Provincial Junior Hockey League heads into provincial playoffs

April 3, 2025 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Provincial Junior Hockey League will head into playoffs for the Junior C Schmalz Cup when the final three division championships are decided. Five of the final series have already been completed.

There were a couple of surprises in this year’s division playoffs.

In the North Carruthers Division, the Orillia Terriers toppled the first-place Alliston Hornets in a series that went only five games.

The Hornets easily won over the Terriers in all six games they played in the regular season and were the favourites going into the championship series. The Hornets started the regular season with a 28-game winning streak and ended it with a 40-2 record.

In the championship series, the Terriers only lost one game to the Hornets and wrapped it up with a 5-4 overtime win in Game Five on March 28.

In the North Pollock Division, the first-place Hanover Barons dispatched the third-place Fergus Whalers in a series that went five games. This was the second year in a row that Hanover won the title.

In 2025, they went on to compete in the Schmalz Cup and lost in the semi-finals to the Clarington Eagles.

In the East Orr Division, the Clarington Eagles have claimed the Division championship for the second consecutive year. They won the title this year with a four-game sweep over the Georgina Ice.

Georgina finished the regular season in second place with an almost identical record to the Eagles.

The Grimsby Peach Kings finished in second place in the South Bloomfield Division, then turned it up a notch to knock out the first-place Dundas Blues in four games.

That series ended on March 25, with a 3-0 Grimsby shut-out.

In the South Doherty Division, the Wellesley Applejacks finished well back in fourth place but managed to battle their way back through the playoffs.

They were eliminated by the second-place New Hamburg Firebirds. This year’s first-place team in the division, the Norwich Merchants, were eliminated in the semi-final round.

There are three division championships still to be decided.

In the Tod Division, the Frankford Huskies and the Napanee Raiders are tied 2-2.

The Petrolia Flyers are leading the Exeter Hawks 3-2 in the Yeck Division.

In the Stobbs Division, the Essex 73s are leading the Lakeshore Canadians 3-2.

All championship series will wrap up this week.