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Thatishowthe Stouflville Spirit feel after their Pro- vincial Jr. A Hockey League season come to a sudden conclusion Friday. The defending national cham- pion Aurora Tigers skated off with a dramatic 3-2 over- time win to claim the best- of'seven North Conference final in five games. “I predicted from Day 1 when I took over as general manager that special teams is what wins playoff games. I thought our penalty killing was good. But our power play went 0 for 15 (0 for seven last Thursday and 0 for eight in Friday’s finale),” he said. “I thought we had a talented enough team. Our defence and goaltending is what got us through.” BY MIKE HAYAKAWA Stafi Writer Could have, would have, should have. “It’s never - good to accept a loss, but we were not blown out or taken advantage of in this series,” Spirit head coach Dave D’Ammizio said. “Most of the games could have gone either way. (Aurora) They're a great team and have been through this before.” ' PREDICTION COMES TRUE “I thought we could have beaten Aurora," Spin't general manager Thomas Milne said. “I was happy that we made it to the North Con- ference final. But when you get to that stage you want to win. “I think though you’ve got to lose in the short term to win in the long run. As a whole our team under- For the Spirit, it’s wait until next year. Milne felt several factors attributed to their demise. including the Spirit’s youth. Aurora lists nine 20-year- old players on its roster. The Spirit had just four. Milne felt the club trans- formed into a group of over- achievers in the playoffs. Special teams, youth Spirit’s demise: GM achieved during the regular season. But in the playoffs we picked it up a notch.” . Forward Jonathan Cris- tini, who was acquired part way during the season, felt the club had its chances. “I thought it was one of those series where we were battling hard,” he said. “But we weren’t getting the bounces. By the last game we were trying to figure out how to beat their goalie (Aaron Barton). Nothing was working. We outshot them (45-26) and we had a lot of powerâ€"play opportu- nities. But it was our fault. We shouldn’t have been down three games to one to start with." “All series long they got the breaks. We had momenâ€" tum and then they’d shut us down. We had our chances," said Spirit forward Corey 'Il'ivino, who will be attend- ing Boston University this fall on a full scholarship. “Our intensity might not have been as intense as it was against Huntsville. There was no do-or-die atti- tude and I think we might have let it get to our heads. That’s what it felt like to me anyways," he said. ‘DEFIED THE ODDS' The desperation from the semifinal series win over the first-place Hunts- ville-Muskoka Otters was missing, Cristini said. “We had a good year and defied the odds,” "D‘i- vino said. “A lot of people thought we would lose in the first round, and then in the second.” In Friday’s game, Thvino and Darren Archibald each scored for the Spin’t, who overcame deficits of 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 in the second to tie the game and force overtime that concluded with a goal by lefl Vanderlugt at the 1:10- mark of the first overtime. Everyone at -withfilesfivm John Cudmore SPORTS STAFF PHOTO/BILL ROBERTS Devin Tyhurst of ICE Aviation clears the puck from his zone against Timber Creek during novice playoff action in the Whitchurch-Stouffville Minor Hockey Association’s house league at the Stouffville Arena Saturday. LCE won 2-]. House league playofis continue through April 5. impon‘édwines at great volL Stouffville Sun-Tribune OUT OF DANGER daxclusivaimpabdwimâ€" dlddmdmwwu chooso'mOnbrio Ndynucm’igdhmmwlmcke Stoujfvflle Sunâ€"Tribune I Thursday. March 72008 'I‘wo Stouffville teams can win Ontar- io Minor Hockey Association champion- ships on home ice this weekend. A third opens its OMHA final. The minor peewee Clippers need one win to capture an OMHA banner, followâ€" ing a pair of victories over Brampton last weekend. Game 3 goes Saturday at 3:10 pm. at the Stoufiville Arena. Other games will take place March Sunday in Pelham, March 28 at Stouffville, March 29, if necessary, at Pel- ham and March 30 in Stoufl‘ville. The Stouffville bantam Clippers drew first blood in their best-of-five final against SouthPoint with a 4-2 win in the opener Sunday in Wheatley, near Learnington. The Clippers juveniles will open their best-of-five final against Pelham Satur- day at the Stouffville Arena at 7 pm. The bantarn Clippers struck quickly Sunday as Chris Smith staked Stouffville to a 1-0 lead two minutes in. Eight seconds later, Josh Machesney scored to pad the lead to 2-0. Joseph Pal- ladino made it 3-0 in the second period. SouthPoint rallied with twd unan- swered goals to cut the Clippers’ lead to 3-2 in the third. Mathew Miniaci, Kyle Sauro, Connor Cadaret and Steven Tait had assists. The series resumes in Stoufiville with games Saturday at 5 pm. and Sunday at 3:10 pm. Mth SouthPoint pulling their goal- ie for an extra attack‘er in the waning moments of the period, the Clippers got an insurance goal from Smith. Helping to preserve the win was some steady netminding from Kyle Pontone. OMHA finals here on weekend Bantams, minor peewees can win championships Minor peewees need one more victory to hoist OMHA bann er/ page 26- Onhnecg