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Times Advocate, 1994-10-19, Page 14ifs 14 Tunes -Advocate, October 19, 1994 This Week in Sports... • League most important now - page 15 • Four generations of training - page 16 Sidelines By Fred Groves The three C's of the Irish Character, communication, chemistry... Those three words are what Pat Ryan, manager of the Lucan Irish, wants out of his hockey team. A while back Ryan, and coaches Scott Bogart and Jeff Dalrymple had to make a very tough decision. One even more difficult than actually selecting the team. They told Greg DePrest that he is no longer a member of the OHA Junior Development League team. DePrest is an overage centre and has, for the past five years, been a major contributor to what goes up on the Lucan side of the score- board. Pound -for -pound he is prob- ably one of the best Junior 'D' players I've seen over four sea- sons. You can't take him out of the lineup and expect to win consistently. The Irish are off to one of their worst starts in their 25 year history with an 0-5- I record. I believe that if they had won those four games, DePrest might still be around. Bogart and Dalrymple had to come up with a new strategy and that is to get everyone on side and work together to achieve Ryan's concept of character, communication and chemistry. In defence of DePrest, he has been battling a bout of near mono, he was pale, frail and Sha- key on his skates - still he man- aged to get six points in three games. Every single night he comes to the arena he knows he's going to take a pounding. Someone bigger, and most of them are, is going to try and put him out of the game - I've seen it at least a dozen times. But he keeps bouncing back and after a rest on the bench, he takes off down the ice and scores a "stick that in your ear goal." He's a natural scorer and the Irish haven't got anyone to replace him. • But DePrest's leaving could be a blessing in disguise. It used to be the norm in Lucan to have players stay around for a few years, they come to Lucan and they stay around, becoming very familiar faces around the league's rinks. However, the last couple of years, players have been on the revloving door as they go off to Junior 'B' , school or just don't want to play anymore. Lucan is no longer a team that keeps players together- two years and out is the max. That means they have to have that chemistry Ryan speaks about, get along and do what the coach says because the future is now. Two years ago, Clare Stanley, who was the club's president for 22 years stepped aside. This year there has been a complete turn around as coaches Ken Needham and Jamie Pearce have been replaced by Bogart and Dalrymple. Manager Ken Free- man is gone and so is trainer Pat Riddell. The Irish are in the midst of a rebuilding year, not so much player wise, but rather, organiza- tional, coaching and concepts. It will take time and having De- Prest leave could be a decision which could pave the way for a lot more changes. Robinson returns to help Hawks By Fred Groves T -A staff EXETER - If the Exeter Hawks had a Christmas wish list - then Santa Claus came real early Friday night. The OHA Junior Development League team got a present when it was announced that Shayne Rob- inson, the west division's leading scorer with 116 points a year ago, has returned. He scored one goal and set up two more Saturday in a 5-3 win over the Mt. Brydges Bulldogs. Exeter Hawks' centre Nathan Burns battles at the faceoff during Friday night's game in Exeter, /_i ....ri..- - Mark Uvennore (11) was slowed down on this play in front of Stars' goalie Aaron Lucas but it was Livermore netting the winning goal in overtime on Friday night. • 4 Robinson a strong, hard skating winger started the season with the London Nationals of the Western Ontario Junior 'B' Hockey League and in the six games he played, had four goals and three assists. "I started off and I thought I had lots of energy, the more I played the more I got wom down," said Robinson who was at the South Hu- ron Recreation Centre to watch the Hawks edge the visiting North Middlesex Stars 6-5 in overtime. He said he was putting as much as 30 hours a week into hockey and with his chronic fatigue syndrome, that was simply too much and it was beginning to wear him down. "I thought I was 100• percent but that chronic fatigue syndrome will always be there. The coaches liked me and it was nothing against the organization," said Robinson. When the Hawks started the sea- son they were without two of their top three scorers from last year as Robinson was gone and Todd McCann had graduated. That left Sean McCann to carrya big Toad but the Hawks managed to get talented Chris Kennedy to come over from Wingham Junior 'C' and second -year players Nathan Burns and Mark Livermore have really been producing. Now, with Robinson back, the Hawks will be extremely talented offensively. "Anytime you can put the league leading scorer back in your lineup its got to be a positive," said Exeter coach Dave Revington. Third win: The much -improved Stars gave the Hawks all they could handle on Friday, jumping into a 2- 0 lead before the hosts tied things up and it was 4-4 after two periods. • While Robinson's return was the big news of the night, just as. im- portant was Livermore's goal just 58 seconds into the sudden -death overtime period. It was his fourth point of the night as he managed assists on goals from McCann, Kennedy and Ray Cousineau. Rookie defense - man Bill Hodge had the other. Hawks' goal. "Corny (Jamie Cornish) got the shot low. I hung onto it, I missed chances all night," said Livermore in describing the goal. The Stars, coming off a big 5-4 win over the two-time defending champions from Mitchell had two goals from Kevin Leyten with sin- gles from Steve Bax, Neal Galajda and captain Chris Downie. "We should have won it earlier, it was kind of sloppy," admitted Liv- ermore. For the first two periods Friday night, the Hawks seemed to get caught on too many two -on -ones as their defensemen were out of place. "Our forwards and our defence were stretched out the first half of the game and they (Stars) out - hustled us," said Revington. One real controversial play of the night came 1:21 into the third frame when Leyten was going to the net, but was hauled down by Kennedy. Referee Jeff Smith called for a penalty shot and Leyten put one under the crossbar over Kints. Some in the building, including Revington didn't think it warranted a penalty shot. Hawks 5, Bulldogs 3 Despite trailing 2-0 very early in this one, the Hawks came back and got their fourth win. of the season in a 5-3 revenge win. A week earlier the Bulldogs handed the Hawks their only Toss of the early season. Saturday in Mt. Brydges, goalie Chris Lyndon had two quick ones past him in the first seven minutes so Revington put Kints in net. "He didn't have much help, just like his last start," said Revington. "He'll start the next game." Scoring for the Hawks were Liv- ermore with two, Robinson, Ken- nedy and Bums. Veteran blueliner Jamie Cornish had a good game with two assists. '?'sem?XrAkks.64.; HAWKS HAPPENINGS Shayne Robinson ... returns to Hawks Top scorers: After five games the Hawks have a 4-1 record. Chris Kennedy leads the Hawks in scoring with five goals and six assists. Others in the top five are: Mark Livermore (7-3-10); Sean McCann (2-8-10); Ray Cousineau (3-3-6); Nathan Burne (5-0-5). Still Waiting: The Exeter Hawks still anticipate that Joel Campbell who has a few years of Junior 'B' experience will be joining the club. Future games: Friday - host Lambeth Lancers,4:30 p.m.; Saturday at Belmont, 7:30 p.m. What's wrong with the Lucan Irish? With two more losses, Lucan is now win Tess in six games By Fred Groves T -A staff LUCAN - What's wrong with the Lucan Irish, two more losses last week and they are in the basement of the OHA Junior Development League's west division with a dis- mal win less 0-5-1 record. Last Wednesday the Irish hosted Lambeth and lost 4-2 to the Lanc- ers. Saturday in Port Stanley, the Lakers pulled out a 6-5 squeaker. Lucan coach Scott Bogart is be- ginning to see what some of the major problems are, one of those being the fact that most of the players are having a difficult time adjusting to the systems he and co - coach Jeff Dalrymple are trying to implement. "We've got some work to do, we won't deny it," said Bogart. The Irish also seem to be lax in getting to the puck, nobody wants to make the effort to do the work, which if it comes, will produce goals and eventually wins. "Our systems, were working on them and we're seeing a little bit of it in the game," said Bogart. With two new coaches and a lot of new faces to chose from, the Irish had to take their time in se- lecting this year's team. Now that the club's has been chosen, things will hopefully begin. to fall into place. "Guys are getting used to each other. We got off to a late start as far as exhibition games," said Bo- gart whose team had a 1-2-1 pre- season record. There are only seven returnees to the 1994-95 team, one of those, Scott Riddell, has yet to playa reg- ular season game due to injugy. Of that corps of veterans, there is no returning goalies and only one re- turnee on the blueline. Bogan said no one should get comfortable in their green -and - white sweater yet. He added the coaching staff is still looking at prospects and there is always the chance of new faces showing up. "There are a few guys that got comfortable real quick and they could be in for an awakening." Lancers 4, Irish 2 Lucan Minor Hockey Association product Brent Mills scored one goal with the other coming from Trevor Emms. Irish manager Pat Ryan said Emms is very im- pressive. "He has to be one of the hardest working players for us," said Ryan of the 16 -year-old Emms. "He goes a full 60 minutes. I wish we had 20 more like him." Lakers 6, Irish S Since their loss to Exeter Hawks earlier this season, the bikers have been really pig their opposi- tion. The Irish gave them a bit of a scare on Saturday as the hosts pulled out a slim one -goal win. "We should have won easily, we had them," said Ryan. Scoring for the Irish were Dave Jenken, Daryl Boshart, George Ste- phens. Steve Matthews and new- comer Christian Criel. The kR- winger played with Lambeth a year ago. Jason Glavin got his third straight start in net as Rob Hotson was sent to the hospital earlier in the day complaining of severe , stomach pains. LUCI{Y CHARMS Travis Stinchcombe among scoring leaden 'Dap scorers: Des to struggling to get a win, the 0-5-1 Irish have got a few producers. Steve Matthews, Rob Davis, Travis Stinchcombe and Wil Giles all have five pointe each. Newcomer: Left-winger Christian Criel comes over from the Lambeth Lancers where he had 18 points in 34 games. The Irish will have new uniforms on Wednesday and hopefully that will get a win.. Future gamest Wednesday - host Belmont 8:15 p.m.