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stouffville suntribune thursday march 9 2006 27 stouffville suntribune mbpss t 3p 514 hh patrick henri and the stoiififville minor atom clippers will play either oakville or southpoint for the ontario minor hockey association a championship the clippers swept belleville in the semifinals thanks to an overtime win sunday mssmsmt 3 mmm spipp minor atoms sail into omha final the stouffville clippers slew a giant on the weekend knock off one more powerhouse and theyll be ontario minor hockey association a champs josh burkholders goal five min utes into overtime sunday gavethe clippers a 21 win over the belleville bulls and a 30 sweep of their semifi nal series before meeting stouffville belleville was undefeated in the playoffs and lost only twice during the regular season the clippers will play the winner of the oakville rangerssouthpoint capitals series in the final oakville leads the series 20 with the next two games scheduled for friday and saturday if necessary in southpoint over the last three years our team has lost five players to aaa teams one to aa said clippers coach greg roberts but the guys we have are really stepping it up they realize theyre good players themselves in the last month theyve come to the rink with a lot of confidence against belleville the clippers won game 1 at home feb 26 then travelled last weekend to historic belleville memorial arena the sec ond oldest operating rink in the world the clippers dominated satur days game beating the bulls 41 and controlling play for all three periods the key was assistant coach bill englishs defence which shut down the highoctane belleville team they averaged 56 goals per game before the series but only scored five times during the three games the clipper defence includes patrick henri jack english jack porter mathewavoledo and bobby lamirande chris cadaret spencer roberts and evan smith had a goal an assist each mitchell smith had the other goal jack english and bobbie lami rande assisted cameron nowikow was the win ning netminder tight defence and outstanding goaltending from jack murray was me difference again sunday evan smith gave stouffville a 10 lead before belleville tied it up on the next shift setting up burkholders overtime heroics cupper notes the minor atoms are the only stouffville team to make the semifinals this yearthe juvenile clippers won the omha crown last springthe minor atoms finished the regular season in first place for the second year in a row and defeated bradford east gwillimbury and innisfil before meeting belleville by john cudmore staff writer one thing the stouffville spirit certainly know already is the auro ra tigers are a beast of a different stripe than the one they slewtues- day night for the moment however the spirit were satisfied to savour their provincial jr a hockey league north conference semifinal series victory over the newmarket hurri canes a team that ended their playoff dreams the previous two seasons the spirit earned the ticket into the conference final by upending the hurricanes 53 in stouffville to claim the series in six games im not thinking about auro ra now spirit head coach dan west said after his side overcame 20 and 32 deficits in the decisive game to knock off the hurricanes by winning four straight games we all know the north goes through aurora were just happy to be playing in the north confer ence final well have a look at the matchups later the contest was likely the best of the series from a fans stand point we figured it would be a thriller and a nailbiter and they would come at us west said every game should have been like tonight we got some bounces and they got the short end of the stick but we hit the back of the net a few more times and thats what matters the series is scheduled to open friday night at the aurora com munity centre the series shifts sunday 330 pm to stouffville for game 2 for thirdyear spirit fqrward randy johnston the series win was cause for smiles after a two springs of frusrratibn at the hands of newmarket i cant explain the feeling said the newmarket resident a former ottawa 67s draft pick and the spirits leading scorer in the regular season itis been a long time coming down 02 in garhes at one point johnston said the spirit did nt waver from the game plan we didnt get too down on ourselves or let it get to us said johnston who drew an assist on joel sheppards controversial win ning goal at 347 of the third peri od we were hungry for the pucks and tried to win every battle on the ice the gamewinning goal drew howls of protest from the canes on the play in question john son sent sheppard in alone after apparently trapping ther puck inside the newmarket blue line the former hurricane hoisted a shot beyond the reach of rietrnin- der brad fogal to break a 33 tie with his second goal of the game daniel spivak sealed the outcome with an empty net goal in the final minute james mcintosh and shawn frank also scored for stouffville ben plater chase gallagher and kory helowka responded for new market stouffville came in with a total commitment in every game they had a job to do and did it and good luck to them hurricanes head coach jim wells said afterwards the aurora tigers will be shooting for an unprecedented fifth straight north conference title but tigers head coach jerome dupont knows it wont be easy to duplicate a return to the league semifinal round its going to be a challenging series said dupont who took in tuesdays stouffville is a big physical tearh stouffville has good depth and is hungry there wasnt really one team i wanted to play over the other but i think they are the bet ter team the spirit posted three wins including an overtime victory in five games against the tigers to stand as the only north confer ence team to hold an edgeiin the season series one key factor in the series is the status of tigers leading scorer jeric agosta who has been side lined several weeks with a back injury dupont hopes to have his ace back at 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