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Stouffville Spirit players celebrate making the Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs with Stouffville youth hockey players Saturday night at the Stouffville Arena.

Reaching the Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs looked unattainable for the Stouffville Spirit through the first half of the regular season.

They stumbled out of the gate, lost a bunch of close games and languished in the North Division standings.

Fast-forward to late March and Stouffville have qualified for the postseason with time to spare in the regular season.

Strategic roster moves and the emergence of young talent following the league-wide pandemic pause in January have paid off.

The Spirit lost 2-1 to Georgetown in overtime at home Saturday but that single point was enough to qualify for the playoffs and eliminate the archrival Markham Royals. Carson Whitson scored his 16th goal and Cody Ticen made 34 saves.

“It was a great feeling,” Spirit Captain Joe Kennedy said this week. “After our rough start, to come back after Christmas and win almost 50 per cent of our games and earn 23 points in the past 26 games...”

“This was definitely not the team we saw at the beginning of the season. We’ve gone through a lot and to finally get that X next our name was a big deal.”

The biggest crowd of the season – 325-plus – included the U12 Stouffville Clippers AA team that Kennedy volunteered with this season. He invited the youngsters into the postgame dressing room to celebrate reaching the postseason.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “They’re all good kids and they all look up to us. We knew this meant as much to them as it did to us when we saw them in the room because they’ve been cheering us on all season. It was a good feeling.”

The fourth-place Spirit will play the North’s regular season champs, the Pickering Panthers, in the opening round of the playoffs. The best-of-three will be played April 10-15 with Game 2 to be scheduled at the Stouffville Arena. Aurora plays Collingwood in the other North series.

THE SKED

The Spirit fell 4-1 to the Panthers in Pickering Tuesday afternoon. Zennon Edwards, from nearby Whitby, scored for the Spirit. It was the first of four meaningless games, all on the road, to complete the regular season. The Spirit visits Brantford, who were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday, the next two Thursdays. The other tilt is in Georgetown Saturday.

THE CHAMPS

Congrats to former Spirit players Connor May and Jacob Breckles. The pair of Stouffville natives and their Adrian College Bulldogs from Michigan won the NCAA DIII championship in Lake Placid, NY Saturday.

May, the nephew of former NHLer Brad May, was the Spirit captain in 2019-20. He played in Stouffville for three seasons. Breckles also played parts of three seasons with black, red and white.  

THE CAPTAIN

Former Spirit defenceman Jordan Giacomin has been named captain of the Western New England University Golden Bears. The Richmond Hill resident played two years in Stouffville before enrolling in the NCAA DIII school in Springfield, MA in 2019.

Spirit This Week is sponsored by Farmer Jack’s in Stouffville and Sharon