The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

28 E Stingy weekend for Spirit, rookie netminder > (0 Q MST WEEK: Saturday: Stouffviile Spirit 5 vs Pickering Panthers 1. Sunday: Stouffville Spirit 4 vs. North York Rangers 0. Spirit record: 17-12-2-1-37. second place in North Division, Ontario Junior Hockey League. COMING UP: Saturday vs. Lindsay Musk- ies at Stouflville Arena. 7:30 pm. Monday at Cobourg Cougars, 7 pm. GAME NOIES: For Conor McCollum the puck was as big as a beach ball when he took to the ice to guard the‘twine for the Stouflvilie Spirit in a pair of Ontario Junior Hockey League tilts last weekend. For the Spirit. that was good news as the 17-year-old Pickering resident and first. year Stouflville netminder stopped all but one shot in two contests that resulted in a pair of victories - a 51 win over the Pickering Panthers at the Stoultvilie Arena Saturday followed by a 1H) road verdict over the North York Rangers the following day. For McCoilum, the shutout earned was his second of the season and the two victories enabled him to be the winning netminder in six of his last seven outings. Not to mention he's lowered his goals against average to 3.05 and improved his save percentage to .910. While McCollum had a weekend to remember, so too did the Spirit as they've been victorious in JR. A NOTEBOOK t we YIfFI. hag openen regisgratlojl for Indlvldglals [andjeamsJor‘anomeLsuccesslul Winter season. three of their last four outings and have sole possession of second place in the North Division. in starting their weekend off against Pickering, the Spirit erupted with four unanswered goals in the third period. Chris Brill-Morgan's second period goal had the Spirit up 1.0 entering the third. Picker- ing call-up Tiger McDonald tied it up. But 1:05 later Alex Gilmour netted would be the game winner. Brodie Tutton. a former member of the Panthers. and Tyson Bruce scored Spirit goals 36 seconds apart and Joe Deveny iced the game with an empty~ netter. McCollum stopped 35 shots to earn the win. With little time to dwell on that outing. the Spirit snapped a four-game road losing streak behind McCollum's performance between the pipes in a 40 victory. Stouffville native Chad Burrows delivered his fourth and fifth goals in four games to pace the Spirit. Nathan Hudgin. 16, had a goal and two assists. Tutton added three assists. Defencemen Michael Giacometti scored the other goal. ' INSIDER: Spirit forward and Stouf'lville resident Spencer Roberts returned to action Sunday following a two-game suspension. But forward Liam O'Dette is expectedtobeoutforclosetotmweeks due to lower body injury. Tutton leads the Spirit in scoring with 13 goals and 21 assists followed by Thoma- kos with 12 goals and 20 assists. Former Splm defenceman lack Caradon~ na. who plays for the State Univetslty of New M at Geneseo Knights. was named CONOR MCCOLLUM: First-year goalie shuts out North York. beats hometown team during weekend. is 30°F!!!in rpgistralionyor * teamsxamnl gndIVIduals Ior may a 5 - *.~fia_w‘ i m»%. 091ml!!! lnAiafllEW‘zm the recipient of the school’s prestigious Dr. Sam Molnar Awardlhe award recognizes the top men's scholar-athlete in the New York Athletic Conference. The 24-year-old senior is a biology major with a 3.93 grade point average. He's the fourth Academic All-America in\school history. and first in 39 years of the men's hockey program. A Markham resident. Caradonna played with the Spirit in 2010-11 and amassed 10 goals and 31 assists in 47 games that season. Former Spirit forward Drake Caggiula scored a goal to help the top-ranked University of North Dakota down 11th ranked University of Denver 3-1 in Denver Saturday. Caggiula's goal. his eighth of the season. coupled with 14 assists. enabled him to maintain the league lead in scoring with 22 points. GENERALLY SPEAKING: 'l'm definitely feeling mere confident in myself in devel~ oping more as a goalie.” McCollum said of his recent outings. While quick to note he's gained more con- fidence as the season has been unfold~ ing in his first year of junior A action. the Grade 12 student was quick to give credit to his teammates, as he feels since the start of the season. they‘ve developed a good chemistry. "There’s been good communication where my defence and forwards know me and I know them in how to play the puck and when to get out of the way so I can see any shots." he explained. During the Sunday tilt in which he was pitching a shutout. McCoIIum was quick to acknowledge the thought of recording one entered his mind. “Sure it (earning a shutout) was on my mind, but you don't want to think of it. I tried to put it out of my mind for the ion- gest time that lgould." he said. “The guys played really well. It was more about the two wins." he said. In looking ahead to their next two outings. the first of which will be a home game against the North Diwsion cellar dwelling Lindsay Muskies Saturday and followed by a road game against the East Division- leading Cobourg Cougars Monday. a team they have not played yet this season. McCoIIum warned they cannot take things for yanted. 'Even though Undsay is sort of a rivalry game for us. we have to take things one game at a time. And we know Cobourg is a good team and we have to prepare for that one,“ he said. ~MICh3€I Hayakawa