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Home My WebLink AboutTimes Advocate, 1991-04-24, Page 13We did it - Dan Jenken, centre; and the rest of the Lucan Irish had lots to celebrate Sunday afternoon . Junior 'D' playoffs Irish win division final By Fred Groves LUCAN - Trailing three -games - to -one, the Lucan Irish came back to win three straight to capture the Ontario Hockey Association Jun- ior'D' west division championship Sunday afternoon. In front of a . large crowd, the. Irish be beaLttle.Biteter Hawks_7-1,in 'Front df outstanding goaltending by Dan Bink It was the third consecutive season the Hawks have been eliminated by the Irish. Lucan will once again take on the tough Thamesford Trojans. Game One was played last night in Thamesford with the second game going tomorrow night in Lucan at 8:30 p.m. The rest of the series has yet to be determined. Last year, the Irish lost in six games to the Trojans and two years ago bowed to Lambeth in the league final. "We're just going to use the plot we've got our second chance and you usually don't get a second chance," said Lucan coach Ken Needham. • While Jenken led the defence in Sunday's finale, Jeremy Jemec led the offence with a pair of goals and an assist while Jon McEach- ren had two goals. Also scoring for the Irish who led 2-0 at the end of the first peri- od and 5-0 at the end of two pen - ods, were Jack Legg, Steve Mat- thews and Greg DePrest. Exeter's J.P. Cousineau pounced on an Andrew Barton rebound to break Je 's shutout bid " late in the se ppaer�ioodd.. Both of McEachmn's goals were" set up by Andy Ross who Needham said has been one of the best Lucan players in the series. On the second goal, Ross raced down the left side and instead of shooting, went around the net waited and hit McEachren with a good pass. "Andy's the type of player who uses a lot of patience, we need that," said McEachren. "He played well the whole series but the last two games he's been sensational," said Needham A brawl which saw players jump off both benches resulted in the game being halted with less than five minutes to play in the second period. The altercation began when Lu - can's Todd Hayter and Derek Shackleton, who was playing with a broken hand, began to wrestle be- side Jenken. That turned into a fist fight which saw four separate scraps break out on the ice. Exeter's Jeff Dalrymple had Darren Neil down behind the, goal and the Hayter -Shackleton bout moved towards centre ice. Hayter was getting the better of his opponent when Doug -Clark jumped off the Hawks' bench and, in wet ivIcEachren came-.eff -the Yrish.bench. "I didn't see it. All of a sudden there was a tussle after the whistle in that end and it just erupted," said Needham. "We concentrated on keeping the guys on the bench." Paul Manders also came off the Exeter bench and Kevin Leitch re= sponded for Lucan. However, when referee John Willsie finally sorted things out, five players from each team were kicked out. Leitch was able to stay in the game. The Irish say they will buy back the suspensions to Hayter, Brian Schuyler, Neil, McEachren and Ja- son Wilson for the final series against Thamesford. Tired: After the game Exeter coach John Kernick said the reason his team was beaten was because they y Nene physically -tire . „ .,,, "They were maybe a little fresher going into the series because we were coming off seven and they weren't. The longer the series went, the more it went in Lucan's favour," said Kernick. He also said with Shackleton missing a fewand the ab- sence of centre Cleesn Tinney and defenceman Al Blommaert, that shortened the bench. "They got physically tired out. They couldn't keen up with the pace," he added. Mldgets beaten LUCAN - Although they scored first, the Lucan midgets lost the Shamrock League championship 4-1 to Lambeth on Saturday. Following a scoreless first period, Jeremy Jemec connected from Brad Coughlin and Brett Revington but Lambeth came back and scored four in a row, Is popularity of Tigers decllnlng? What is it about r baseball that makes it a predominately American sport? I think simply because we Ca- nadians have staked our claim to hockey. It's a process of elimina- tion. The love affair Canadians have with hockey is why, according to sidelines by Fred Groves London Tigers' GM Bob Gilson, there was a very small opening day crowd last Tuesday night at Molson Park. Gilson said the team might took into having the opener during the afternoon in an attempt to attract more business people. The crowd of 3,019 who watched the Tigers get beat by the Can- ton Indians, was the smallest in the club's three-year history. But Gilson said other Eastern League teams are feeling the crunch. "It's worse for us because we're Canadian and are hockey orientat- ed,' said Gilson from his London office. "With the playoffs on, let's face it, who wants to go and watch a baseball game in not even good football weather." It was nippy last week during the opening home stand for the de- fending league champs and they have struggled. But Gilson, like all general managers this time of the year, is con- fident. London was bombed in its fust three games, how about game two which saw them give up 21 nuns, ouch. "I think our pitching will be strong. The younger guys had early season jitters but I think they're over that now," said Gilson. Detroit's 'AA' club has only nine returnees and although players come and go in London very quickly, winning is important. "We are here to develop players and very important to develop a winning attitude." • London players find themselves caught in a revolving door. If they excel, it's a trip to 'AAA' Toledo or maybe a giant step to the Motor City. But while promotions are granted, so are demotions. Gilson said Toledo could be sending down the odd pitcher and the 'A'club in Lakeland, Florida may be sending some up. Up, down - it sounds like an elevator. Lucan's Mike Lumley hopes his elevator goes up. "When I was at spring training, he pitched well and he was confi- dent," reported Gilson. "I think he got caught up in a numbers game and that's why he didn't get sent here to start." Gilson said Lumley pulled a stomach muscle and was expected to miss just one start in the rotation. Chris Chambliss was the, London manager a year ago and after leaving the Tigers' organization, has been replaced by Gene Roof. Roof was the manager in 'A' Fayetteville and many of this year's London Tigers played for him there. "A lot of the new players had Gene before and they knew exactly what to expect. He's a different type of coach than Chris. His track record is good and he's fair. I think the players like him," said Gil- son. Only time will tell if Roof likes the players and whether or not London continues to like and suppprt the Tigers. .v►• .-.,.moria,.: I'd like to extend eotigliilatltihs td John rl �� kis irst full year of coaching junior hockey. The Exeter Junior b' skipper did a good job and I for one hope he's back again next year. Following Sunday's game in which his team was eliminated by the Lucan Irish, Kenrick said he a made a few mistakes but learned a lot. "I enjoyed doing it. It's tough dealing with 20 -year old players sometimes. It seemed to be a challenge for me to gain the respect from everyone. These guys at this• age all collie outof ditrdrent hockey back- grounds. Their beliefs on hockey are maybe different than mine and it takes a long time to get everyone thinking the same way." At Sunday's game theirish honored the Lucan bantams r'ho re- cently won the all -Ontario championship. The players were all in- troduced and received congratulations from the Irish coaches. 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