
February 7, 2019 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
The Stayner Siskins are again the Carruthers Division champions after taking a 2-1 overtime win over the Alliston Hornets on Hornets home ice on Friday, February 1.
The game was an epic battle as the teams arrived on the ice separated by a single point.
If the Hornets could win they would take over first place to end the regular season.
Stayner opened the scoring just 55 seconds into the first period.
Alliston matched it at 12:33 into the frame, but that was all the scoring done in the regulation periods as two hot goal tenders and a lot of good defensive work by both teams saw them step up to playoff mode style hockey for this final match up between the first and second place teams.
When the buzzer sounded to end the third period the teams were tied at one to force a three-on-three overtime period.
With time running out and a minute left on the clock the Hornets put an extra attacker on the ice in a bid to get the edge and score the winning goal.
It was all over when a Stayner player got a hold of the puck and took a shot on the empty Alliston net from centre ice to take the 2 – 1 win.
The final game of the regular season was played out on Sunday, February 3, with Stayner winning 6 – 4 over the Orillia Terriers.
“The only reason we had the goalie pulled tonight was because we had to have two points to get first place,” said Hornets coach Travis Chapman of why they pulled the goalie in the overtime period. For us, a tie didn’t do us any good. Starting in December our guys started to buy in to what we were doing and we kept plugging away. We’re playing well at the right time. We’ve added some good players and a lot of depth to the roster and I think that’s paying off now. Now it’s just a matter of worrying about the team that’s right in front of you,” Chapman said of focusing on the playoffs. “Whether that’s third place, eighth place, all your energy gets focused on this one team and what they do well and where you can exploit a team. Now, for us, it’s going over the game tape of the Huntsville games and see what we can take advantage of, regardless of what position they finished in.”
The Siskins will be up against the Schomberg Cougars in the first round of the playoffs.
The Hornets will take on the Huntsville Otters in their quarter-final series.