place the spirit looked listless at the oshawa civic auditorium saturday falling behind 30 hitting three posts in the first period didnt help the spirit made it 32 on goals by jeff moor and rob groom but a pair of empty- netters snuffed out the comeback aurora features a lineup stocked with 17 20yearolds including former spirit play ers jamie minchella and sean scully spirited notes restarting the dor mant huntsville wildcats franchise for next fall is not going smoothly new own ers sherry bassin and tom mccarthy cant come to terms with town officials over arena rental rates and concession rights the team does have a new name huntsville muskoka otters bassin also co owns the erie otters of the ontario hockey league mccarthy is a former nhler tonights game is orchard park public school night spirit players visited students at the stouffville school yesterday revived spartan girls puck program showing good early signs after a fiveyear absence girls hockey making comeback at stouffville secondary by jim thomas correspondent move over guys the undisputed sports scene of stouffville district secondary school hockey has been chal lenged by girls a 15member team has entered this seasons york region athletic association girls varsity hockey league and to date the team has enjoyed commendable results in its first seven outings all against much larger schools the squad recorded three wins and four losses a result thats raising eyebrows everywhere it plays entered in the highly competi tive tier i division the harddriv ing spartans must go up against entries including defending yraa champion markham r district high g school huron sykaai h e i g hts a sacred heart mjtofip m p w rn a r r a t voikmionatiiumc association high aurora high dr jm denison and cardinal carter six of the seven teams will qualify for playoffs the spartans are coached by teachers brian shankman and dan mcconnachie stouffville has tried for the past four years to put a team together but there wasnt suffi cient interest mr mcconnachie said this year its different injection of youth helping make the team a reali ty is the enthusiasm shown from the five grade 9 students on the roster the girls use old uniforms for home contests and purchased new ones with their own money for away games mr shankman said the school covers the cost of referees and transportation the regular schedule includes 12 games plus an exhibition series with uxbridge secondary school and a tournament at york university to advance to the ontario federation of school athletic association playdowns stouffville must defeat a aa school from durham region in york region the other rivals are larger aaa schools iii addition to improved physi cal fitness competition tends to break down studentteacher bar riers mr shankman thinks team practices are held at 730 am but no one complains he said the players parents have been supportive and the schools ath letic department is also behind the team 100 per cent the coach es say because most players are already engaged in rep or house league hockey theyre very famil iar with the game theres a great range of tal ent mr mcconnachie said hopefully we can build on the successes of this season the team roster includes liz knox lauren craigellis erin pappas rebecca pappas hayley hughes katelyn cartwright kelly greig karli zeigler ashley mclellan laurie mclellan kim bound kendall knox kate devine cassie sparks and cindy schickedanz spartan boys share top spot the spartans senior boys hockey team ran its yraa unbeaten string to five games just prior to the christmas holiday break with a 52 road win over st robert catholic high school of thornhill gabe barnett corey tanaka jordan smalley alex bruno and jon wonch each scored once for the spartans now 401 in league play and tied for first in the east division with unionville high school the spartans resume league play tuesday when they play st augustine catholic high school of unionville at the stouffville arena at 230 pm