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Provincial Junior C goes to final round

April 8, 2015   ·   0 Comments

It’s going to be a Port Hope Panthers / Essex 73’s final in the provincial Junior C hockey championship.

Port Hope advanced after ending their semi-final round with a four game sweep over the Alliston Hornets on Tuesday (Apr. 7) night on Panther’s home ice.

The Hornets won the Georgian Mid Ontario Junior C Hockey League championship on March 9, in a four game sweep over the Schomberg Cougars.

They went on to the provincial championships with an incredible comeback victory over the Walkerton Hawks after losing three games in a row then taking the final four to win the quarter-final series.

The Port Hope team proved to be a formidable opponent.

Ending the regular season in first place with a 31-9 record and 63 points, the Panthers won their League quarter-final in five games over the Picton Pirates, then went on to claim the Empire B League championship with a 4-0 sweep over the Napanee Raiders.

The Port Hope team blasted into the semi-final round with a hard working team and a tenacious forechecking strategy. There was no time to hover around behind the net as you would have two Panthers players on you in no time.

Game one of the series ended 4-1 on Alliston home ice. Back in Port Hope for game two, the Panthers left with a 5-3 victory.

Returning to Allsiton for game three on April 5, the Hornets were up against the ropes taking a 2-1 loss to trail by three games in the best of seven series.

The end came on Tuesday night in Port Hope with the Panthers taking the series with a 5-2 win.

Port hope will now go on to face the Essex 73’s.

Essex eliminated the Ayr Centennials in a five game series that wrapped up on April 7.

Essex has won the Schmalz Cup three times since 2002, and have been in the provincial final an additional five times including the past two seasons.

It will be a grueling series for both teams. The two towns are five hours apart by road trip on Highway 401.

As of press time, the schedule for the Schmalz Cup final had not yet been made available.

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