The provincial Junior C Cup is on the line as the Alliston Hornets and the Essex 73's faced off tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Alliston for game one of a best-of -seven series.

A mix up in communications between arena staff and the Hornets club earlier in the week resulted in one Alliston fan's seat being in the back of a police cruiser before the game even started tonight.

The fan, in his 60s, plunked himself down in one of the 75 seats arena staff had pre-sold as reserved seating and refused to leave when the ticket holder showed up and demanded the seat.

The man was furious and refused to give it up. Police were called in and an altercation occurred between the indignant fan and cops and he was arrested and forcibly removed from the arena. 

No further reserved seats were sold after the initial 75 which were honoured tonight, nor will any further reserved seating be sold for the series. The tickets are general admission and seats are first come, first served from here on out. 

First Period

This certainly isn't going to be the high scoring affair Hornets fans were treated to in the last series as halfway through the first period the game remained scoreless between Alliston Hornets and Essex 73's. 

Essex took two, two-minute minors in the first 10 minutes and Alliston took one, but no scoring on any of the powerplays. 

Hooking and slashing seem to be the call of the day for the ref. Essex has two hooking and one slashing and Alliston has two minor infractions for slashing headed to the bottom of the first period.

Then Zenon Byblow opened the scoring for the hometown Hornets with 5:05 left in the first frame, assisted by Robbie Rutledge and Kyle McDowell.

Ten seconds after the centre ice faceoff after the goal, Alliston's Cole Parker took a two-minute minor for holding to give Essex its third man advantage of the game. It was enough for DanCroft to put his team on the board and tie it up off passes fromTanner Gallant and Anthony Iaquinta. with 3:49 left in the period.

Second Period

Alliston's Jeff McCarty took a two-minute minor for cross checking with 30 seconds left in the opening frame, so the Hornets will start the second down a man for 90 seconds.

The Hornets successfully burned off the penalty. 

 Hooking and slashing penalites continued in the second. Essex's Tanner Gallant took two minutes for hooking 7:20 into the second and then Alliston's Kyle McPherson took two minutes for slashin at 8:06.

 Alliston continued to be hit with penalties in the frame. Jason Campeau was called for elbowing at 10:33 and then Cole Parker was put in the box for two minutes for handling the puck at 13:44. If that wasn't enough, the Hornets' Eric Shannon was called for tripping two seconds after Parker's penalty had expired. Despite that, Essex remained only one for seven on the powerplay, tipping their hand that they don't have much going on in that department.

Penalties are a little lopsided in the dying minutes of the second with Alliston at 16 minutes on eight and Essex at 10 minutes on five infractions. Shots on net, given the infraction  imbalance, are 20 to 14 in the 73's favour.

The ref must have taken a look at the game sheet, because in the final minutes of the second, Essex was called for two, two-minute minors - both tripping calls against R.J. Hotts and  Croft with 3:20 and 1:57 remaining respectively. That means the Hornets will hit the ice with a three second man advantage in the third.

Third Period

An unusual threesome paired up to give Alliston back the lead in this one. Chris Velss scored from Cody Rhodes  and Eric Shannon 3:07 into the third.

Then Alliston's Kurtis Brossard scored from Kyle McPherson and Mike James 7:55 into the final frame to make it 3-1 for the Hornets.

Then with 5:03 left in the game, Alliston's Thomas Faris  took it out of reach for Essex with a goal off a pass from Zenon Byblow to make it 4-1.

Alliston goalie Jon Porretta took a delay of game peanlty with just under four minutes left in the game, but he more than made up for it with a couple of beautiful saves in this one.

Some rough stuff occurred right at the buzzer to end the game between Alliston's Velss ahd the 73's Wes Tan resulting in two gross misconducts for playing without a helmet for the pair  an and additional two-minute minor for roughoing again Velss.

Final shots on net ended up 26-23 in favour of the 73's. Penalties were 12 minutes on seven infractions for Essex and 20 minutes on 11 for Alliston.

We'll continue to carry live coverage of all the Schmalz Cup Finals contests  right here at www.allistonherald.com. Don't forget to click on your refresh button or reload the page often to get the updates. 

Games two and three are in Essex April 26 and 27, with game four returning to Alliston Tues., April 29. If needed, game five is in Essex May 1, game six is May 3 in Alliston and game seven May 4 in Essex.

The Hornets will be staying at the Holiday Inn Windsor April 26 and 27, and special prices are available for Alliston fans making the trip. The rate is $107 a night. Call 519-966-1200, and mention the Alliston Hornets.

The team is also looking at organizing a fan bus for that weekend. It will be $40 per person, and there will be sign up at Sunday’s game. Organizers will determine then whether or not there are enough people to warrant the bus. Those who can’t make the Sunday game and want to go, should call Rick Bartlett at 905-729-1070 or John Morrison at 705-435-7598 before Monday morning.

As always, live updates will be posted right here at www.allistonherald.com or those of you who can't make it to the game.

In the meantime, check out the gallery of photos from this historic 2007-08 season we've compiled here in our photo galleries or under the Multimedia tab.