Monday, February 17th, 2025

Alliston Hornets stand out as the cream of the crop in the local Junior C league while the other teams are very similar in quality and will compete against each other for playoff positions two through eight.

The league’s parity shouts in your face when looking at the Stayner Siskins’ last six games against five different opponents. During that span, Stayner lost two to Alliston, including an 8-0 lopsided loss to the Hornets, and four games went to overtime, which Stayner tied one, lost two and won one.

Siskins sniper Ricky Darrell continues to impress connecting for a league best 23 goals, two coming in Stayner’s 4-3 overtime loss to Erin Sunday. Darrell is second overall in league scoring with 39 points, five points back of Huntsville’s Andy Baker’s 44. He was the league’s Junior C player of the month for October and recently player of the game at the All-star match.

A pleasant surprise has been the play of Lucas Jeffery after being hurt for much of last season. Jeffery, who learned to shoot by whacking the puck against the barn doors, along Airport Road between Cashtown Corners and Stayner, is eighth in league scoring with 12 goals and 18 assists.

His game after being in the league for a few seasons has really come along.

Stayner’s goaltending has been adequate at best. The goaltending duo of Sean Caulfied and Trevor Bloch save percentages are seventh and eighth best, .889 and .884.

Says Siskins general manager Richard Gauthier regarding the goaltending, “Improvement is required in the big moments. Neither one of them has taken the bull by the horns to be number one.”

Not surprising Alliston’s two goalies, Mike Masucci and Tyler Brindle, have the best.

All in all, after 23 games played, Stayner sits in fourth place with 24 points from a 10-9-4 record, 17 points behind Alliston’s 41, but only five behind second place Huntsville. Midland has 25 points with a game in hand. Trailing Stayner and nipping at their heels are Caledon, 23 points, Penetang, 21 and Schomberg and Erin with 18 each. Orillia is out of it with only nine points.

Gauthier agrees that the league is wide open and even states that “Alliston is beatable but you have to stay out of the (penalty) box.”

He was referencing the 7-4 loss to Alliston Thursday, Nov. 19 because Alliston scored three power play goals in the first period that put them up 4-1 after 20 minutes. Stayner fought back and Alliston needed an empty net to put the game away.

Gauthier recognized an issue with the club was that the defence needed to get bigger. He made that happen. In the line-up against Huntsville, a 4-3 overtime loss, six-foot-seven Austin McClenaghan and six-foot-four Keenan McLaen-Hill towered along the blue line.

Gauthier believes more improvement is still required.

“We need to be better as a staff in coaching too. We have to explain and teach the kids better. We need to be better right from the staff down to the players and we are working on that,” he claims.

Other games that went to overtime were Thursday, Nov. 22, 5-5 draw against Schomberg, and Nov 14, a 4-3 over Orillia in Creemore.

Stayner has the second best league attendance averaging 293.

Home games are every Thursday night at the Stayner rink, 8:10 p.m. start.

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