Junior C hockey's playoffs start in a few weeks and anyone, except maybe

Schomberg Cougars, could possibly win the Georgian Bay Mid Ontario

Hockey League.

Alliston is definitely the best team in the league thus far but they got

a scare Friday night when the Erin Shamrocks forced them to a shootout.

Alliston ended up winning 6-5.  Erin is just slightly above a .500 hockey team but with a few breaks, good goaltending they are capable of beating anyone.

The following night on home ice the Shamrocks came up with another

stellar effort to beat Stayner, 3-2, in overtime.

Stayner must have been hoping for the victory considering they have

added a few new bodies to the line-up recently.  

Wes McGovern was the only new recruit to score, 50 seconds after Erin took a 1-0 lead 2:20 into the second period. Erin ended the period with another goal at the three quarter mark, a lead that stood for about seven minutes until

Stayner's top scorer Jake Bauchman scored 2:02 into the third.

In the overtime, the repetition of early period goals continued when the

Shamrocks' Kyle Bennett beat goaltender Chris Daniels with 14 seconds

showing on the clock.

Daniels was perfect the night before blocking 29 shots thrown his way in

a 3-0 victory against Midland, Stayner's nemesis this season and last.

The shutout was Daniels third of the season. He sports a 2.84 GAA.

The first period went scoreless but in the second John Doyle and

Bauchman scored. In the third, Evan Walker put the game away with his

11th goal of the season. Walker has 28 points in his rookie season. His

teammate and another rookie Cory Halliday has 27 points.

Bauchman leads Stayner scorers with 42 points from 22 goals and 20

assists, 10th best in the league.

Another Siskin with scoring prowess is Robert Ward, 19 goals and 18

assists.

The league's top scorer and breaking away from the pack is Alliston's

Mike Campeau 37 goals and 30 assists for 67 points, eight points better

than the second top scorer Penetang's Corey Hastings 25 goals and 34

assists.

Stayner has five games remaining this season, three this week and two

the following week. Thursday night Erin is in town; Friday the Siskins

go to Penetang; and they take on Schomberg at home Saturday.

Their last two games are against Fergus and Alliston.

Stayner will either play Midland or Fergus in the playoffs' first round

so their upcoming games will be all about setting an example.

In my opinion, if you were to look at the Stayner line-up from the

beginning of the season to now you would see a very different team. If

the new players jell quickly look out for the Siskins.

And finally, what was Minnesota's Brett Favre thinking in the closing

seconds of regulation time in their NFL conference championship overtime

loss to the New Orleans Saints. I still cringe thinking why he threw

cross field for an interception rather than run the ball to the sideline

and force a sure three points.  Choke - yeah!

Alex Hargrave is a sports writer for The Stayner Sun. His column appears each week.