Siskins take on Caledon Hawks in playoffs
Junior C hockey in the area was a barnburner last week with Huntsville Otters, Stayner Siskins and Midland Flyers jockeying for second to fourth place overall with the prize being home ice advantage during the playoffs.
First place wasn’t a contest. Alliston Hornets are the class of the league if not province and won the league easily with 73 points, 29 more than the second place team.
Last place Orillia Terriers knocked the Otters off Friday night 2-1 while Midland buried the Erin Shamrocks 9-5. This set the stage for Friday’s night game between the Otters and Flyers. Huntsville held a slim one-point lead in the standings over Midland and second place was at stake. The game was a doozy that went into a scoreless overtime and ended 5-5. The tie secured second overall for the Otters and they will now meet the seventh place Shamrocks in the playoffs first round. They were lucky though. The club was down 5-3 with less than seven minutes remaining in the game when Midland penalties allowed the Otters the man-advantage. The red light flickered twice in less than one minute, at 12:45 and 13:27. Game tied.
Despite Stayner out-shooting the Shamrocks by a wide margin Erin hung into the game to the dying moments. Fortunately for Stayner, Kyle Paulitziki scored with 52 seconds remaining to keep their attempt at third place alive. Stayner’s other goals were scored by Lucas Jeffery, Brendon Skidmore (2), Matt Hayward and Sean Healy.
Stayner’s last regular season game was in Penetang against the sixth place Kings. The shots were close but the score certainly wasn’t.
Penetang won 5-1 which put the Siskins in the number four slot overall with a 18-7-5 record, one point behind Midland, 19-16-5, and two points back of Huntsville, 20-16-4.
Alliston finished first with a 35-2-3 record.
Stayner now gets to play the Caledon Golden Hawks in the first round of playoffs. The Golden Hawks, 17-20-3, finished fifth overall but had the better record against each other in their regular season games this season. Caledon won the series 3-1-1.
Last night the first game of the playoff was played in Stayner.
Unfortunately, the outcome was not known by press time. Game 2 is slated for Saturday night in Caledon, 5 p.m. start. The series returns to Stayner Sunday beginning at 7 p.m. Game 4 is in Bolton, puck drops at 8:30 p.m. If other games are required they will be played Thursday in Stayner, back to Caledon Friday with the Game 7 being a real sweetheart of an affair, Feb. 14 in Stayner.
The other series’ are Alliston and Schomberg, 13-24-3; the Otters and Erin; and Midland – Penetang, 17-21-2, renew their cross-town rivalry.
Winning the scoring championship was Midland’s Evan Buehler with 29 goals and 36 assists for 65 points. Finishing second was Huntsville’s Andy Baker, 29 goals, 33 assists, 62 points.
Top Siskin was Ricky Darrell with a league leading 30 goals. He also added 29 assists for 59 points, third best in the league. Lucas Jeffery was the league’s 12 best scorer with 22 goals and 22 assists. Kyle Lafreniere also had a good year notching 15 goals and 20 assists. His 35 points was good enough for 20th overall. He only played 33 games.
Alliston was the top scoring team in the 40-game season with 206 goals, 50 more than Huntsville who had the second most. The Hornets also were far better than everyone else in giving up goals. They only allowed 60 goals during the season. The second best goals against was also held by the Otters with 134.
Obviously, based upon those numbers, it’ll be tough to beat Alliston. But, one hot goalie, a couple of crazy bounces, and you just never know.
Catch the Siskins this coming week. It should be a dandy of a series against Caledon… and you just never know.
Alex Hargrave is a financial advisor, enjoys outdoor recreation and is an avid sports fan. He writes about local sports, primarily hockey and baseball.
