Oshawa Generals top the 4 OHL teams atop the Buzzing The Net Dynamic Dozen

It's rare to have the fab four all come from one league, but that encapsulates the pecking order in the Ontario Hockey League.

The 20-team loop has the one powerhouse, Oshawa, looking to end the Western monopoly on the league championship, and three in the alpha conference in Sault Ste. Marie, Erie and London. The other 80 per cent appear to be just a team, to varying degrees, which helps the OHL's big four do very well in this blog's weekly exercise in quantifying team performance.

1. Oshawa Generals, OHL (.570 RPI, +1.7 SRS, —) — One area of concern for the Gens is their away play, even though they have an OHL-best .750 road point percentage. That was laid bare by the last-shot-wins game they ended up in with the rival Ottawa 67's on Tuesday. The Gens went a good 10 minutes of the second period without a shot and didn't cash on a 5 1/2-minute extended power play. Yet the Cole Cassels-Bradley Latour-Hunter Smith troika combined for four goals against the 67's Liam Herbst in the final nine minutes, making it possible for a 5-4 victory.

"We've been really good at home — we've been physical, we've grinded," Generals coach D.J. Smith said following that game. "It's just been that on the road, we haven't been as consistent as we've wanted to be. Also, our special teams haven't been great lately, especially our power play. At the end of the day though, you can't fault the guys when they find a way to win ... we turned it up for 10 minutes and found a way to win. We have some high-end skilled players but we have to be a lot better than that."

The Generals

2. Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, OHL (.566 RPI, +1.4 SRS, —) — Might we just skip ahead to some joke about 'Hounds No. 1 goalie Brandon Halverson being the league's answer to Jack Morris? He plays to the score! Likely not, since hockey is taken seriously in the Soo and the city also has a lot of lifelong Detroit Tigers fans. With the Soo scoring like Barney Stinson since loading up three weeks ago, a lot of scrutiny has been thrust upon the 18-year-old New York Rangers prospect and Halverson, by times, has looked like, well, an 18-year-old first-year starter. Somehow, though, Halverson's statline keeps improving.

The 'Hounds and Erie Otters are each on win streaks. It's an inexorable law that one of them will drop a game before their showdown on Feb. 6.

3. Erie Otters, OHL (.553 RPI, +1.4 SRS, +1) — Managing partner Sherry Bassin spoke for the record on Tuesday that "he would like" the Otters to stay put after a Florida firm finds a buyer for the team. One would hope it works out. Not that anyone asked, but with the NBA D-League's Bayhawks and Double-A baseball's Erie SeaWolves also in the community, a buyer would have opportunities for cross-promotion similar to those in Ottawa (OHL, CFL and minor pro soccer) and Calgary (pretty much every sports team). You're welcome.

The Otters have won their past six by an aggregate 34-19, with Connor McDavid tallying 14 points.

4. London Knights, OHL (.548 RPI, +0.8 SRS, +2) — Only London could continue to move up in the rankings while it is retooling. The reinforcements are making progress, particularly rookie goalie Tyler Parsons, who's stopped 105-of-112 shots while backing the Knights to wins in his past three starts. The other Arizona Coyotes draft pick, Christian Dvorak, is also on a seven-game point streak

According to the smart kids, the Knights have the lowest Est. Fenwick among OHL teams with a PDO above 102. So yes, there is a bit of a 'Max Domi bubble' thing happening. They are ahead of schedule on the reload, though.

5. Brandon Wheat Kings, WHL (.547 RPI, +1.2 SRS, -2) — Conundrum of the week: the Wheaties have scored a WHL-high 217 goals but are 3-for-17 on shootout tries after being thwarted by Swift Current's Landon Bow on Tuesday evening. A team with that much scoring ought to be better, but hey, small sample sizes. A suggestion that no one asked for is to put in three defencemen next time — Ryan Pilon and Ivan Provorov might take the more direct approach..

Brandon levelled 54 shots at Bow in that contest; stuff happens. The decision ended a chance to match the club's longest win streak since the Memorial Cup host season in 2010.

6. Rimouski Océanic, QMJHL (.544 RPI, +0.8 SRS, -1) — Coach Serge Beausoleil's sarcasm was not lost in translation after a loss to Blainville-Boisbriand. The Océanic skipper pointed out that B-B's 5-foot-5 playmaker Philippe Sanche was at "the point of the death on the ice" (translated) after an infraction that was called, but was right back out on the ice seconds later on the Armada's first power play. Rimouski frayed in that contest, but recovered to beat Chicoutimi and improve to 6-1 across its last seven.

7. Medicine Hat Tigers, WHL (.544 RPI, +1.1 SRS, +4) — The Tigers' week, which got underway Tuesday with a 6-3 win against Lethbridge, will be a test of their depth defencemen. New York Islanders-drafted D-man Kyle Burroughs will be out for the whole week with a head-checking suspension and Tommy Vannelli also has a broken finger. Call it case of possibly taking one step back to go two forward at some point down the line.

8. Portland Winterhawks, WHL (.543 RPI, +0.5 SRS, +2) — Sunday's win over Tri-City illustrated why New York Rangers draft pick Keegan Iverson is irreplaceable for the 'Hawks. The 18-year-old took turns at all three forward positions and worked on both special teams during the night. It takes not only versatility but a certain level of humility to pull that off, since a third-year vet such as Iverson has typically earned some expectation of having an established role on the club.

Two of Portland's next five games are against Everett, whose U.S. Division suddenly isn't looking so safe.

9. Kelowna Rockets, WHL (.542 RPI, +1.4 SRS, -1) — Statement, made: the Rockets beat three other Double-D teams after tightening up on their defence during the first of two wins over Everett. Captain Madison Bowey also seemed more restrained about when to hop into an offensive rush, which can be really difficult for a 19-year-old defenceman who's a cut above the pack in speed and skill. Bowey ended up scoring a goal on Tuesday, anyway.

10. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, QMJHL (.535 RPI, +1.0 SRS, -1) — Overage centre Nikita Jevpalovs, who is second in the Q with 38 goals in 45 games, got his just desserts by signing with the San Jose Sharks earlier in the week. The 20-year-old Latvian was a minus player last season, but has improved his 5-on-5 play to the tune of being a team-best plus-30. The Armada, meantime, are riding a 5-0-1-0 skein coming into the week. It would have been 6-0 if not for Sherbrooke's Kay Schweri scoring a power-play natural hat trick in an overtime game last weekend. That pointed up that B-B has been average on the penalty kill all season at 77.7%.

11. Everett Silvertips, WHL (.534 RPI, +0.6 SRS, +2) — Few teams could use a five-day break more than the 'Tips, who played six games in nine days and ended up with a lot of players feeling run down. (Defenceman Noah Juulsen was also away for the Top Prospects wingding for part of the week, creating more strain on the blueline.) Accruing 8-of-12 possible points was commendable, since finishing the stretch with a two-game series against the Rockets was such a daunting task.

12. Red Deer Rebels, WHL (.531 RPI, +0.6 SRS, +4) — Coach-GM Brent Sutter's club had moved into the top 12 prior to tying Kelowna and losing the breakaway contest on Tuesday night, in case you are wondering. Goalie Rylan Toth was superlative in that contest by stopping 36-of-39 shots; the prevailing lesson for the Rebels might be about resetting since all three Rockets goals came in a two-minute, two-second span of the second.

The not as dynamic but still very distinguished dozen — 13. Shawinigan Cataractes, QMJHL (.529, -1); 14. Moncton Wildcats, QMJHL (.527, -7); 15. Québec Remparts, QMJHL (.525, +2); 16. Guelph Storm, OHL (.521, +2); 17. Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL (.521, -2); 18. Barrie Colts, OHL (.518, -4); 19. Calgary Hitmen, WHL (.515, +12); 20. Baie-Comeau Drakkar, QMJHL (.514, +1); 21. Saginaw Spirit, OHL (.513, +6); 22. Sarnia Sting, OHL (.510, +2); 23. Owen Sound Attack, OHL (.509, -3); 24. Ottawa 67's, OHL (.507, +2).

Hot team — Calgary Hitmen, up 12 (19 to 31).

Cold team — Spokane Chiefs, down 10 (29 to 19).

Nowhere to go but up — Sudbury (.418).

An explanation on rankings — Buzzing The Net uses Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) with a recency factor. RPI combines a team's record with the strength of its opponents to produce an overall rating. Our method also gives more weight to recently played games. Shootout wins and losses are classified as ties, for philosophical and practical reasons. Simple Ranking System (SRS), a ranking which combines goal differential and strength of schedule, is used as a complement. All three CHL leagues are considered equivalent in quality.

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