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Spitfires ready for final five.
Many fans are flocking to their TV sets to watch the development of a big story headlined by the Windsor Spitfires. It’s going to go right down to the wire in the OHL Western Conference where four teams are pushing for the fourth spot in the standings, now occupied by the Spitfires. This is all about home ice advantage in the playoffs. Windsor has 76 points at the moment but is being pursued by four challengers including Plymouth @ 75, Otters @ 74, Knights @ 69 and the Storm @ 69 as well.
The schedule for Windsor doesn’t get any easier concerning their opponents in the last five games of the season. They will meet Owen Sound this Thursday but also have a date with Saginaw coming up soon. These are the teams who were at the top of the conference standings all season long.
Plymouth is one point away from fourth, right on the Spitfires’ tail while the Erie Otters are finally emerging from a so-so season on the ice. Don’t forget the Guelph Storm who have great forwards that know how to score. Taylor Beck, Peter Holland, Michael Latta and from the London Knights system, Daniel Erlich are the backbone of this team and can’t be counted out. Beck, Holland and Latta are all ranked in the top 12 in OHL scoring.
For a while there, after a lot of losing, the Knights started playing competitively as of late with solid goaltending from Michael Houser with Igor Bobkov in the back seat. London is a young team in a “rebuilding” mode at this time. Sending Erlich, D’Orazio, DeSousa and Varone into the trade basket will give London a few good draft picks down the road but guys like Jared Knight who are leaders on the team will probably not be able to push the youngsters too far into the playoffs. Dale Hunter would attest to the fact that his team has only 69 points at this time, a far cry from last year’s total of 101. All the way back to the Memorial Cup win in 2004-2005, London has assembled good hockey teams but this year they are obviously taking a break.
Erie is in sixth place behind the Spitfires in fourth. A couple of months ago, the Otters became a winning machine but the rest of their season was mediocre at best. Some of the big guns at Erie are flexing their muscles right now including Greg McKegg, Brett Thompson and the newcomer, Phil Varone from the London Knights who knows how to win tight games. Varone was instrumental in the Windsor/London playoff showdown of 2009. He scored important goals for the Knights during that series but Windsor came out on top. Ramis Sadikov in net is steady and one of the top goalies in the league right now.
Erie was a sleeper but everyone is starting to notice that they are a real threat to the Memorial Cup champs. Erie’s next five games are going to be tough but they are good enough to challenge some of the heavyweights including Kitchener, Saginaw and Plymouth.
The Plymouth Whalers have been fighting with Windsor for that fourth spot in the conference for a while now. The Whalers have knocked the Spitfires down to fifth on a couple of occasions this season. Coach Vellucci and the team have steadily improved their status in the division since the holidays. Plymouth is becoming a contender in the Western Conference. In the last five games, Plymouth will face the most gruelling schedule of the bunch with dates in Erie, Owen Sound and Kitchener.
It’s unlikely that the Spitfires will catch up to the Kitchener Rangers this year but they will have their fair share of adversity to get through with the four challengers who are situated very close behind. Bring on the playoffs!
