Junior C Conference championships underway

Written By Brian Lockhart

With eight teams still in the running, the Provincial Junior Hockey Hockey League Conference championships are underway.

In the North Conference Championship best-of-seven series, the Hanover Barons are leading the Alliston Hornets 2-1.

The first three games of that series were played three days in a row.

Game one got underway on Friday, April 12, in Alliston.

That game ended with a 5-1 Hanover win. The game was tied at one after the first period.

The Barons won the game after scoring four unanswered goals in the third period.

They were at again the following night on Hanover home ice.

At the end of the game, the Hanover team left with a 5-0 shut-out.

The series returned to Alliston for game three on Sunday, April 14.

The Hornets were back in it when they took a 2-1 win in a highly physical game.

“We were a completely different team tonight,” said Hornets head coach Jacob Bauchman after the game. “If we played the way we did in the first two games, we may have not even made it this far. It was a completely different team. They bought into our systems, they were more coachable today. They worked hard and they stuck to their game plan.”

The Alliston versus Hanover series will resume in Hanover on Wednesday, April 17, for Game four.

Game five will be back in Alliston on Friday, April 19.

In other Conference series, the Clarington Eagle are leading the Napanee Raiders in the East Conference championship.

The New Hamburg Firebirds are leading the Grimsby Peach Kings 2-1 in the South Conference. That series resumed on Tuesday, April 16, with results not available at press time.

The Lakeshore Canadiens are one game away from taking the West Conference from the Thamesford Trojans with a 3-1 lead. That series was also slated to resume on Tuesday.

The winners of the Conference championships will go on to play for the provincial Schmalz Junior C Cup.