FRENCH SCORES FIVE TIMES AS BEARS LOSE PLAYOFF OPENER 9-1 TO ALLISTON
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
BRACEBRIDGE — Two clubs coming off big season-ending losses — the first and 8th place teams — and a clean slate made for a playoff match-up worth watching last night.
And while Muskoka started well hosting Alliston, it didn’t take long to see the difference in their standings following 42 previous games and resulting in a 9-1 loss.
It looked early like the Bears might, might pull off another upset until almost the three-minute mark when Jaeden French went to work scoring the first of five goals — which included the last of the game against a new goalie.
Both teams finished the regular season Monday with defeats. The Bears were the victim of the league’s top scorer Jordan Fuller who had a pair of goals in an 11-0 drubbing in Orillia — Family Day fun for the host team. They were his league-leading 47th and 48th to go along with 65 assists for 113 points.
Meanwhile, the Hornets lost the same afternoon for only the second time, 2-1 in shootout. The same way the Bears shocked them 5-4 in early January.
But last night in rare 8:30 p.m. start — due to the Hornets not being able to get ice time and the Muskoka Lumber Community Centre also booked earlier in the night — the inevitable happened for the home team.
They always knew they’d in tough in the guaranteed first-round PJHL playoff, even with a record of 6-36 against a foe at 40-2.
However it became clear that without putting a puck on net they were never going to win this one. It took nine minutes-plus before they tested Seth Ronan. A generous timekeeper awarded them four shots that period.
By then the damage was well and good done and Gabriel Donohue was traded in their net for Connor Sampson — who won against Alliston earlier in 2025.
From French’s first goal at 2:57 the barrage was on as the Hornets struck then stung with consistency: 5:33 1st, 6:24 1st, 7:38 1st, French 10:551st and French 11:44 1st.
After a change in goal, Sampson settled things slightly with only one more sting at 14:39 1st.
But still down 7-0 after 20 minutes.
In the second the Bears brought the sparse crowd of 205 (their least of the season) some life along with their chances when Cohen Carlson scored on a deflection at 11:54.
It didn’t take long for French, a Jr. A drop-down, to finish off his scoring with two more at 12:47 and 15:39. The latter his 39th this year to go along with 65 assists for 104 points.
That was all she wrote in the scorebook.
The final back and forth frame was more the outcome the Bears played the first 177 seconds.
Still the Bears ended up with 12 shots — 4(?) in the first and 5 each in two and three. Why? Alliston replied with 20-17-5.
It was a fast game, clocking in at an hour 50 minutes — in part due to only 11 penalties (3 Bears, 8 Hornets).
Not fast enough for the Bears to get out of it unscathed psychologically, but time enough to realize just how serious a series they are in and the need to shoot first and look later.
Game 2 is Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Alliston.
Game 3 is Saturday at 7 p.m. in Muskoka
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