PALMERSTON – The Mapleton Minto 81’s are set to open the Senior ‘AA’ playoffs Friday night, after an appeal of a WOAA ruling involving a player on another team held up quarter-final action across the league last weekend.
The playoff situation was thrown into a flux just before the scheduled Feb. 1 start when the eighth-place Tavistock Royals appealed a league decision to strip the team of points for using a suspended player in two games in January.
Last weekend Tavistock exhausted the appeals process. With the final standings left unchanged, the fifth place 81’s will take on, as previously planned, the fourth-placed Saugeen Shores Winterhawks in a series that begins Feb. 8 at 8:30pm in Port Elgin.
Game two of the series will be played Feb. 10 at 2pm in Palmerston.
Meanwhile, in WOAA Senior ‘A’ playoff action, the Elora Rocks swept the Lucknow Lancers in a best-of-three opening round series. The Rock won 7-1 on home ice on Feb. 1 and downed the Lancers 6-2 in Lucknow on Feb. 2.
The Rocks finished regular season action in 11th spot in the 14-team league, while the Lancers were last.
