Marc Zanetti of the Ottawa 67's (OHL Images)Marc Zanetti wore the hair shirt, so to speak, to match his bristly playoff beard.

As the Ottawa 67's captain, he's supposed to lead by example. Instead, the overage defenceman missed all of his team's 3-2 Game 2 win over the Belleville Bulls after getting a match penalty for a spear during a kerfuffle with Bulls veterans Luke Judson and Stephen Silas during the warmup. Some of the Belleville players had crossed the centre-ice red line. Tempers flared and Zanetti jabbed Judson, the Bulls' captain, with his stick. Since all match penalties are reviewed by the Ontario Hockey League to see if supplemental discipline is required, that puts his status for the next game of the Eastern Conference series in jeopardy.

(Update: the OHL has indeed said Zanetti and Kitchener Rangers winger Tyler Randell are suspended while it reviews incidents from games on Friday. Broadcaster Terry Doyle said a three-game ban for Zanetti might be in store.)

"Emotions definitely got hot out there," Zanetti said. "That's something I definitely regret right now. I tried to make a statement by not letting them cross the red line around the two-minute, three-minute mark. I definitely regret it right now, if I could take it back I would. It sucks watching the game. I'm sorry for what I did."

"I just want to make it clear it was an accident," added the 20-year-old, who's in his final junior season "I was trying to push the guy away and my stick got lifted into his upper shoulder area. I'm really apologetic right now."

(Kats Jean has come through with video.)

Calgary Hitmen left wing Trevor CheekNo. 1 star: Trevor Cheek, Calgary Hitmen (WHL)

With the Hitmen missed two key forwards, Cheek came through with his first major junior hat trick to help them beat Brandon 4-0 and square their series 1-1. He was snakebitten in the series opener 24 hours earlier when the Hitmen lost by an identical four-goal margin, but the 19-year-old persisted and was rewarded.

Cheek got a backbreaker goal with 34 seconds left in the second period, popping a rebound past Wheat Kings goalie Corbin Boes. The 19-year-old native of Vancouver, Wash., got two insurance goals in the third period to seal the victory. Calgary, even without captain Cody Sylvester and Carolina Hurricanes prospect Victor Rask, was solid throughout, outshooting Brandon 41-20.

No. 2 star: Garret Sparks, Guelph Storm (OHL)

The Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick was one of two goalies to steal a win for a seventh-seeded team. Sparks stopped 45-of-47 shots to help the Storm down the Plymouth Whalers 3-2, wresting home-ice advantage from a team generally held to be the Western Conference favourite. The 18-year-old displayed his flinty Chicago toughness when Plymouth poured on the pressure in the final period,  stopping 20-of-21 shots to help his young team hang on to its lead. Who knows how long Sparks can keep this up, but he showed why he might be a good value pick for Toronto.

Kamloops Blazers left wing Tim BozonThe last time the Kamloops Blazers won a playoff game, Tim Bozon was 11 and playing minor hockey in Geneva, unaware of the existence of the Western Hockey League. By the time the game was over, he fully looked like any kid getting his first taste of playoff hockey, sporting a fat lip after taking a deflected pass off the face in the second period.

In that period, however, he scored two goals, albeit one a little sneakily with the shaft of his stick, on a goal that many thought belonged to Columbus defensive prospect Austin Madaisky. It was the second goal of the period for Bozon and he, a day before his 18th birthday, earned the first star in the franchise's first playoff win since 2005, 4-1 over the Victoria Royals in Game One of their WHL Western Conference playoff series.

"I knew before the game that they'd be coming real hard on us," said Bozon after the game about his first taste of playoff hockey. "It's really intense compared to the regular season, especially against Victoria, a team that we beat seven times, but it was not an easy game."

Guelph Storm goalie Garret Sparks had 45 saves Friday (OHL Images)

Friday night offered the whole megillah in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. One of the favourites, the Plymouth Whalers, got its comeuppance on home ice, while there was ample chippiness, chirping, carping coaches and competitive contests. Here's a look at the state of each series:

Guelph 4 Plymouth 2 (Storm lead Western Conference series 1-0) — Why should the Whalers not panic after coughing up home-ice advantage to a team with 29 fewer points? The absence of captain Beau Schmitz and winger Garrett Meurs combined with Guelph's track record vs. Plymouth were ample reason to believe this would be a longer series than the typical 2 vs. 7 matchup.

Sparks was the epitome of good to be lucky, lucky to be good, making what Tony Saxon called "break-out-the-thesaurus saves" among his 45 stops as he walked his talk. That gibed with the Whalers' recounting.

As centre Alex Aleardi put it to Tim Smith:

"[Sparks is] a big goalie, he takes up a lot of space ... But we made him look good tonight. We just got to keep getting to the net. We're going to put pressure on him, he's going to weaken down and we're going to score a lot of goals." (Plymouth Observer & Eccentric)

Guelph, as people have come to expect with a Scott Walker team, was full value for the win, getting some greasy (and goofy) goals. How far they can go on that remains to be seen, of course.

Kitchener 6 Owen Sound 2 (Rangers lead Western Conf. series 1-0) — Artur Gavrus gets knocked out of a game with another questionable hit? How is that for bitter irony? It works splendidly, much to the Attack's chagrin. Kitchener's Tyler Randell, the overager who began the season in the AHL before the Boston Bruins returned him to junior, put 17-year-old Attack rookie Artur Gavrus out of the game with what was viewed as a questionable hit.

(Update: While no penalty was called, the OHL has suspended Randell while it reviews the play. Gavrus is out indefinitely.)

With the Saint John Sea Dogs opening their MasterCard Memorial Cup title defence tonight on Sportsnet's Friday Night Hockey and games taking place in 22 of 24 playoff series across the Canadian Hockey League, what better time than to hold a livechat.

Please join Please join Sunaya Sapurji, Cam Charron and Neate Sager for a special edition of Buzzing The Net's Chatravaganza. The Sea Dogs, led by last season's playoff and Memorial Cup MVP Jonathan Huberdeau, host the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in a nationally televised game. There will also be ample opportunity to discuss the other games happening across the Ontario and Quebec leagues, with a look ahead to the Western Hockey League tilts taking place later in the evening. (Did you hear Moose Jaw might have star defenceman Morgan Rielly back before the end of Round 1?) Sager will also be on-site at Game 2 of the Belleville-Ottawa playoff series.

Combing all corners of the country and the blogosphere for your junior hockey headlines ...

WHL

Highly regarded NHL draft prospect Morgan Rielly could be back from his ACL surgery by Game 5 of the Moose Jaw Warriors' first-round series. Sweet scoop from Dean Millard.(Coming Down The Pipe!)

Calgary Hitmen captain Cody Sylvester and third-leading scorer Victor Rask are each day-to-day with injuries. They were sorely missed in the Game 1 loss to Brandon. (Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun)

Montreal Canadiens prospect Brendan Gallagher has been part of the Vancouver Giants since Day 1. Now he begins his final post-season with the team. (Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun, Spokane Spokesman-Review)

Everyone expects the Medicine Hat-Saskatoon series will go the distance. Could Blades goalie Andrey Makarov, a world junior silver medallist, make the difference? (Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Medicine Hat News)

A definite should-read: Tri-City Americans GM Bob Tory reminisces about the days when the

Niagara IceDogs' Alex Friesen (OHL Images)

No. 1 star: Alex Friesen, Niagara IceDogs (OHL)

It might seem counter-intuitive to elevate a player who thrived in a 8-2 blowout over those who did it in closer games. However, considering what Friesen embodies for Niagara, he should get his due for getting his first OHL hat trick after going 333 games without one.

For all their star power, the IceDogs really do look to overages Friesen and Andrew Agozzino, the only holdovers from the team's first season in Ontario wine country in 2007-08, to light the fire. Both had four points in the one-sided win over the Oshawa Generals. Friesen, a Vancouver Canucks prospect and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., native, got the party started with a goal just 1:43 into the game, assisted by Agozzino. He set up his long-time teammate later in the period and tallied again in each of the next two frames. Niagara was able to shut it down early, too.

No. 2 star: Michael Ferland, Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)

Ferland, playing in the home arena of his NHL organization, helped Brandon wrest home-ice advantage from the Calgary Hitmen with a 6-2 win the night's sole WHL game. The Calgary Flames pick assisted on a Mark Stone late second-period goal that stood up as the winner and also got a tip-in goal 6:22 into the third that snuffed out Calgary's comeback hopes. Ferland was also his usual rugged self physically.

Ottawa 67's captain Marc Zanetti (OHL Images)The home teams each won on opening night in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs, but two of the contests were very tight. The third, not so much

Ottawa 3 Belleville 2 (67's lead Eastern Conference series 1-0) — How important is it the grand scheme for Ottawa to need overtime, considering they are the big favourite? It was perhaps more crucial symbolically than it was as any show of superiority that the 67's, who won 3-2 by the margin of two Tyler Toffoli goals, got it done in extra time.

Last season, they lost Game 1 on home (in name only since the game was at Scotiabank Place) to Sudbury. With a host of injuries, they downward spiralled out of the playoffs and were swept. This represented a 180-degree turnaround, although it was far from a thorough 20-man effort.

"I was saying to the boys at intermission before overtime, 'you're never going to have more fun than this in your life, so embrace it. Battle your hardest,' " said 67's captain Marc Zanetti, who was named the game's first star. "Last year we lost Game 1 in overtime, so today, to win, was a real high for us. Belleville's a strong team, they know how to attack your weak spots. Today was important because we saw how we can't freak out and go crazy on each other when we're not scoring. The boys responded very well, battled really hard."