First Round Surprises Expected in OHL Western Conference

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By David Clark

The Windsor Spitfires are facing a formidable opponent from Erie who have come back to notoriety by winning in overtime on Friday of this week, bringing them one game away from tying the series. Other series in the Western Conference are equally as competitive and warrant our attention.

In Plymouth (6) vs. Kitchener (3), some are surprised that the Whalers who are prevailing here at 3 games to 2 have won the first 2 games of the series and another in Game 4 but the Rangers have come back with two games of their own. Tonight’s game could be a series clincher for Plymouth. The match will be in Plymouth and this is officially Game 6. Notable contributors in previous games include Whaler’s Tyler Brown with 9 pts. and Stefan Noesan with 8 respectively. Scott Wedgewood backstops for Plymouth who has a somewhat respectable GAA @ 3.40 but an excellent S% at 0.923. Any Windsor Spitfire fan knows that Plymouth has a winning team and are more than capable of taking out the Rangers in six.

Kitchener is getting points from their best guys at the moment with Landeskog at 9 and a tally of 8 coming from defenceman sensation, Ryan Murphy. Brandon Maxwell is between the pipes with experience coming from last year’s playoffs but is struggling a little right now. The team in front of him are not performing as well as they can at this time but goalie Mike Morrison came out to play in Game 5 and led the team to a 6-4 victory, having stopped 39 of 43. “Tonight, Morrison held back the Whalers with a 2-0 shutout win that places Kitchener in a tie with Plymouth @ 3-3 in the series.”

A real shocker, the London Knights (8) who were mediocre at best during the regular season are all tied up in their series with the top-seeded Owen Sound Attack (1). Michael Houser has a 2-1-1 record in net for the Knights with a decent Save % at 0.934. In the scoring department, London is seeing contributions from Seth Griffith and Jared Knight who are both situated on the RW. Of the two skaters, Griffith leads the pack with 7 points and veteran forward Jared Knight isn’t far behind at 6.

Owen Sound is at the top looking down on everybody else but they’re having problems with the Knights lately but at this moment they have defeated London in Game 5 in a 6-0 shutout win. Owen Sound threw 44 shots on goal to a meagre 14 delivered by London. For the Attack, the scoring is spread across the roster where Robby Mignardi and Joey Hishon reign supreme with 5 points each. Captain Garrett Wilson has four, 3 goals and an assist, one of those goals happened this evening. Michael Zador (51:26) and Scott Stajcer (8:34) were in net for the Attack who now lead the series 3-2.

It’s hard to look at the numbers the Guelph Storm put up this season but they are a team with tons of talent and have improved their play since the end of the regular season. In the series against Saginaw, Guelph is down in games 3-2. A veteran-rich team, Beck, Latta and Holland are the stars on the Storm. The addition of Daniel Erlich from the London Knights and Richard Panik from Belleville has helped to improve their game.  Veteran goalie Brandon Foote has kept them in it with Saginaw but hasn’t been spectacular. In scoring, Peter Holland leads the way with 8 points.

The Saginaw Spirit have Josh Shalla who presently leads the team with 7 points. Sudbury import John McFarland has 6 and Jordan Szwarz also has 6. In net, one of the best goalie’s in the league, Mavric Parks has a 3 to 2 record due to tonight’s victory in Saginaw.   

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