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22 stouffville suntribune thursday march 23 2006 stoufmlle suntribune sports oakville big challenge for spirit in semifinals bestofseven series starts tonight at stouffville arena by mike hayakawa staff writer it would have been easy for stouf fville spirit general manager ken bur rows to breathe a big sigh of relief or to let out a euphoric yell after his club dethroned the fourtime north con ference champion aurora tigers in dramatic fashion last sunday at the stouffville arena with a 43 double overtime win but having been associated with the team almost since it began operations 11 years ago burrows wasnt about to get carried away in any excessive post- game festivities theyre a good team theyre a big team they move the puck well and they are a lot like us in that they use all of their players what weighed heavily on his mind were the oakville blades a team which the spirit will face starting today at the stouffville arena at 730 pm in the bestofseven provincial junior a hockey league semifinal series as soon as we got off the ice the first thing we talked about was oakville i want to win the next series and get to the final and see where things go from there im not one to reflect on the past and i hope that no one else on the team was reflecting on the past either he said the blades are ranked 14th nation ally the spirit arent rated the blades earned the right to face the spirit after capturing the best-of- seven west conference final series in relatively easy fashion with a four- game sweep of the hamilton red wings having witnessed the blades per form first hand burrows is quite impressed by what they bring fo the table he thinks the blades mirror the spirit theyre a good team theyre a big team they move the puck well and they are a lot like us in that they use all of their players he said concluding the west conference regular season in fourth place with a 261733 mark the blades appeared to be a team in disarray when the puck dropped back in september but with the regular season being a marathon the blades made some rather shrewd moves to become one of the hottest teams when it matters most john kuiperij oakville beaver sports editor noted the first positive move came when former national hockey league goalie don edwards came in to relieve frank carnevale as the clubs head coach don convinced people to buy into his way of doing things kuiperij said in having things done his way edwards made several acquisitions that have worked in his clubs favour among those kuiperij recalled was a deal that sent exspirit forward austin corredato to georgetown for forward joey piccone and defenceman paul conter piccone is a nice scorer who didnt want to come here at first kuiperij said as well edwards dealt defenceman paul dawson to milton for forward brandon defazio who became the clubs thirdleading scorer in the post season after playing on miltons third line another key transaction was the acquisition of forward daniel calitri from bancroft near the league trading deadline a lot of the guys don brought in has made a big difference kuiperij cited apart from the deals edwards words of wisdom appears to have inspired forward matt beca who was the west conferences most valuable player and is the current leader in play off scoring with 14 goals and 17 assists in 16 postseason contests while burrows wont go out on a limb to make any bold predictions he anticipates the series will be an intrigu ing one staff photosteve somerville in hot pursuit of prized possession country styles stone macauley left and independent plannings owen brown give chase to a loose puck during action saturday in a wmtchurchstouffville minor hockey league novice house league contest at the stouffville arena house league championship day is april 8 spartans reach ofsaa quarterfinals the stouffville district sec ondary school spartans girls varsity hockey team proved why they were given the top seed at the ontario federation of school athletic associations aaa play- downs in st thomas the topseeded spartans finished first in their pool with a 30 mark after defeating tim- mins high school 50 and st francis secondary school st catharines 60 tuesday and eighthseeded notre dame sudbury 30 wednesday morning hayley hughes scored twice for the spartans in the win over timmins while ashley mclellan added a goal and two helpers brittany crago and heather hughes added single tallies lau ren barber collected two assists against st francis mclellan notched two goals while heather hughes and jaime sparks each had a goal and an assist hayley hughes and cassandra britton each scored once natalie geiger kate devine and jessica ziegler were credited with one assist apiece liz knox posted shutouts in both wins scoring results in the win over notre dame were unavailable as of press time the spartans were scheduled to face john mcgregor sec ondary school chatham in a quarterfinal game late wednes day for more information on ofsaa log on to wwwofsaaonca minor atoms force deciding game in omhas the stouffville minor atom clippers and oakville rangers will go down to the wire to deter mine the ontario minor hockey association a champion the clippers staved off elimi nation in the bestoffive series and forced a deciding game sun day at the stouffville arena at 640 pm after blanking the rangers 20 tuesday in oakville chris cadaret had a goal and one assist while mitchell smith scored the games first and even tual gamewinning marker josh burkholder and evan smith earned assists helping to preserve the win was goalie cam nowikow who was called upon to stop a penal ty shot entering tuesdays game the rangers took a two games to one lead after prevailing 54 in over time saturday in oakville and 3- 0 sunday at the stouffville arena robbie armstrong mitchell smith evan smith and burk holder scored for the clippers in saturdays loss bobby lamirande earned three assists and matt avoledo one opinions lots of em 247 on yorkregioncom yorkregion com it 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