Stayner Siskins in first place

 In Sports

Stayner Siskins have gone from underdogs to favourites to win the Carruthers Division of the North Conference Junior C Hockey League.

Last Friday, Stayner took the sting out of the Alliston Hornets there in front of 750 fans, half Siskin die-hards beating them 7-6. The victory is Stayner’s second over the Hornets this season making it two in a row against Alliston, the previous victory 3-2 in overtime Sunday, Dec. 4.

The win escalates Stayner, 31-3-0, into first place, five points more than Alliston, 28-4-1, although the Hornets have a game in hand. The other teams are far back.

Richard Gauthier, Siskins outgoing general manager, is extremely positive about the club.

“We’ve got an extraordinary team,” he claims.

Gauthier has good reason to be high on his team. The club is led by the league’s top scorer, Ben Hughes, who scored five goals and added one assist in the 7-6 win over Alliston. On Sunday, he once again earned six points by scoring once and helping on five others in the 11-2 win over Orillia. Thus far, this season the skilled forward has notched 39 goals and assisted on 49 others for 88 points and has a 19-point lead over Midland’s Matt Walilko in the so-called scoring race. He has eight games remaining and it’ll be interesting how many points he ends up with, perhaps the most that we’ve seen in this league for a number of years.

“The guy is a beast,” says Gauthier. “He’s a good hockey player! He plays mostly with (Zack) Trott and (Jordan) Taylor. It’s a pretty skilled line.

The rookie Trott has amassed 59 points from 32 goals and 27 assists while Taylor, a sophomore, also has 59 points, 14 goals and 35 assists, in 26 games after returning to the team from a brief stint with the Guelph Junior B hockey team. In the Alliston and Orillia games, Trott and Taylor picked up eight and seven points respectively, from goals and assists.

Trott is competing with Ayr’s Eric Uba to set the all-time Provincial Junior C Hockey League record for points by a rookie. Uba has 56 points in 35 games played. The previous record was 54. Trott currently holds the record.

By the way, Trott and Taylor were both developed locally. Trott played his minor hockey in Honeywood and Taylor is a Stayner minor hockey graduate.

Gauthier adds that this is a “down-to-earth” team and all the players respect each other and recognize that this a team game and each player is needed to do his job to succeed.

He further says that the team’s belief is “to be the best you got to beat the best and to be the best you got to beat Alliston.”

Strangely, despite the 7-6 score, the game against Alliston was “a goaltender’s battle because both goalies let in soft ones… It was like the last shot wins,” said Gauthier.

The general manager thinks Alliston didn’t play their best game and Stayner was tired after having played five games in eight nights.

Stayner won those eight games, 7-3 over Schomberg, Dec. 29; 10-1 against Orillia New Year’s eve; 4-3 OT versus Caledon January 3; 6-1 over Penetang Jan. 5, and the 7-6 win. Two nights later, Stayner swamped Orillia 11-2, Jan. 8.

Other notable performances in those games were Nolan King’s goal and three assists and Ben Skuce’s two goals and assist against Penetang; Kyle Lafreniere’s goal and two assists against Orillia Sunday; Hughes overtime goal and two assists in the win over Caledon; Hughes, Jackson Clarke and King each registering four points versus Orillia Dec. 31; and Hughes earning yet another four points by scoring a hat-trick and an assist against Schomberg on Dec. 29. In total, Hughes collected 23 points. Gauthier also made a trade with Caledonia Corvairs, winners of the past three Sutherland Cups for Junior B hockey supremacy. In the deal, Caledonia sent 190-pounder, 5-foot-8 defenceman Christian Papineau to Stayner. Papineau played in Stayner two seasons ago and in Stoufville last season. He had 16 points in 37 games with Caledonia.

“It’s a huge pick up,” he said. “You can always be better on defence.”

Alex Hargrave is a financial advisor, enjoys outdoor recreation and is an avid sports fan. He writes about local sports, primarily hockey and baseball. 

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