Alliston leading Junior C series

April 16, 2016 · 0 Comments

It was a tough one, but the Alliston Hornets pulled off a come-from-behind win in Game Three of their best-of-seven semi-final series against the Port Hope Panthers Sunday night, April 10 at the New Tecumseth Recreation Centre in Alliston.

The Hornets now lead the series 2-1.

After taking a 6-4 loss in game two in Port Hope that evened the series, the Hornets returned to home ice on Sunday looking for payback.

They were off to a slow start when the Panthers scored only first period goal, then followed up on a powerplay effort at 5:55 into the second frame.

Alliston’s Nick Arcan opened the scoring for the Hornets at the midway mark, but Port Hope went ahead 3-2 on a goal late in the period.

The Hornets were far from over and a second Alliston goal from Joe Cochrane on a powerplay and a third Hornets goal from Matt Hamilton tied the game at three and set things up for a wild final period.

It was a tie game again when the Panthers snuck one past Alliston goalie Tyler Brindle at 4:13 into the period.

Alliston forward Stephen Nosad stepped it up and scored on a powerplay at 12:12 into the frame.

Nosad got the tie breaker with just 1:10 left on the clock when he took the feed on a beautiful pass across the net from linemate Will Ferguson to get the go ahead goal.

A final empty netter sealed the deal when the Panthers put six attackers on the ice.

“I think we came to play tonight,” said Nosad after Sunday’s game. “It all started with banging some bodies around out there. A couple of guys stepped up huge and led the way for us. Starting from Game One, both teams came to play hard. Tonight, everyone was throwing the body around and it was a lot of fun.”

Hornets fans were a little worried when Port Hope took a two goal lead but when the game was tied and tensions were high, the crowd went frantic when Nosad scored the winner.

“I think we played great as a team and had a good team effort,” Nosad said. “We had a lot of chances. We didn’t bury then all but we buried enough to win the game.”

The Hornets now lead the series 2-1.

In the other Junior C semi-final, the Ayr Centennials pulled off a surprise victory over the Essex 73’s to take their best-of-seven series in four games.

It wasn’t a surprise that the Centennials won, but to knock out a traditionally strong team like Essex in a four game sweep came as a shock to Junior C fans.

The winner of the Alliston/Port Hope series will play Ayr in the Schmalz Cup final.

By Brian Lockhart