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

Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 19 Playoff intensity Bye buys Blades some time to get back on track Team enters OJHL playoffs having lost five of last seven The Oakville Blades need to turn their game around if they're going to make a record fifth straight appearance in the Ontario Junior Hockey League finals. Fortunately, they'll have some time to make any necessary adjustments. The Blades concluded the regular season Saturday with a 2-1 loss to the Burlington Cougars, Oakville's fourth loss in its last five games and fifth defeat in its last seven. But, by finishing second in the West Division with 68 points (11 behind the Georgetown Raiders, 17 ahead of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres), Oakville earned a bye in the opening round of the playoffs. The Blades will most likely face the Buffalo Jr. Sabres in the next round (provided that Buffalo wins its first-round best-of-five series with the Hamilton Red Wings), giving Oakville a week of practice time to tune up. If Hamilton upsets Buffalo in the opening round, the Blades would draw the winner of the other firstround series in the West between Burlington and the Milton IceHawks. Prigione top goalie in league Blades netminder James Prigione finished the regular season with the top goals-against average in the league (2.04). Prigione went 17-7-2 in 28 appearances this season, collecting six shutouts, while fellow Oakville goaltender Michael Stiliadis tied for second in the league with four shutouts of his own. Tyler Karius was the Blades leader in both goals and points during the regular season, scoring 21 goals and adding 23 assists in 38 games. Stefan Thompson had the most assists on the club (32). Brandon Denham scored for Oakville in Saturday's loss to Burlington. The previous evening, Todd Bannerman's shorthanded goal with 1:27 left in regulation gave the Blades a 2-1 win over the Brampton Capitals at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Brad Kobryn had Oakville's other marker against Brampton and Prigione made 26 saves to collect the victory. GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER TIGERS ADVANCE: White Oaks Wildcats player Tomas Santos (in blue) and T.A. Blakelock Tigers player Tommy Hong go to the floor while wrestling for the basketball during Monday's Halton senior boys Tier 2 quarter-final playoff game at Blakelock. The Tigers defeated White Oaks 55-35 to advance to today's (Wednesday's) semifinals, when they will host the Milton District Mustangs. OT swimmer on pace for more OFSAA medals Having won a provincial medal in each year of her high school swimming career, Oakville Trafalgar's Clara Armstrong showed she will likely be in contention for another in her final year with a strong showing at the Halton swim championships. Armstrong cruised to victory by more than seven seconds in the senior girls 100-metre breaststroke, her second victory of the meet last Thursday at the University of Guelph. Her winning time of one minute, 22.37 seconds was still a couple of seconds off the Halton record she established last season, but she wasn't exactly being pushed at last week's meet either. Earlier in the day, Armstrong had a much closer race as she edged Georgetown's Evelyn Elgie by two-tenths of a second to win the senior girls 50m butterfly in 34.90 seconds. Armstrong also helped OT earn a pair of second-place finishes in the relays. She teamed with Kelsie McNeill, Hannah Roche and Robyn Gordon to earn silver medals in the senior girls 4x50m medley relay and the 4x50m freestyle relay. Armstrong wasn't Oakville's only double gold medalist at the Halton meet. Holy Trinity's Kurt Schubert won both the open boys 50m freestyle (25.36) and 100m butterfly (1:02.58). It was a good day for the Schubert family as Amy Schubert won the senior girls 50m freestyle with a time of 30.52 seconds. She added a silver medal in the 100m freestyle. Trinity's Alyson Smith earned medals in both of her individual events with a gold in the open girls 100m individual medley, edging Notre Dame's Lexi Barrett for the win in a time of 1:12.54. Smith added a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke after being out-touched for silver by nine one-hundredths of a second. Abraham Lozano earned the first of Trinity's five gold medals by winning the senior boys 50m freestyle in 26.43 seconds. That total was matched by Oakville Trafalgar, which, in addition to Armstrong's two golds, had victories by Kevin Scaife, Alex Hayman and the open girls 4x50m medley relay. Scaife took the open boys 100m backstroke in 1:05.10. Hayman reached the wall first in the junior boys 50m breaststroke, touching in 36.86 seconds. The Red Devils open girls relay team won the 4x50m medley relay in 2:17.86. T.A. Blakelock's Meredith Johnson was Oakville's only other gold medalist, taking first in the junior girls 50m butterfly in 36.59 seconds, six one-hundredths of a second ahead of Pearson's Miyoko Nishi. Loyola's Daniel Rosales earned a pair of silver medals in his individual events, the open boys 100m butterfly and the 100m IM. St. Thomas Aquinas' Quincy Brozo, OT's Abbey Saunders and Abbey Park's Anna MacKay and Dragan Poposki also won medals in both their individual events. Brozo earned a silver in the open girls 50m freestyle and a bronze in the 100m freestyle. Saunders was a silver See Halton, page 21