TURNING WHITEWATER INTO GOLD

Margaret Langford and Jamie Cartwright are heading to Sydney.
Langford, a Lions Bay kayaker, won the women's single slalom
March 25 in Chilliwack. Cartwright, a North Vancouverite, won the
men’s single canoe event. Their sport, whitewater kayaking, will be
contested for the fourth time at September's Olympic Games. For
more information, paddie to www.whitewater.arg

AN

Bob Mackin

Sports Reporter
bmackin@nsnews.com

THE North Shore was
two-for-two at the
Coastal Classic C Cup
girls soccer champi-
onship Saturday in
Burnaby.

The North Shore Steelers
shut out Powell River Red
Rage 3-0 in the under-12
championship. Meanwhile,
the under-14 North Shore
Blue Lightning edged
Victoria’s Gorge FC i-0.

No other association was
entered twice in the regional
championship for teams from
the Lower = Mainland,
Vancouver - Island, Howe
Sound and Sunshine Coast.

Lauren Slattery put the
Steelers om the scoreboard at
the 28th minute with an assist
by Alexandra Pollock. Eight
minutes later Aliya
Tarmohamed helped Kate
-Roper. give North Shore a
two-goal edge. Tarmohamed
had her second assist on
Pollock’s second half goal.

Steelers. starting lineup:
Goalkeeper Tayne Thorne,
sweeper Stephanie Palmer,
defenders Rachel Hewitt,
Sarah Gushue and Simone

~ Thurston, midfielders
Tarmohamed, Sarah Volpatti
and Slattery, and forwards
Meghan Best, Roper and
Poliock; subs: Jessica
Bornestig, Elizabeth
Bradwell, Chelsea Casano,
Sarah Law and Marina
English.

The Blue Lightning and
Gorge FC were scoreless
through: the first half. The
game’s only goal came‘in the
40th minute by Blue

“” Lightning*s Rebecca Roskell
~ with an assist to Michelle

COVERING

NEWS photo Julle Iverson

TARYN Davis (rigit) of the North Shore Blue Lightning challenges a Gorge FC
player during Saturday’s Coastal Classic C Cup final in Burnaby. The Biue
Lightning took the 1-0 decision. ;

Kerr.

Goalkeepers Sarah Hearne
and Lorna May shared the
shutout.

Blue Lightning starting
lineup: goalkeeper Hearne,

sweeper Chantal Sullivan,
defenders Kellan McKeen,
Katie Graham and Jennifer
Stratton, midfielders May,
Ashley ,McKilligan, Jill
Minaker and Amanda Torres,

and forwards Rebecca Roskell
and Michelle Kerr; substitu-
tions: Hannah Cowell, Farah
Sayani, Kyla Rose, Milka
Pelech, Amanda Robinson
and Taryn Davis.

We Van teams net triple crown

- HOLLYBURN Country Club
scored a hat trick in provincial
championship hockey tourna-

ments.

The West Vancouver organization
sent three teams to contest the B.C. .tro-
phies last month and all three were victo-

rious.

Grand Forks.

In the final, fesse Birch had a goal and
two assists to lead the team in its 5-0
championship victory over Fort Neison.

The game was scoreless through the
first period until Tate Matkaluk scored on

In Mackenzie, Hollyburn compiled a
5-1 record in the Bantam A tournament.
. «~The team opened the event March 20
with a 7-3 win over Logan Lake, but was
edged the following day 5-4 by
Kimberley. Hollyburn rebounded with a
7-4 win over Fort St. James and embar-
iassed the host 14-0. The team complet-
ed the round-robin with a 6-4 win over

Cummings.

Cumby 4-1

the first of two assists by Kevin Clough.

Birch and Ryan Gib!
It was the team’s fourth provincial title.

Dan Webster and Kit Matkaluk scored
goals on assists by Birch in the third.
Birch led the tournament with 19 points.
Summerland’s Justin Keller was one
behind, while Birch’s teammate Yashar . *
Farmanara added 13.

Goaltender Brandon Hart recorded
the shutout in the final.

Clough, Mark Rinfret, Nick Snider
and Mike Richmond provided solid
defensive support, said coach Jack

In Kaslo at the Midget A tournament,
Fred Masuch and Josh Harmon’s team
had wins over Vanderhaof, Creston and
Kaslo before a 4-2 loss to Lumby. But the
team responded in the final, beating

Hollyburn beat Fernie 10-6 on March
19 in the opening of the Pee Wee A tour-
nament on home ice.

ns made it 3-0.

The team followed with a 12-0 win
over Fort St. James. The Hollyburn jug-
gernaut continued with an 11-7 win over
Kaslo on Monday, but tied Summerland
3-3 on Tuesday. Hollyburn ably compen-

ares with a 5-2 championship victory
ver the same Okanagan team.
West Vancouver minor hockey sent

teams to the Pee Wee AA and Midget

AAA tournaments in Dawson Creck and
Terrace, respectively.

The Pee Wee AA team started with a
6-4 win over Whitehorse and 38-0 over
Castlegar, but fell 4-3 and 6-4 to
Sicamous and Dawson Creek. The team:
ended the tournament on a high note
with a 5-4 overtime triumph against
Vancouver Hastin;
the final 5-4 over Sicamous.

West Vancouver’s Midget AAA team
went 1-4-1 at its provincial championship
in Terrace. The team’s only win was 4-2
over Castlegar, but it tied Terrace 5-5.

. Dawson Creek won

— Bob Mackin

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 — North Shore News - 33

AND THE WINNER 1S_. WAIT TILL THE 29TH

Judges ior the first North Shore Sport Awards met Friday to
decide winners in 13 categories. The panel included colum-
nists Jim Kearney and Shane Collins, reporter Bob Mackin,
International Olympic Committee member Charmaine
Crooks. North Van Rec Commission chair Rob Boyd and Len
Corben, a contributor to the News and North Shore Outlook.
The awards will be announced April 29.

PLAY

Nowhere to go but .
up for Canucks

CIRCUMSTANCES
made last Friday’s los-
ing effort to Edmonton
the Canucks’ most
exciting game of the
NHL season.

But the outcome needed
only the presence of Michael
J. Fox to qualify it as a sequel
to Back to the Future.

Four straight non-playoff
seasons —— equalling the club
record set by the Canucks
when they first came into the
league at the beginning of the
1970s, Back, in a manner of
speaking, to where they start-
ed.

Oh, where have you gone,
Orland Kurtenbach, Charlie
Hodge, Dale Tallon, Jocelyn
Guevremont, Andre Boudrias,
Rosaire Paiement, George
Gardner, Barry Wilkins, John
Arbour, Gary Doak, Eddie
Hatoum, Bobby Lalonde,
Dennis Kearns, Garth
Rizzuto, Richard Lemieux, .
Bobby Schmautz, Dave
Dunn, Don Lever, Dennis
Ververgaert, Bob Dailey,
Gerry O'Flaherty and Gary
Smith?

But take heart, all you lat-
ter day fans. If history repeats,
it’ll be a banner season next
semester. After missing the
playoff bus from 1971
through °74, the Canucks
went to 38-32-10 the follow-
ing season, finished first
(ahead of St. Louis, Chicago,
Minnesota and Kansas City)
in the Smythe Division and
were rewarded by having to
play the Norris Division
champion Canadiens in the
opening Stanley Cup round.

Some reward.

Ken Dryden, Guy
Lapointe, Larry Robinson,
Serge Savard, Guy Lafleur,
Yvan Cournoyer, Jacques
Lemaire, Peter Mahovlich,
Doug Jarvis, Bob Gainey and
other notables, No, the
Canadiens didn’t win the cup
that spring, but the following
four seasons essentially the
same cast made up for that
oversight.

The Canucks rode to the
divisional tide on the phe-
nomenal goaltending of Gary
“Suitcase” Smith, who, these
days, can be found on the
backstretch at Hastings Park, -
where he owns and trains
hGfses, But he ran out of mir-
acles against that all-star line-
up. Vancouver went out, four
straight.

His experience is instruc-
tional in that down the road
from his time, the Canucks’
only wo serious cup runs —
in 1982 and 1994 — were
made on the backs of Richard
Brodeur and Kirk McLean
and their temporary out-of-
this-world goaltending.
Inasmuch as winning, hockey
has always been largely a game

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of superior goaltending, Felix
Powvin will be the guy on the
spot next season as Brian
Burke's youth movement tries
to translate itself into a win-
ning team.

The record on youth
movements winning champi-
onships, be it in the NHL or
any other professional sports
league, is not good. Most
champions are a mix of wise
old heads and fresh young
legs, with emphasis on the
former. Defending cup cham-
pion Dallas Stars are a prime
example.

In the past the occasional
youth movement has been
kept together long enough to
mature into experienced
champions (Edmonton Oilers
of the 1980s). But the era of
free agency and inflated
salaries makes this a scenario
as improbable as Joe Who
once more becoming prime
minister.

There's only one upside to
youth movements: the salary
bills are smaller. The down-
side is that as young players
gain experience, they expect
to be paid more. Or to be
traded to teams that can
afford bigger pay packets.
Therein lies Burke’s current
dilemma.

He’s been charged with.
wrestling down a US$35-mil-
lion annual payroll to some-
thing that squares with the
Canucks’ small market (blame ©
the 68-cent Canadian dollar)
status; and at the same time
produce a team good eriough
to make the playoff.

Whether Mark Messier
stays or goes will have a major
impact on the payroll prob- ~
lem. Whether the Sedin twins
from Sweden, just turned 20,
can make a big statement as
first time NHLers will goa
long way to deciding if this
tearn remains on hold or
moves up, Don’t expect any
miracles. With the exception
of Jaromir Jagr, the best
European players in the NHL
waited unul they were 22 or
23 before moving over here.

Meanwhile, the problem
belongs to Burke and coach
Marc Crawford. And they're
welcome to it. ;

If, a year from now, the
Canucks miss the playoffs for
a fifth straight year, they. may |
be able to take solace in the’ ::-
fact their team is nowhere: ”
near the league record:: ~

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