Wednesday, February 16, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 Sports Blades took two-game lead into Georgetown last ni^ht By Matt Nimmo SPECIAL TO T H E BEAVER An upset in the m aking? The O akville B lades are working on it as they took a surprising 2-0 lead into last night's third gam e o f their best-of-seven O n tario provincial junior A opening round series o v er the G eorgetown Raiders. T hat gam e, in G eorgetown, w ent beyond our W ednesday edi tion press deadlines. To be sure, the Blades were hot to end the season, undefeated in five gam es, but still they · m anaged to nab only the eighth and final playoff spot in the 10-team w est division w hich carried with it the onerous task o f opening up against the regu lar season leaders. So far, though, they seem up for the challenge, w in ning 5-3 at hom e on Sunday night and 6-5 in overtim e in G eo rg eto w n on S atu rd ay night. T he fourth gam e o f the series runs this Friday night, 7 :3 0 p.m ., at C anlan Ice S ports O akville. B lad es co a ch Jay A n d erso n w as ex p e ctin g th a t G eo rg eto w n , in last n ig h t's gam e, w ith th eir backs up against against the w all and in fro n t o f the h o m e to w n fan s, " w ill be desperate. "We have to feed on that." T he line of M ike Tarantino, M ike Lukajic and B ob Jaggard have been explosive so far, contributing seven goals and seven assists. Stu M acC rim m on is also having a great series with P h o to s by B arrie E rskine Cugarff^it wW t e e ft«=>TT>e Town Centre R Dorvai a qcw E e L iv u » ry 0 a n J s | Friday, Feb. 25th, 10pm R HYTHM TRAMPS 8 4 4 -8 7 0 3 An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@haltonsearch.com TO P PHOTO: as a G eorgetow n player sk ates aw ay, the B lades celeb ra te a goal. T he tw o in the foregrou nd are M ike L u kajic (left) and Bob Jaggard and the unseen third on e is, no d oub t, line m ate M ike T arantino. T he line has been on fire in the series. B O T T O M PH O TO : d esp ite great goalten ding by M att C ollaton, G eorgetow n has m an aged a few goals o f their ow n, in clu d ing this one. three goals. SU N D A Y 'S 5-3 W IN "W e're h alf way there," said coach A nderson after S unday's 5-3 hom e win, the (See 'Blades' page D3) A ' * « X v \ »\ V \ ' lit National bronze for Cougars By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPO R T S EDITO R The O akville C ougars floor hockey team had a m em orable trip to the Canadian Special O lym pics 2000 W inter G am es, held recently in O ttaw a, w inning a national bronze medal. They proudly displayed their m edals at a prac tice Friday night. T h at's right. No vacation for these players. T hey love the gam e, and they were right back hard at work, preparing for a busy spring schedule that Will include tournam ents in London, Toronto and an O ntario Spring Games qualifier. I t's been quite a ride for these hard w orking hockey players as they qualified for the nation al W inter G am es by w inning the provincial cham p io n sh ip (in the C division) right here in O akville. In O ttaw a, a .500 record through the exhibition and prelim inary round secured them third place, and a berth in the bronze medal gam e against fourth place Saskatchew an. R epresenting O ntario, Oakville won 6-4. It w as a good w in, said coach A ndrew Schoenhardt. He noted that it was a true team effort with six different snipers accounting for the scoring. A nd there were very few penalties. They played hard and they played fair. "They d id n 't leave anything on the floor. They played w ell," he said. T he feeling after that final gam e was unbeliev able, added one o f the other coaches, Peter Elliott. "A fter the gam e, to see the elation ... going back to the dressing room , you know it was no different from w inning a gold m edal." It capped o ff a m em orable w eek for the team, and a busy one. The players really only had one free night, and m any o f the players headed right back to the gam es to cheer on their fellow O ntario athletes. O th er nights w ere filled w ith an O ttaw a Senators hockey game (against St. Louis), a dance, and the opening and closing ceremonies. "I thought it was great," said Kathy Ashweil, File Photo by P e te r C. M cC usker Captain Nick Dodge, seen in an earlier league win against Stoney C reek, is in Quebec with the rest o f his team m ates in the prestigious Quebec tournam ent. They w on their opener 3-2. P h o to by P eter J. T hom pson Opening win The O ak ville Rangers triple-A p eew ee rep team have had a great start to the p resti gious Q uebec peew ee tourney, ed g in g C hom otov from the C zech R epublic 3-2 M onday night. The R angers, w ho played an exhibition m atch w ith a team from Boston on Tuesday, were slated to play their second tournam ent game today. (S ee 'Rangers' page D3) T he O a k v ille C o u g a rs S p ecial O ly m p ics flo o r h o ck ey team are th e n a tio n a l bronze m ed a l ists. B A C K ROW : S tev en M uir, M ich a el L a n ca ste r an d co a ch A n d rew S ch o en h a rd t. S E C O N D ROW : B rian D u n n , M ich ael M cC ro n , W arren W rig h t an d M arty C op lan d . F R O N T ROW : C oach P eter E llio tt, M a rk R iv ers, M a r ie S ch ra d er, K a th y A sh w eil an d C oach Bob E lliot. A B S E N T FR O M P H O T O : K yle N ich o lso n , P eter S o k a c z, H an s S ch o n ro ck , Don S a n sca rtier and G erry L ach ap elle. w ho was centered out by the coaches for her tena cious defensive contributions. "I felt honoured to be in O ttawa. We m et a lot o f people from different provinces." W hile quite happy to contribute defensively, she said she's quite happy to play anyw here. In fact, Wayne Gretzky, who certainly w asn 't known for his defence, is her favourite player, and she did get to play out at tim es during the tourna ment. She sounds like she w ould be Don Cherry's type o f player. "H ockey is m y favourite (sport), I think because I like to play a little aggressive. I like playing rough." T he other w om an on the team , M arie Schrader, called it "a once in a lifetim e experience." Brian D unn agreed: "I liked it," he said. The team w ould like to thank its main sponsor, Petro Canada. BEST OF 7 GAM ES Fri. Feb. 18 Sat. Feb. 19 Sun. Feb. 2 0 Tues. Feb. 22 O akville O akville O akville O akville Blades vs. Blades vs. Blades vs. Blades vs. Georgetown Georgetown Georgetown Georgetown Raiders Raiders Raiders Raiders at at at at Ice Sports Centre Georgetown Ice Sports Centre Georgetown 7 :1 5 7 :1 5 7 :1 5 7:1 5 p.m . p.m . p.m . p.m . For a d d itio n a l in fo rm a tio n c a ll 8 4 2 -8 6 1 4 W BM 4 ll