Junior C hockey heads into provincial Schmalz Cup final

Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

There are only two teams left in the Provincial Junior Hockey League.

After eights months of regular season, League and Conference playoffs, the Napanee Raiders will face the Grimsby Peach Kings in the provincial Junior C Schmalz Cup championship final.

In this region, the Mount Forest Patriots won the Pollock Division championship and went on to play the Alliston Hornets who were the Carruthers Division champions.

The battle for the North Conference championship ended with a win for the Hornets in a series that went six games.

That placed the Hornets against the Napanee Raiders in the semi-final of the Schmalz Cup playoffs.

The Hornets hit a wall when they went up against Napanee, losing the series in a four game sweep that ended on Friday (April 12) in Alliston.

“All the teams know how to win, they've all just won a championship, they're all good teams,” said Alliston head coach Travis Chapman after the final loss. “We learned in the Mount Forest series you can't nights off and you can't take time in the game off because the other teams are really good. For us as an organization you start looking at how you play and how you might have to change what you're doing as you move forward. I think anytime you get this far you have to learn what works and what doesn't work. You learn a lot about yourself as an individual and as an organization.”

The Napanee Raiders will now face the Grimsby Peach Kings in the final series battle for the provincial Cup.

The Peach King won the South Conference final over the Wellsely Applejacks in a series that went six games.

They went on to win their semi-final over the Exeter Hawks in a series that also went six games.

That series ended on Saturday, April l3, on Grimsby home ice with 4-3 Grimsby win.