1 22-The Canladian Champion, Tuesday, March 2, 2004 - alto searc IceHawks ousted with shoot-out loss Efforts to prevent the sweepfall short By STEVE LeBLANC The Champion Game over. Surrendering two firss-period ieads and unabie to stay out of tise penalty box aller doing so, tise IceHawks juas couidn's avoid tise sweep as Memorial Arena Friday nigss - gesting outdistanced 7- 5 by tise defending conference cisampion Raiders. Knocked off in four for tise firsi tune smnce 1996, Milton iooked poised so proiong tise second round series - as ieast for a whiie. Tise resuro of veteran marksmen Jonatisan Omes and Brett Robinson plus sisree goals in tise first nine minuses no doubt isad some fans planning a trip back to Georgetown tise foiiowing evening. Tise end of a ratiser iengsisy powerpiay fun just 69 seconds in tise do-or-die clasis - cour tesy of a five isoie deposis by piayoff sconing leader Wes Clark - was a positive omen as weii. But tisas rekmndled encourage- mens was eventually extinguisised under tise weigss of tise Raiders' immense firepower, and tiseir knack for capitaiizing on opponents' mistakes. Arguabiy tise most criticai of tisose came as tise midway mark of tise opening frame, wisen retumning neuminder Jamie Fiwry fum- bled a neutral zone bulles from Tyson Gianblett on tise goal lie. Tisas cut tise IceHawks' lead in isalf and squasised tiseir final bmsis witis momentum. Penalties costly Tisey'd give up two more goals before intermission and tisen sake a rasis of penalties down tise streicis, allowing tiseir oppor- tunissic guesta to noscis a couple of powerplay goals and pull out tise victory. Joisn Wiseaton sealed tise deal witis a iass-minute empty netter, sisoty aller Clark narrowed tise gap to one wisis bis second of tise nigiss and eigssi of tise post season. ".Yeah, il's especially tougis (to get sweps)," sald Omelas, wiso returned from a sisouider injury and scored tise series' oniy sisort- isanded goal early in tise third. "As dominant as Georgetown is, 1 realiy tisougas we could beas tisem. 1 don't know wisat isappened." Actually, tise RPI-bound amiper - wbo bast bis grandfasiser eariy iast week - isas anme ides of wisere sbings slipped away. "I guesa if it was means toise, sisal one bounice would bave gone ouir way," ie recalled of Georgesown's fluky iast-minute equalizer in gamne two tisat led to overtinse iseartbreak. Rookies Mike DeMarcbi and Brad Snetsinger rounded nus tise gaine-four seoring. Andrew Bonello and capsain Dean Strong isad two assista apiece. - Repiacing Flusy aller tise foursis goal, Thomas Lee stdpped tise nexa 17 sisots and 27 of 29 overali to keep tise series clinciser close. Friday marked tise firat home gaine back fromn suspension for George Dupont. ise retumring head coach wouldn't quite finish things up behind the bench, however, as hie was ejected for arguing witis the offi- ciais wits about 14 mmnutes remaining. Just moments laser defensive anchor Matthew French was given his walig papers as well, witis a 10-minute misconduct. Tise second-round sweep was particuiarly painful for Milton's veterans, who took tise Raiders to double overtime of gaine seven IceHawks goalie Thomas * Lee dives ta stop a shot in front of a ses of bodies during third-peri- od play at "t Memorlal Arena Frlday night. Milton :otte do-or-dis gaine 7- nated by Georgetown for the second straight year. Photo by HERB GARBUTT lasi year before fmally losing the conference cisampionship. Friday was also the swan song for a number of IceHawks, most notably Frencs, Ornelas and Clark who placed himself atnong Milton's top-15 ali-tinse scorers wits a productive two-year stmnt. In otlser West Conference playoff action, Oakville led tisree- games-so-one as of iast nigss, aller Hamilton managed to stave off elimination wisls a 6-2 win Saturday.. Violations costly for "Canes coach Brennan crying foui over his suspension By STEVE LeBLANC The Champion Nobody's disputing the fact tbat ies were broken. As for the etreumatances surrounding tisose violations - well, tbat's where opin- ions vary. Caugssin tise middle of tbe controversy is Milton AA midget forward Greg Pepper, wbose recetst call-up to Halton's AAA teamt led to tbe suspension of Hurricanes isead coacis Chris Brennan. Brenssan contenda tisat Pepper, a member of bis OMHA cisampion additionai entsy midget squad iast year and caiied up once "6You tan plead ignoranc ail you want but the rudes are the rules and it's pretty liard to dispute that they were broken." before eariier ibis season, was on bis offi- cial affiliate player (AP) lias when used in Guelphs Febmuary 8. Unfortussateiy, tisas liai neyer made 1110o tie OMHA, wbics in recent years bas been clamping down on admistrative viola- tions. Making maltera worse was tise fart tisas tbe AA midget team bad its own gamne in Rlamborougs tisat might. Consequenty, Wayne Monk - Milton Minor Hockey Association's rep convenor - brougst tise violation to tise OMHAs attention on beisaif of bis own midgets. The resuit was an imediate season- ending suspension for Brennan. "Just follow tise miles and ieave our play- ers alone," said Monk. However, Brennan points nus that ie had every intention of signing Pepper on for tise playofis and believed tisat tise AP list was in tise proper banda. Furtisennore, tie suspended coacis said il was Greg and fatiser Tom Pepper who eiected to go to Guelps tisat migs - a decision no doubt made easier by tise fact tias the AA midgess were already out of tie -ses PLAYER on page 23 r