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Ontario Junior C down to four teams

April 6, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Provincial Junior C Hockey League is now down to four teams remaining as the League moves into the semi-final round of the playoffs for the provincial title.

The Alliston Hornets eliminated the Mount Forest Patriots on Friday (Mar. 31) night in Alliston in game five of their quarter-final series.

Alliston won the first three games before taking a loss in game four on Patriots’ home ice.

Returning to Alliston on Friday, the Hornets took a 4-2 lead in the first period then moved ahead 7-3 in the second frame.

The Patriots’ frustration got the better of them in the third when they had three players ejected on misconducts and finished the season with two penalties still on the board.

The Hornets won the game 10-6 to take the North Conference title.

“Their barn was really tough to play in. They’ve got good fans so that helped them a lot,” said Hornets forward Devon Gillham of the loss in Mount Forest.

Gillham had a four point game on Friday night scoring three goals and getting one assist.

“In our game plan we heard that they gave up a lot of break-aways – with our speed we knew we could take advantage of that. I don’t think we were really planning on doing that, we just used our speed and got some awesome break-aways out of it.”

The Hornets will now go on to face the Ports Hope Panthers in the semi-final round.

The Panthers knocked out the Lakefield Chiefs on Saturday (Apr. 1) night in a series that went six games.

The Panthers finished in first place in their division with a 35-3-1 record.

The won the Division championship after going through their first two rounds of playoffs and sweeping their opponents in four game in both the quarter and semi-final rounds.

They eliminated Lakefield in a championship series that went six games.

In other series, the Ayr Centennials dispatched the Grimsby Peach Kings in four

games to claim the South Conference title.

The Centennials are the defending Schmaltz Cup champions having won the title in 2016 with a series win over the Port Hope Panthers.

They will now go on to meet the Essex 73’s who won the West Conference with a 4-1 series win over the Dorchester Dol

phins.

The Essex team won the provincial cup in 2005, 2009, and in 2015. Port Hope has been a finalist the past two seasons.

The two teams who are still standing after the semi-final round will go on to compete in the provincial championship

series for the holy grail of Junior C hockey – the Schmaltz Cup.

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