Oshawa Generals win in overtime, Erie takes lead on 'Hounds: OHL post-game questions

Moments after a borderline check at centre ice, Oshawa got the first chance of overtime and overage defenceman Dakota Mermis hammered in the puck after an initial shot ricocheted off the end boards for a 1-0 win and a tie against North Bay in the Eastern final. Meantime, Connor McDavid did McDavidian things, and Erie took the series lead over Sault Ste. Marie.

Each series resumes Tuesday. On with the post-game questions!

Eastern Conference

Oshawa 1 North Bay 0, overtime (series tied 1-1, Battalion host games 3/4 on Tuesday and Wednesday) — How controversial was a perhaps uncalled Gens penalty on the final play of the game? On the transition up the ice that led to Mermis' decider, Generals centre Cole Cassels probably got away with a check from behind into the boards against North Bay's Zach Bratina. Cassels, one of the grittier Generals, definitely put his hands on the back numbers of Bratina's jersey, but the Battalion forward also seemed to peek up to see if a call was coming before getting up.

One missed Battalion assignment and one General Motors Centre bounce later, the game was over.

"It's just unfortunate in overtime that I thought Bratina got hit from behind into the boards and there wasn't a call," Battalion coach Stan Butler said in a post-game press conference telecast by Rogers TV Durham.

"I expressed it in my opening monologue and let's leave it at that," Butler said in a response to a follow-up question.

There were only three power plays awarded the entire night, which makes it tougher to complain about missed calls.

Is the North Bay hex out of the Generals' heads? Oshawa, which got 33 saves from goalie Ken Appleby, came back from its worst loss of the season (6-1 in Game 1) to gradually carry the play over the final two full periods, outshooting the Battalion 30-22 in that timeframe.

"Certainly you have to think about [a mental block] when they had won five straight against us," Generals coach D.J. Smith said. "[Power forwards Michael] McCarron and [Hunter] Smith were able to get to the net more often tonight. Now we got to go up there and find a way to steal one [after losing home-ice advantage].

"I thought we had to tighten up defensively, and we did tonight," D.J. Smith added. "We're fine with this result. It's a seven-game series. They got some older defencemen back there and we have to keep grinding them and hopefully, over time, we get more chances. Whether their fans are cheering or not, we got to keep hitting."

Meantime, the Battalion were one shot from coming home with a 2-0 stranglehold. The Battalion have won a lot of games over the years by nursing early leads, but couldn't get one against Appleby in what looked like a template for the rest of a series.

"They were 20, 30 points ahead  of us for a reason," Butler said. "We don't expect the games to get any easier ... There were times there in the third period where we definitely let our competitive edge down and we got to get that back for Tuesday."

What will be the emotional effect of an overtime game? North Bay lost Game 1 of the 2014 final in extra time; it was laid so low that it won the next game against Guelph and rated much better than going down in five. Oshawa also took the outcome as just something that's part of the playoff chanse.

"It's obviously big tonight, but Monday it's right back to work," said Mermis, who was part of a league title-winning team with the 2013 London Knights. "It doesn't mean much if we do not get three more.

"We were joking around going into overtime, 'the next one's pretty big,' " Mermis added. "It was a big one."

The Battalion came away from the weekend with home-ice advantage in what is now a best-of-5. It also allowed just two goals in the two games and contained New York Islanders first-rounder Michael Dal Colle in both, with McCarron factoring into the only Oshawa goals.

"An overtime win gives a team a little confidence, but you can't look in the past," Battalion captain Marcus McIvor said. "You got to focus on the next game."

"We just have to get back into it with a loud crowd at home on Tuesday," McIvor added.

How did the Generals adapt to losing glue-guy wing Bradley Latour, who didn't return after the first period? The beauty of being an older team is that the coaching Smith was able to do a plug-and-play by shifting 19-year-old Michael Turner from his fourth line to his second. Turner helped with putting heat on the Battalion's defence.

"Conditioning, size and strength — Michael's played great for us," Smith said. "We lost Latour early, we expect him back next game, but Turner's a big tough guy to defend on the forecheck and that's what hockey at this time of year is about."

Oshawa might need all hands on deck with the next two games on consecutive nights. Guelph was able to extract two wins out of North Bay during the 2014 final.

"We don't mind the back-to-back games," Smith said. "it's less sitting around."

Western Conference

Erie 4 Sault Ste. Marie 2 (Otters lead 2-1, host Game 4 on Tuesday) — To what extent did McDavid and mates bogart a win? You mean the part where the Otters scored on their first three shots, which were spread out across the opening 21-plus minutes? Verily, the Otters had a season-low 22 shots yet dealt the 'Hounds a second loss in a row for the first time since Oct. 19.

McDavid (2G, +1) made the second goal happen by speeding past Gustav Bouramann to win a puck race and score short-handed, then the 3-1 goal came when his intended pass went into the net. The Greyhounds were also snakebit when Nick Ritchie dented a crossbar.

On the other side of the coin, Erie coaches Kris Knoblauch and Jay McKee's charges are keeping the Greyhounds from playing their open-ice, open-throttle, high-tempo game. The prevailing thought is that the 'Hounds, who led the CHL in point percentage and scored an OHL-most 340 goals, haven't played at peak form.

While 'Hounds captain Darnell Nurse probably logged upward of 35 minutes on Sunday, fellow NHL first-round defenceman Anthony DeAngelo clearly seems limited after being shaken up during Game 2.

Ritchie scored his 13th goal in 11 playoff fixtures, but ended up minus-2 and took an after-the-whistle penalty. The Anaheim Ducks first-rounder's bounce-back will be paramount in Game 4.

Based on how it's gone thus far, what historical nugget should have got more pre-series play? McDavid-Nurse was a great irresistible force/immovable object storyline and there was the whole element of Generational Player vs. Strength In Numbers. But with the way the last two games ended up, it's starting to hearken back to when Knoblauch guided the 2011 Kootenay Ice in a second-round series against the Saskatoon Blades, who had dominated the WHL regular season and had Brayden Schenn, who had earned major accolades during the world junior.

Those Ice were able to discombobulate the Blades and advance in five games prior to winning the WHL title and reaching the Memorial Cup semifinal.

The Soo has plenty of time to avoid a reprise. It's not as if 'Hounds coach Sheldon Keefe didn't point out after his team's win in the opener that it was capable of much better.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.