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w w w .in sid eh al to n. co m | O AK VI LL E BE AV ER | Th ur sd ay , J an ua ry 4 , 2 01 8 | 3 4 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Bell win has minor atom Rangers thinking bigger Oakville Rangers players swarm goalie Jack MacDonald as they celebrate winning the Richard Bell Memorial Tournament minor atom AE championship following a 5-0 victory over Ajax last Friday at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. | Graham Paine/Metroland By Kevin Nagel Beaver sports editor A Richard Bell M em orial H ockey Tournam ent cham pionship win by the Oakville m inor atom AE R ang­ ers h as changed the team 's outlook for the 2017-18 season. The Rangers dom inated the Bell tournam ent, highlighted by a 5-0 victory over the A jax K nights in the division final last Friday at S ix­ teen M ile Sports C om plex. Oakville, a fourth-place squ ad in the Tricounty League, knocked off the top team in Tricounty, H alton H ills, on the w ay to the tourna­ m ent win. "G uys are buying in ," said coach Bryan W oods after the post-gam e celebrations subsided. "Both goal­ ies are playing fantastic and lead the loop in goals-against average." The R angers' goalie in the fi­ nal, Ja c k M acD onald, earned the assignm ent against A jax and re­ corded the shutout. He kept the K nights off the scoresheet while his team m ates finally figured out how to break a scoreless tie in the second period. G rayson C larke started a four- goal exp losion w ith his first o f two on a top-corner wrister to the short side p ast A jax starting goalie M yles M atier 2 :57 into the m iddle frame. R angers' M ark Fallon used the sam e tactic less than two m inutes later to up the Oakville lead to 2-0. A ngus C am eron took a p ass at the A jax blueline, blow ing past the Knight defenders, and hit the five hole w ith 1:13 left in the period. Oakville w asn 't finished, how ev­ er, as M axim Shiktorov took a p ass from A idan Vivaldi from behind the net and slam m ed the p u ck in for a 4-0 Rangers lead w ith ju st 27 seconds on the clock. C lark w rapped up the scoring with another successfu l w rist shot, this time against A jax replacem ent goalie Benjam in Hart m idw ay through the third. C lark and Cam eron finished with three points each. "They're not the players you 'd typically expect to have gam es like that," said W oods. " (Shiktorov) had a five-point gam e earlier in the tournam ent, too. But everyone is backing each other up on the ice." The R angers' 5-0 m ark at the Bell (2-1 and 5-0 vs. A jax, 7-0 and 3-0 over H am ilton H uskies, 4-1 over H alton H ills) and the fact that his team h as sh u t out the opposition in five o f the past seven league gam es has W oods contem plating a m ore successfu l season than he initially envisioned for the club. "We have a big, strong and fast team ," he said. "A lot o f opponents can't deal with our size and speed. We have a real sh ot at m akin g a long run (in the Ontario M inor H ockey A ssociation p layoffs)." Other m em bers o f the Rangers' cham pionship team include Clarke, Joel Zahary, Sam W oods, Cooper Diam ond, Ayden Bal, Erin Huang, Ivan Jager, Rylan Healy, Brenden Gardiner, Ryen Reinsborough, Jaxon Edw ards, Ethan Snyder and goalie Nathan Kendrick. Jam ie M acD onald and Jam es Clarke are assistant coaches while Tarnveer Bal is the trainer and Tara Letourneau is the m anager. s o l u t i o n s of Tiles + Stones S t r o n g f in is h g iv e s m in o r b a n t a m A A R a n g e r s B e ll c h a m p io n s h ip w in o v e r F in n s Members of the Oakville Rangers minor bantam AA Rangers and Finland's GrIFK pose for a picture after the final at the Richard Bell Memorial Hockey Tournament. Oakville rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to pull out a 4-3 victory. | Herb Garbutt/Metroland By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Rarely have the Oakville Rangers needed to play catch u p this season. Then again, the Rangers haven't seen m any team s like their opponent in the Richard Bell M em orial M inor H ockey Tournam ent final. "W e're a pretty fast team ," said m inor ban­ tam AA Rangers Red coach F ab De Rango after last Saturday's gam e. "W e're not u sed to having team s that can keep u p with u s ." M aybe the reason the Rangers haven't seen a team like G rankulla IFK is that it travelled m ore than 6 ,600 kilom etres to p lay in the tournam ent. The Finnish team frustrated Oakville by w inning races to the p u ck the Rangers u sually w in with ease and by taking away space to create plays. Shut out through two periods, the province's highest scoring minor bantam AA team -- av­ eraging 5.1 goals per gam e this season -- fi­ nally broke through in the third. The Rangers overcame a 2-0 deficit by scoring four times, the last two by Jack Churchill, to pull out an exciting 4-3 victory to win the division title. "It w as a pretty crazy gam e," De Rango said. "The F innish team played a very good p u ck p ossession gam e and our guys were in awe that they were able to do things at full speed and m ove the p u ck so qu ick ." That led to first period goals by Einari Kil- pinen and Elm eri Rantalahti. M eanwhile, the G rIFK defence sw arm ed Ranger p u ck car­ riers and w hen they did get through, goalie Je sp er Lindevall w as there to turn them away. Lu cas Vincze finally got Oakville on the board early in the third, stuffing one in from the side o f the net. Oakville m ade better use o f its p assin g gam e to spread the G rIFK defence in the third and there w as no better exam ple than the tying goal. M atthew Piroli sent the p u ck across the top o f the crease to Ja c k Grant, w ho quickly sent a return feed to Piroli, w ho fired it into the open side. Churchill gave Oakville its first lead with 4 :16 to play as he carried the p u ck out o f the corner on a Ranger pow er p lay and rifled a sh ot under the bar. Forty-seven seconds lat­ er, the Ranger captain cut across the crease before slipp ing a backhand inside the post for a 4-2 advantage. G rIFK refused to concede, though. W ith ju s t under a m inute to play, Ville Rapo tipped in Aaro L am pi's point sh ot to cut the lead to one. The Rangers w ould hold on for the win, even if they have bigger goals ahead. "We really w anted th is," Churchill said. "We w ant to w in OM HAs, but this m eans a lot, especially since w e're the only (Oakville m inor bantam AA) group to ever win this tournam ent." The Rangers also provided a unique challenge for GrIFK, as the team is commonly known. "They were a lot faster than team s w e u su ­ ally play," said G rIFK 's Robin Cahrpentier. "It's totally different playing hockey here." The skilled team s em erged as finalists in the tournam ent's largest division, w ith 15 team s vying for the cham pionship. http://www.insidehalton.com mailto:knagel@burlingtonpost.com By Kevin Nagel solutions of Tiles + Stones By Herb Garbutt