The Jr. C Alliston Hornets start the best-of-seven series in the semi-finals of the All-Ontario championships tonight (Saturday) in Napanee against the Raiders.

The Napanee club is holding 125 tickets for Alliston fans at the gate of the Stratchona Paper Centre up until the start of the warm-ups at about 7 p.m. The rink holds a capacity crowd of 1,000, similar to the New Tec Rec Complex. After that that they go on sale, first come, first served until the start of the game at 7:30 p.m.

Anyone making the three-hour trek down Hwy. 401 simply has to tell the people at the gate that they are from Alliston.

You can click here for the Arena Finder map and directions to the Strathcona Paper Centre.

The games sell out in Napanee as they likely will here in Alliston so you are advised to leave extra time and arrive early. The Raiders are also roping off a section for Alliston fans in the stands.

Coverage

As usual, the Alliston Herald will be posting live updates of the game (pending availability) right here at www.allistonherald.com. Click your refresh button frequently to check the score.

We'll be back with Sunday night's return match at the New Tecumseth Recreation Complex with live coverage for sure. Advance tickets are once again on sale at the Rec Complex for the game that starts at 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices are the same for all games in Napanee and Alliston, $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students and $5 for children 12 and younger. Some are being held back by the Alliston Club.

The remainder of the Hornets/Raiders schedule will not be determined until the two teams hold a coin toss prior to Saturday night's game for home ice advantage.

In the only other Schmalz Cup series remaining in the province, Grimsby and Essex met for game one of that series last night (Friday) in Grimsby. Essex won it 2-0 on goals by Cory Hamilton and Mike Roach.

Game two goes off Sun., April 6 in Essex, with game three on the aggressive schedule slated to be played Tues., April 8 in Grimsby and game four, Wed., April 9 back in Essex. That's four games in six days with a heck of a road trip each way for anyone counting.

The Empire league champion Napanee Raiders and Georgian Bay Mid-Ontario champion Alliston Hornets series looks like it could be an interesting one... on paper anyway.

The Raiders come to the contest after finishing second in the regular season standings to the Amherstview Jets, and then sweeping four them straight in the Empire League finals to win the title. It was an interesting development since in eight regular season contests, the Jets won seven of the games, but Napanee won the final meeting.

Then the Raiders went on to defeat the Georgina Ice in a series that took all seven games to decide in the Schmalz Cup quarters. Funny thing is, they weren't all close games.

Napanee won the opener 3-2, then took game two 4-1. Georgina then won an away game 3-1 in game three and then pounded the Raiders 8-4 back at home in game four of the series. It was the first two losses that Napanee had suffered after winning 11 straight in post-season play.

That got the Raiders fired up for game five and they handed the Ice a 9-2 thrashing. Then game six went into overtime, where Georgina robbed them with a 4-3 win to tie it up. Napanee, who held home-ice advantage, wrapped the series up in game seven by doubling them 6-3.

So lots of scoring in that one, with a total of 53 goals scored in the seven games. A total of 42 goals were scored in the six games of the Alliston/Walkerton series, another fairly high-scoring contest.

Only 29 goals were scored in the six games between Grimsby and Norwich leading up to the semifinals.

The Napanee Raiders were the least penalized team in their league this season and only served a total of six minutes in the penalty box for three minors in their last series opener against Georgina.

Napanee's line of #9 Andrew Halliday, #66 Peter Sergeant and #10 Peter Roy have accounted for many of the Raiders' goals in post-season play. Sergeant is their go-to man on the powerplay and the leader in scoring in post season.

In game seven against Georgina, Sergeant scored two back-to-back goals on short-handed breakaways in the first period, one unassisted - just 13 seconds apart. He was the number three leading scorer in the regular season in his loop with 44 goals and 45 assists in the 37 games he played. Halliday boasted high numbers as well, with 38 goals and 41 assists in 38 games.

Napanee Weak Spots

Georgina's line-matching skills were what led to the success they had in the series against Napanee. Even Napanee head coach Jacques Tremblay admitted in an interview with the Kingston Whig-Standard that The Ice's ability to match his team line for line was what gave them the success they had and dragged the series out to seven games.

His Raiders' loss of scoring ability on the powerplay was another.

In the same series' final game, Georgina took 39 minutes in penalties on 12 infractions, while Napanee spent just 19 minutes in the box on nine penalties. Oddly, Napanee was 0 for 8 on the powerplay in this one. The best they did on the powerplay in the entire last series, was three for 10, and that was in a game they lost to The Ice 8-4 in game four.

Coach Tremblay said his team's powerplay hadn't been working well after the league championship. Stats show they still might not have that man advantage magic back yet.

Tremblay has used his senior hot shots to start important games like series openers and clinchers this season, and it has paid off for him.

There was a reason, Tremblay said after his team's successful comeback in game five of that series, for starting #15 Ben Tee, #19 Chris Lewis, #21 Ben Hagerman and #55 Jordan MacDonald after Georgina took the first two wins off them in some time.

"I took that from RMC," Tremblay told the Kingston Whig-Standard. Ten years ago Tremblay was National University Coach of the Year with the Royal Military College Paladins, "The last game each year we always started five guys that were leaving. Tonight we started those four guys and they put the rhythm in."

That rhythm gave them back a 3-2 series lead and created enough momentum to eventually win it in seven games.

It’s a rhythm the Hornets will have to break and find their own beat to take this next series.