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22 stouffville suntribune m thursday feb 24 2005 stouffville suntribune sport dba vu all over again rit in semifinals north conference series starts tonight in newmarket its the groundhog day of the provincial jr a hockey league just as bill murray kept waking up to feb 2 in the movie the stouffville spirit and newmarket hurricanes find themselves meeting in a north conference semifinal for the third straight february the bestofseven opens tonight in newmarket game 2 goes saturday at 730 pm at the stouffville arena the rest of the series hadnt been scheduled by yesterday after noon the spirit finished off the couchiching terriers in six games monday in orillia while newmarket swept streetsville in another quar terfinal series aurora visits huntsville tomorrow night to open the other semifinal this year we have a total ly new team said spirit cap tain michael lombardo a threeyear veteran of the last two newmarket series we won the regular season series with them four games to two and im very confident with this team and the way weve played the spirit lost in five michael lombardo spirit cap tain is confident his club can win north conference semifinal series games to the hurricanes last year after winning in seven in 2003 ricky schrank returned from an injury suffered against newmarket on the last weekend of the regular season for mondays game other wounded spirit players are also expected back club is resilient weve had our share of injuries said lombardo but weve rebounded if anything its made us stronger both teams have four solid lines theyre a great team on the road and so are we we need to win our home games and the support weve been getting from the com munity has been great randy johnston scored two goals and dan mcwhinney earned his fourth win of the postseason as the spirit defeated couchiching 52 monday sean gray pat lee and ty raine scored the other goals the spirit which was out- shot 3532 held period leads of20and40 referee sean mcquigge was praised for calling a tight game and defusing the high- jinx that derailed the series earlier the spirit fell 51 at home sunday night scott brown on a blister ing slap shot had the lone goal for the spirit which out- shot couchiching 36-35- lombardo netted the win ner on a breakaway just over a minute into overtime to give the spirit a 54 win in couchiching friday raine had his second two- goal game in as many nights linemate rob groom and defenceman blake pullin scored the others spirited notes newmarket has four exspirit players on its roster in david lock jeff moor shane baxter and kevin lord moor suf fered a shoulder injury in the first round lord is recovering from brain surgery for more information on the spirit log on to wwwstouffvillespiritcom novice a clippers sweep aurora the stouffville novice a clippers made quick work of aurora in their bestoffive ontario minor hockey association semifinal series winning in three straight games they capped it off feb 16 with a 43 victory chris jarrett scored a goal and added two assists while chris cadaret robbie armstrong and mitchell smith added single tallies pearce owen matthew carrick and mathewavoledo each had one assist cameron nowikow was the winning goalie the clippers will meet east gwillimbury in the final good start for ae atoms the stouffville ae atom clippers are off to a strong start in their sixgame round- robin series in the york- simcoe playoffs having won their first three contests after defeating the barrie colts 40 and the tnt minor hockey tornadoes 21 at home they then went on the road to defeat barrie again 31 scoring for the clippers in the three games were chris matsoukas three goals two assists hayden gibson two goals andrew baggs one goal one assist michael liscio josh manson and daniel szabo one goal each jake dobson and robbie hart two assists each michael tapiero ryan gregory hayden burton ben hamilton andrew muirhead and victoria henri one assist each kevin derocchis posted the shutout against barrie minor atom aes advance the stouffville minor atom ae clippers skated off with three victories in yorksimcoe playoff action and earned the right to play in the next post season round- the clippers began its win ning streak by blanking the markham waxers 50 alex mckean anthony barresi and michael lennie each had a goal and one assist while hayden ellison and keaton major rounded out the scoring with single tallies brendan clifford earned two assists while singles went to nick robb and caron nelson buoyed by a threegoal effort from major and one from ryan maloney the clippers then defeated the waxers 40 john anthony coscarella barresi and ellison each earned two assists while leuschner and robb had one the clippers then sealed their berth in the next round with a 21 win over richmond hill lennie and mckean each scored once while maresa benacquista and nelson were credited with assists staff photomike barrett stouffville district secondary school spartans matt raguseo tried to position himself to unleash a shot on the father bressani catholic high school net dur ing mondays york region athletic association junior boys quarterfinal hock ey game at stouffville arena father bressani emerged with a 102 win to elimi nate the spartans from the yraa title race brendan wise and malcolm forbes scored for the spartans senior hockey spartans lose playoff opener jamie hewitt thought his stouffville district secondary school spartans senior boys hockey team did the necessary things to defeat the cardinal carter catholic high school celtics aurora in the first game of its twogame total point quarterfinal series tuesday at bond lake arena in oakridges what the spartans head coach didnt foresee were the intangibles which ultimately led to a 21 loss it came down to bounces said hewitt im not mad the kids couldnt have done anything more than they did they did everything to perfection it was definitely a heartbreaker among the bounces hewitt referred to were three missed break away opportunities by his shooters of those chances two shots rang off the goal post with the spartans nursing a 10 lead on a thirdperiod goal by justin hitchen the celtics rallied to tie the game with just under three minutes remaining that set the stage for the game- winning goal that came with just 41 seconds left the spartans must win todays game at stouffville arena which starts at 2 pm on pad a a victory in regulation time would force a suddendeath overtime ses sion to determine the series winner girls open playoffs today the spartan girls hockey team will begin its playoff drive today with a onegame elimination quarterfinal contest against king city secondary school the game will be played at stouffville arena at 2 pm on pad b for more information on high school sports log on to wwwyraacom