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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, December 20, 2012 · 26 Zeron finalist for O'Brien Award For the third year in a row, Oakville's Scott Zeron is a finalist for the O'Brien Award as Canada's horse driver of the year. The 23-year-old may have made his strongest case for the award, handed out annually by Standardbred Canada to recognize the country's best in harness racing, this season. After leading all Canadian drivers in wins in each of the past two seasons (606 in 2010; 539 in 2011), Zeron scaled back his racing schedule but still won 343 races. Despite a lower number of victories, Zeron still managed a career-best in purses, pulling in more than $8.5-million. He did that with the quality of victories, including becoming the youngest driver ever to win the Little Brown Jug, one of the legs of the American triple crown for pacers, when he steered Michael's Power to the winner's circle in September. "This is epic," Zeron said at the time. "This is the biggest race in harness racing in my eyes." The previous youngest winner of the race, established in 1946, was Mark MacDonald in 2006, who was 26 at the time. Zeron also scored victories in a number of other high-profile events, including the Upper Canada Cup, the Confederation Cup, the Battle of Waterloo, the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final and the Canadian Breeders Championship. Novice red Pens win gold in Lambeth Allowing just three goals in five games, the Oakville novice red Penguins (pictured above) won the championship at the recent Blenheim Blades of Steel hockey tournament in Lambeth. Oakville defeated the host Blenheim squad 4-3 in the gold-medal game to conclude a 5-0 showing at the competition. Members of the Penguins squad are Ethan Louro, Alex Grigat, Jack Cunnington, David Ciesla, William Raitt, Jack Henderson, Nathan Lipinski, Shawn Srivastava, Simon McCabe, Matt Colagiacomo, Ryan Calicchia, Matteo Manzi, Liam Murphy and Jacob Wright. The team is coached by Dan Colagiacomo, Tony Lipinski and Pete Bulger. Mike Lipinski is the Penguins' trainer. Whale of a tournament for atom red squad Ryan Shannon posted five consecutive shutouts and Jack Stokes had a hat trick in the final as the Oakville atom red Whalers (pictured above) cruised to the championship at a recent house league hockey tournament in Dorchester. Oakville defeated the host Dorchester Dragons 11-0 in the gold-medal game to conclude an unbeaten showing at the competition. Also contributing to the title win were Andrew Young, Ayden Turnbull, Brett Walker, Chris Dong, Connor O'Brien, Dylan Gale, Freddie Engmann, Gabe Vespa, Jack Williams, Jacob Mathers, Jake Gima, Lukas Roth and Tyler Diplock. Jason Diplock and Darren Young coach the Whalers and Doug Walker is the trainer. RIT's Binnington earns CHA top goalie honours Oakville's Ali Binnington was named the College Hockey America goaltender of the week after allowing just two goals in a pair of weekend games. The sophomore goalie for the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers finished the week with a 0.96 goals-against average and a .958 save percentage. Binnington stopped 19 of 20 shots in a 5-1 win over Lindenwood Saturday. The following day she turned aside 27 shots in a 1-1 tie in a rematch with Lindenwood, when she faced 14 shots in the first period alone. Binnington is 5-4-2 this season with a 2.26 average and a .913 save percentage. RIT is 7-9-3 this season, its first in Division I after winning the national Division III title last season.