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If you bought stock in the rankings after the
Shamrock Invitational Tournament, then you may have
lost your dollars.
The Boys
LSSAA hockey league has turned upside down since the
tournament back in November kicked off the season.
Back then teams were still selecting rosters and
testing goalies, trying to find what would work in
the regular season. But what may have not worked
then has turned around to work now.
The
Northern Vikings won the tournament with a 2-1
victory over St. Thomas of Villanova. They went
perfect throughout the tournament beating St.
Patrick's, North Lambton and Ridgetown on route to
their tournament victory. But after starting the
season with a 2-1-0 record, the Vikings lost a
victory against now removed St. Patrick's and have
fallen to a 2-1-3 record, and currently sit fourth
out of the remaining six teams.
On the
opposite side of the spectrum is the St. Clair
Colts, who went 0-3 in the Shamrock tournament
and lost to the hosts for tenth place, are now
currently in third place with a 4-1-2 record, and
have defeated Northern and LCCVI, as well as tied
undefeated St. Christopher's to start the new year.
St.
Christopher's who currently remains without a
regulation loss, are in first place with a 5-1-0
record, but finished 5th in the Shamrock tournament.
SCITS who came fourth in the tournament, and lost to
LCCVI by shootout in the final, currently remains
winless at 0-1-4, where as the Lancers are the only
team who has not moved far from their Shamrock third
place finish and have moved up to second with a
5-1-1 record. While North Lambton who is also
winless on the year, finished the Shamrock coming in
eight.
With the
All-Star game and study week break approaching, it's
movement time for the playoffs, For the first time
in six years it is possible to see a new final for
the Lambton Cup that doesn't include either the
Vikings or Lancers, but rather the Cyclones and the
Colts. The Cyclones have not been in the Lambton Cup
final since the 1999-2000 season where they defeated
North Lambton 2-0 in a best of three, and St.
Clair's last visit to the finals was in 1995-1997,
where they were defeated by the Irish.
With only
a couple of weeks left in the season it is still to
early to name a favourite. Will the old powers
retake their spot, or will some new blood be
injected into the fold?
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