The London Knights, a team that waived overage goalie Kevin Bailie at the Ontario Hockey League trade deadline, are having goaltending issues at the Memorial Cup.

Bailie, meanwhile, is fresh off an excellent half-season with the Summerside Western Capitals in the Maritime Junior Hockey League. He posted a 1.88 goals-against average in 27 games for the PEI club, concluding his junior hockey career with a top goalie trophy from the RBC Cup, the Jr. A nationals.

The 21-year-old suited up for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals from 2008 to 2012, prior to being dealt last summer to the Knights. Until London general manager Mark Hunter signed Anthony Stolarz to an OHL contract in January, Bailie was the team’s go-to puckstopper.

“Going into (my year with) London, my only goal was to win a national championship,” Bailie said Tuesday. “And although it wasn’t the same trophy, we were one goal from a national championship.”

Before a hometown crowd Sunday, the Western Capitals were downed, 3-1 (empty-netter), by the Brooks Bandits in the RBC Cup championship game.

Bailie’s old running mate, Jake Patterson, has replaced Stolarz in the crease at the Memorial Cup. Stolarz, a highly touted Philadelphia Flyers prospect, has posted a .871 save percentage and 2-4 record in his last six starts.

“I’m definitely not cheering against them,” Bailie said of the Knights competing in Saskatoon. “They’re a great group of guys. I’d never wish anything bad on the players.”

That doesn’t mean the Belleville native has forgiven Hunter for the last-minute waive.

“I was dealt a pretty tough hand, but made the most of it, I feel,” he said. “It kind of handcuffed me. I didn’t have a chance to go somewhere else.”

It would have stung less if Bailie was playing poorly at the time. But the Knights had recently strung together a massive 24-game winning streak, with Patterson and Bailie splitting the netminding workload down the middle.

“It would have been easy for him to hang ‘em up for the rest of the year, mope around,” Western Capitals GM Pat McIver said, “but he came here with the right attitude. He was determined to prove people he was a capable goaltender.”

Barring a surprise pro signing, Bailie will study law and stop pucks at Queen’s University this fall.

“There’s lots of people knocking on his door right now, and I couldn’t be happier for him,” McIver added.

The Kevin Bailie effect

London Knights 2012-13 record…
— With Kevin Bailie on the roster: 34-8 (.810 winning percentage)
— Without Kevin Bailie on the roster: 33-16 (.673 winning percentage)

Dr. Hassan Mosfafa, chairman of the London-based Islamic Centre of Southwestern Ontario, is among those worried about the image being painted.

“It is more and more of a recurring issue,” Mosfafa said. “Whether it is 911, the Boston bombings or any geopolitical event that involves religion, it winds up on our doorstep.”

Coined Project Scupper, the national investigation aims to identify local places and people that may have played a role in radicalizing youths. The community has been in the spotlight since the RCMP confirmed in April that two Londoners were among 29 militants who laid siege on an Algerian gas plant.

At least two others are believed to have traveled overseas with the pair.

Since then, Mostafa and others have made it a point to ensure that young Muslims are getting the right direction.

Community leaders, for example, put out an open call for youths to attend a recent lecture from Kingston Imman Sikander Hashmi.

“We asked him to speak on how youth can follow …  the middle-of-(the)-road path,” said Mostafa.

The result, he said, was a room filled with 150 to 200 youths and their parents.

If radical ideas are being taught, it’s happening secretively, said Abdul-Habib Habib, 23, of London.

A youth adviser at the London Muslim Mosque, Habib is always on the look out for individuals who may be swayed in what he considers the wrong direction.

At one point, Habib encountered a young person that sparked concerns.

“We invited him to attend a camp, I spoke with the other advisors and told them, ‘This person has issues, and we need to focus on him and make sure that before he leaves this weekend he has the proper image of Islam,’” Habib said. “We gave him lots of attentive care, and, to this day, he remains on the middle path and is a very solid person.”

Aggressive driving accounted for 344 of the tickets written. Another 115 people were cited for not wearing a seatbelt and 102 tickets were doled out for distracted driving.

Officers stopped 1,750 drivers at RIDE checkpoints across the city.

Set to finish a five-year stint as director of education with the Thames Valley District School Board in August, Tucker will start a brand new role at Western University a few days later.

Beginning in September, the long-time TVDSB employee — Tucker has served in either a superintendent, principal, vice-principal, or teaching capacity since 1979 — will become an associate professor in Western’s education department.

“Why not? Why not go to my roots as a teacher?” Tucker asked, rhetorically.

The new gig is a one-year “visiting appointment,” which Western’s dean of education, Vicki Schwean, hopes will blossom into a multi-year term.

“He’s got street credibility,” she said of Tucker’s hands-on-heavy resume. “Even though academics think they can do everything, they can’t. We need a mix.”

Tucker will take on a variety of duties, including teaching, researching, and working as an administrator. Schwean calls the graduate of both Oakridge high school and Western a “jack-of-all-trades.”

“Bill is one of those people who exemplifies the skills, knowledge, and competencies, of a very distinguished leader in our community,” she said.

A Volvo was pushed over the sidewalk and through the glass after being hit by an SUV vehicle in the intersection about 8:20 a.m.

The cause of crash, which saw the Volvo hit in the passenger-side door, is being investigated, Sgt. Peter Paquette said at the scene.

The driver of the SUV was taken to hospital. Several people were inside the Starbucks at the time, Paquette said.

“I think we’re very lucky here,” he said.

Girius Cepinskas, known mostly by his stage name “Giddy,” is one of 14 DJs from across Canada competing for a VIP experience at Sensation’s Canadian debut.

Started in the Netherlands in 2000, Sensation is billed as a Cirque du Soleil meets rave event that features DJs spinning tunes for a massive audience. About 30,000 people are expected to attend Canada’s first go around June 1 in Toronto.

If the 23-year-old Londoner wins a trip to the event, it’ll be a chance to rub elbows — and hopefully make contacts — with some of the music industry’s top players.

“I have heard about Sensations all of my life, and have wanted to be part of it, but never had the resources to travel to Holland to see the show,” Cepinskas said.

The “resources” for getting to Toronto could come through Giddy getting enough support through a Bud Light-sponsored competition at budlight.ca.

Giddy, along with the 13 other DJs in the running for a free Sensation pass, created an original track for the competition. The person with the most votes by the end of Thursday, May 23 gets the ticket.

Check out a preview of his new single, We’ve Come So Far, due for release May 27 through Black Hole Recordings

Since first hearing house music in his early teens, Giddy, a self-taught DJ, has had success performing in a variety of venues and wants to see himself touring again.

Even if he doesn’t take home the big Sensation prize, the contest has already given him a bit of a boost.

“The more you can expose your craft, the better it will be,” said Cepinskas, who over the past seven years has “bugged just about everyone in London” to listen to his CD’s.

About the event

The Sensation debut for Canada will feature an undersea-themed party dubbed “The Ocean of White.” The show will include pyrotechnics, acrobats and giant carnival floats.

The events have an all-white dress code to remember Miles Stutterheim, the founder’s brother who was killed in a 2001 car crash.

How are we going to get to the stadium and back safely? Oh, and we need to find a place to park that doesn’t grossly overcharge.

Londoner Greg Matthison has launched a service aimed at solving said issues.

The local sports marketer is offering sports trips for less than $100. Matthison says his newest venture, BigGameRoadTrips.ca, will save sports enthusiasts “a lot of money and a lot of headaches.”

Starting with a Major League Baseball match between the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers on July 1, BigGame is providing motor coach bus rides to and from high-profile sporting events.

“It’s an entertainment experience along the way,” Matthison said. “Instead of a two-hour drive on the 401, you have a lot of fun on the way down there.”

The targeted destinations — Toronto, Detroit, and Buffalo — are about a two-hour drive from the Forest City.

Patrons will save money in the end because once you add up gas, parking, vehicle wear and tear and, of course, a ticket to the game, you can easily cut $100 from a standard bill, Matthison says.

“A lot of (my business will be) father and son combos who want to come watch a game of the sport they love,” he said.

More than $10,000, according to the folks at Western University’s CIBC Centre for Human Capital and Productivity.

The centre recently released commentary on research that shows 15 per cent of students borrowers go into default — meaning they’re unable to make any payment for nine months — at some point in the first three years of post-grad life.

It’s proof that students need to come out of university and college with more than plans for finding a job. They also need to start thinking immediately about paying off the bills that helped them earn a degree.

“Students really need to understand how they’re going to pay their debt load and what that means to them moving forward,” Bob Stammers, director of investor education at CFA Institute in Toronto, told Metro.

Stammers, whose organization represents investment professionals, encourages student borrowers to prioritize loan payments or, if possible, consolidate them into a single running total.

Debt with high-interest rates, such as a car loan or credit card, should be tackled before student debt, he added.

“The big thing,” Stammers said, “is not to be naive about (debt).

“It can get away from you.”

Western researchers assessed two surveys conducted by the Canada Student Loans Program.

The first gathered data from 3,200 student borrowers already in default, while the second focused on about 1,000 who were fresh out of school and unable to make loan payments.

Head researcher and Western economics professor Lance Lochner said the key finding was that financial circumstances of a borrower’s family is crucial.

“If you’ve got family support, it makes a big difference (in repayment),” Lochner said.

Lochner and company also determined university students are 11 per cent less likely to run into repayment problems than those who attend college.

Nine years later, Kliza thinks he made the right choice by starting Steamers, a carpet cleaning and auto detailing company based in London.

“I was finished high school and started working for a steam-cleaning company,” Kliza said. “I learned quickly that this is something I could be successful at on my own, I just needed the finances.”

Kliza went to the London Small Business Centre for guidance, and, there, he learned about Summer Company — an Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment program designed to help young people across the province launch businesses.

“It was a huge thing for me to be able to go and buy my equipment and my truck, gain some independence that way,” Kliza said. “To get that at such a young age has helped me really get an early mindset of being an entrepreneur.”

This summer, more people may be able to get the same opportunity.

As part of the ministry’s 2013 Youth Job Strategy, the Summer Company is expanding.

For London, that means three more 15- to 29-year-olds will get a chance to receive mentorship and a grant up to $3,000, bringing the city’s total number of slots to 17.

Local coordinator John Anagnostou sees the increase as a great prospect.

“We’ll probably end up with more than 125 applicants,” he said.

From that pool, about 40 students are selected to submit a business plan.

“The program includes hours of training specific to bookkeeping, marketing, sales, and online promotions as well ongoing mentoring throughout the summer,” Anagnostou said.

Kliza credits much of his success to what he learned through the effort.

“The life lessons you’re going to learn by doing the program, whether or not you make money, are going to be far worth it,” he said.

To learn more 

For details about applying to become part of Summer Company, visit ontario.ca/summercompany.

The city-owned amusement park is trying to bounce back from a from a tumultuous 2012 that included seeing three seals die in June after leaving the facility for a new home.

Officials are counting the deaths — two of which came during transit — as a big factor toward the 15 per cent dip in gate numbers.

“Attendance was up leading into the summer,” said John Riddell, Storybook’s general manager. “And then, unfortunately, with what happened with the seals, it did have an impact, for sure.”

The park finished 2012 with a $250,000 deficit. The year before, it come “within a hair of breaking even” financially, which is the park’s annual goal, Riddell said.

At least one city councilor is dedicated to the idea of modernizing the attraction, a London staple since 1958, if that’s what is needed to boost numbers.

“Whatever it takes to keep open, we need to seriously look at that,” Coun. Bud Polhill said.

As for Riddell, his worries have been somewhat leveled out by promising survey results.

Last summer, 3,500 Storybook visitors participated in a satisfaction survey.

The overall satisfaction score was “through the roof,” he says, with 98 per cent of participants indicating they were happy with the park.

In terms of value for price — it costs $25 for a four-person family to enter the park — 86 per cent said they were satisfied.

What’s new

— With most of the animals moved out of Storybook Gardens, there’s room for a few additions.

— A giant pillow, descried as a bounce house without walls, has been added this year.

— The park’s play village has been extended and weekend entertainment, including storytellers, characters in costume and magicians, has been improved.