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OHL: Tanner Pearson scores right off a faceoff (video)
That tying goal right off the faceoff that NHL draft prospect Tanner Pearson scored on Thursday night? His coaches told him to do that.
The Canadian world junior forward had yet to score while re-acclimatizing to the life with the Barrie Colts. He got off the schneid in a most unusual way. The Colts were down a goal with less than 90 seconds left vs. the Saginaw Spirit and staring at some loss of face since they traded for two of the Spirit's veterans recently. Off a faceoff against Vincent Trocheck, Pearson flicked the puck out of the air and into the net to force overtime.
Was that his own ingenious idea? It turns out the Colts coaches conjured up something that counter-act the Spirit's strategy of simply trying to win each draw and ice the puck until the clock ran out.
With the net empty and a couple of failed offensive zone face-off attempts, the Barrie Colts coaching staff pulled over Ryan O'Connor as he was skating by, and gave him a message.
The Colts defenceman skated up to Tanner Pearson, who was taking the draw, and told him to get the puck forward off of the faceoff.
Pearson won the draw forwards with a shooting motion, firing the puck and catching former Colts netminder Clint Windsor off-guard, beating him to tie the game at 3-3 with just over a minute left in regulation. (Barrie Examiner)
Just like they planned it, although someone could try that play once a game for an entire season and it would work, what, once or twice? Meantime, let's see if that play gets Pearson, a potential second-round pick, rolling after taking time to find his form with the Colts. Meantime, take this post as a passionate play for the Ontario Hockey League to start tabulating faceoff stats like their counterparts in the QMJHL.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (video: Rogers Television).
