The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 11

am. am E4: I I Hi VANCOUVER SUN. SATURDAY, U1 12. 2003 SPORTS Odjick talks golf, thinking hockey Depth perception w-league i Whitecaps have the bench strength to battle with the best Whitecaps stay alive with key victory Jordan ends six-game goal drought for winner against tough Calgary side 'Ji BY DAN STINSON VANCOUVER SUN r' 1 ii BY DAN STINSON VANCOUVER SUN 'j 'ft 1 GREG DOUGLAS VANCOUVER SUN 1 fc -3, ON SPORT A-LEAGUE I It was a game that the Vancouver Whitecaps simply could not lose a must-winner if there ever was one this A-League soccer season. But it took a second-half flurry to accomplish it.

Goals by midfielder Johnny Sulentic in the 57th minute and striker Jason Jordan in the 77th lifted the Whitecaps to a 2-1 victory over a tougher than expected Team Calgary side Friday night at There could hardly be a better testament to the Vancouver Whitecaps women's soccer team's depth than the fact that Phebe Trotman didn't dress for a June 29 home game against the Seattle Sounders Selects. After all, how could head coach Dave Dew not include a player in his selection after she scored a career-high four goals one week earlier. In a road game, no less. Trotman did just that, bend-ing the twine four times against the Mile High Mus Swangard Stadium. Orphaned last Tuesday when Calgary businessman Michael Vandale pulled out as team owner, the visitors came into the Burnaby facility with a new name after NEXT GAME -J A July 19 7 p.m.

vs Seattle at Seahawks Stadium 7 i i izr tangs in suburban Denver on June 22, when the Whitecaps rolled to a franchise record 10-0 victory. Dew explained Trotman's absence in the game of my life and wanted to try something different. The other factor was I thought I'd have a better chance to play regularly with Fort Collins. The Breakers were loaded with national team players and I didn't think I'd get much playing time with them." The solid 5'11', 155-pound Trotman holds the distinction of being the first player to score a goal against the Vancouver women's franchise at the Burnaby facility. She broke the Breakers' home-field shutout string on July 29, 2001 in Fort Collins' 2-1 loss to the Breakers.

It was one of Trotman's three goals in 13 games with Fort Collins during the '01 season. Whitecaps' defender Sadie McLure, who was Trotman's teammate at SFU, also played for the Force during the '01 campaign. "It was hard playing against the Breakers because I knew everyone on the team very well," Trotman says. "But Fort Collins was looking for a striker and a sweeper two years ago and our coach at SFU, Shelley Howieson, knew the general manager at Fort Collins. Sadie and I actually signed with Fort Collins before trials for the Breakers started that season." Trotman's list of honours also includes two national under-19 championships with the Burnaby Canadians.

Her combined two-season stats with the Breakers and White-caps are seven goals and one assist in 14 games, placing her seventh on the franchise scoring list. Trotman and fellow striker Diana Artuso, the Whitecaps' top scorer this year with six goals and one assist, are all the more valuable to the team considering that Canadian international forward Christine Sinclair has taken a full-season break from the club game. Sinclair is expected to play for Canada during the Women's World Cup tournament this September and October in the United States. The multi-talented Burnaby native was also absent from the Breakers during last year's playoffs because of national team commitments. "I don't think anyone can replace Christine," Trotman says.

"She plays on a different level of soccer and there's no doubt that we'll miss her. Now it's up to every player on the team to pick up her game in Christine's absence. "It's the only way that we can put up a serious challenge for the league championship." Women NEXT GAME Today 7 p.m. vs Denver at Swangard Stadium pm trrir--iHwyfn PETER BATTISTONIVANCOUVER SUN Vancouver Women Whitecaps forward Phebe Trotman at a recent practice. the league assumed interim own-.

ership. Calgary struck first in the 34th minute on a well-taken, but poorly defended direct free kick by striker Nicolas Zuniga, who put his sharp-angle shot through a maze of players from the left side of the Whitecaps' penalty area. Solid goalkeeping by David Weibenga and defending by Sean Fraser kept the Whitecaps off the scoreboard until Sulentic gathered in a fine pass from fellow midfielder Andrew Veer and sent a powerful, rising shot off Weibenga's hands into the near side of the net. Jordan's goal was set up by a Sulentic free kick. It ended one of the longest scoring droughts in a Vancouver jersey six games for the veteran striker.

"Yes, the monkey's off my back," Jordan said. "But more importantly, we won a must-win game. A loss tonight would have been devastating." The Whitecaps were coming off their worst loss of the season, 3-0 to the Timbers in Portland, on July 3. Calgary has won only four games this year and is winless in its last nine matches. "Man, we needed this game," a relieved Sulentic said as 4,073 fans headed home.

"We battled hard and this win puts us back on track for a playoff berth." The Whitecaps improved to 7-6-3, 24 points in the Pacific Division, but couldn't gain on Portland, which defeated the El Paso Patriots 3-2 in another Friday game. The Timbers (9-8-0, 27 points) remained three points ahead of the Whitecaps for second place and the.division's last playoff berth. against Seattle by saying she needed a rest from the road trip, which included a gruelling four games in six days. The Whitecaps still beat the Sounders, 1-0, to run their W-League record to a Western Conference-leading 7-1-1. Don't expect prolific striker Trotman to be cooling her heels for long, however.

Not with the playoffs looming and some unfinished business to take care of. Still smarting from their home-field penalty kicks loss to North Carolina's Charlotte Lady Eagles in the first round of last year's Final Four league championship tournament, the Whitecaps are counting on Trotman this summer as they head into the stretch run of regular season play starting tonight against the Denver Lady Cougars at Swangard Stadium. The Whitecaps have only three regular season games remaining and can clinch first place in the conference with a victory over the Cougars. It would give the Whitecaps home-field advantage in the sudden-death conference playoffs, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 2.

A ticket to the league championship tournament, scheduled for Aug. 8-10 at Virginia Beach, is riding on the result. With five goals in eight games, Trotman is the White-caps' No. 2 scorer this season and the go-tp player when the going gets: tough in. the oppo-' nents' penalty area.

"We don't have a more physical player on our team than Phebe," says Andrea Neil, the veteran Whitecap and Canadian international midfielder. "She's got guts. She's prepared to risk life and limb on every challenge for the ball and is the only player on our team that I wouldn't want to go one-on-one with. We've got some pretty tough players, but I put Phebe at the top of the list." Trotman's signed with the Vancouver Breakers, the Whitecaps' predecessors, last year with an impressive resume. It includes four seasons and a NAIA championship with the SFU Clan in 2000, when she was the team's top scorer with 19 goals in 20 games.

She was subsequently named NAIA player of the year and the B.C. Soccer Association's senior player of the year. Given that Trotman is a 25-year-old New Westminster native, her natural progression from the collegiate ranks might have been to sign with the Breakers. So it came as a surprise that she joined Colorado's Fort Collins Force in the spring of 2001 after graduation from SFU. "At the time I wanted to get away from the Vancouver area for a little bit," Trotman now says.

"I've lived in this area all SCENE HEARD: The Algonquin Enforcer is back in Vancouver but not in the capacity of his choice. Unrestricted free agent Gino Odjick still believes he can play in the NHL but for now he's settling for the golf business. Odjick, who created his own brotherhood of brawn as the Canucks 1990s tough guy, has partnered with the Musqueam Indian band in the purchase of the master lease to Eagle Quest golf course at Musqueam. "I kept my house here on Indian land," says the proud native of the Maniwaki reserve in Quebec. "As owners of the golf course, we will create jobs for the native community and help out with social programs." Odjick dropped in on Canucks GM Brian Burke Wednesday and told him how much he'd like to end his hockey career in Vancouver.

Odjick has also spoken to New York Rangers GM Glen Sather about being reunited with his little buddy Pavel Bure. (One of Gino's sons is named Pavel). Neither Burke nor Sather were in a position to offer Odjick anything because he still hasn't been cleared medically to return to the NHL. Gino missed all of last season with the Montreal Canadiens after he was struck on the head, by a puck during a summer, scrimmage prior to the Hab September training camp. There's been speculation that the Canadiens were in a legal wrangle over their liability to pay odjick.

While Gino uses the word! "concussion" freely, Montreal; management has only said he's been on an "indefinite leave of flbscncCa' HERE N' THERE: Hockey hall of famer Clint Smith left Vancouver this past March for a hip replacement in Toronto. During the operation in April, Smith suffered a mild stroke. While he was in rehab, the SARS scare surfaced and hospital staff placed Clint in quarantine. When that was lifted, he re-broke his hip in rehab and underwent surgery for a second time in four months. This is one spunky 89-year-old gladiator a member of the 1949 Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers who could use a lift from his hockey pals.

Drop him a note at St. John's Hospital, Room 224, 285 Cummer Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M2M 2G1. There's a phone by his bed: (416) 226-6780 ext. 2242 Former NHL linesman Malcolm Ashford lost in a photo finish to ex-Canuck John Grisdale in the running for new commissioner of the B.C. Hockey League Nevada book shop Vegasinsider has the Canucks posted at 10-to-l to win the Stanley Cup this year.

Colorado's favoured at 9-to-2. SHORT HOPS: Noted angler Rafe Mair is trolling the local radio market as a free agent and he's hired as his adviser a 1950's baseball prospect from Vancou-ver's east end named Red Robinson, who lost interest in the game when he discovered rock roll Bob Marjanovich launches his 3-7 afternoon sports talk show Monday on MOJO Radio after leaving Team 1040. Marjanovich brings with him well-connected producer Eric Stansfield and hopes to confirm former NHLer and current ESPN correspondent Ray Ferraro as a quasi co-host and daily contributor during the hockey season. END ZONE: Marion Lay's upbeat attitude as president of the 2010 LegaciesNow program is even more refreshing when you consider she could be out of a job come December should the Olympic Games Organizing Committee decide to eliminate her program. During the successful VancouverWhistler Olympic Bid process, LegaciesNow leveraged more than $8 million of new money into province-wide amateur sport development.

Grvg Douglas ran be heard mornings on Rm 93.7 and 600AM Monday thru Friday. He can be reached at drsportigitelus.net JSC 0 Your Ticket to Summer Fun in Uancouver! Experience the GC lions, Molson Indy Vancouver and Vancouver Whitecaps all for one incredible low price. 'A r5 tT I ft ZZ ArTTTC7 imi if? AAOLSONINDY FRANK GUNNCANADIAN PRESS Bruno Junquiera is congratulated by owner Carl Haas after he negotiated Toronto's street course in 59.486 seconds. Junqueira captures provisional pole Order your Summer Sports Pak tickets by calling tkketmaster charge-by phone B04.280.44DQ. BY CHRIS MAYBERRY CANADIAN PRESS Bonus Value Paw After ordering by phone, pick up your Summer Sports Pak at Tickets Tonight and receive one free admission to the BC Sports Your CeawteM Smtc ta Hall of Fame Museum.

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