Kerby Rychel’s Big Tuesday gives Guelph series lead in London – Tuesday’s 3 Stars

No. 1 Star - Kerby Rychel, Guelph Storm (OHL)

The Guelph-London shootout continued Tuesday night, with the Storm reclaiming home-ice advantage with a 4-2 win in the third game of the set to take a 2-1 series lead. Robby Fabbri broke out offensively for his first time since his return from his injury sustained in the first round, scoring twice in the third period, first on the powerplay and again at even strength, but it was Columbus Blue Jackets first rounder Kerby Rychel who was the catalyst on both plays.

With the score at 2-1 London midway through the third, Rychel cut to the net and, while he lost control, the puck found its way onto the stick of Fabbri who was able to go short-side on London goalie Jake "two Ts" Patterson. Just over two minutes later, Rychel shook off a check from defenceman Dakota Mermis and found a wide-open Fabbri in front. That was Kerby's third assist on the night, having also recorded the lone assist on a Phil Baltisberger goal in the second to tie the game at 1.

No. 2 Star - Brendan Leipsic, Portland Winterhawks (WHL)

The Winterhawks have teased the Victoria Royals twice this series, giving the underdogs leads in the second and fourth games of the series before taking over on the ice. In Game 4, the Royals had leads of 1-0 and early in the third, had a 3-2 advantage, but less than 90 seconds after Steven Hodges scored the early go-ahead goal, it was the Nashville Predators prospect Leipsic who tucked home a rebound from a Derrick Pouliot point shot to tie the score. It was his second goal of the game, his first coming by way of the man advantage in the second period, again mucking it up in the crease and celebrating without his helmet.

Portland escape Vancouver Island with a split—they had trouble winning at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in the regular season, but will head back to the Rose City with a 3-1 series lead. Also deserving of merit is Portland goaltender Brendan Burke, who made 12 stops in the third period as the Royals pressed late, including robbing Brandon Magee on a glorious chance with under a minute left.

No. 3 Star - Nikita Jevpalovs, Blainville-Boisbriand Armada (QMJHL)

The Q got its first double OT match of the playoffs Tuesday night, as Philippe Desrosiers and Etienne Marcoux went toe-to-toe in the contest, stopping 29 total OT shots in all before Nikita Jevpalovs (forced nickname alert: 'The Latvian Assassin') struck with a wrist shot to beat Desrosiers at the 6:22 mark of the second OT period.

Jevpalovs assisted on a Christopher Clapperton goal to open the scoring 2:01 into the contest, and the Armada did not beat the Rimouski goaltender until the 2-1 winning goal in the second OT. The Toronto Maple Leafs may have been eliminated from NHL postseason contention Tuesday night, but their No. 1 pick from a year ago, Frederik Gauthier, scored his third of the postseason to tie the score on a powerplay midway through the first.

Desrosiers was deservingly named second star of the game. He was the busier goalie, stopping 43 of 45 faced.

Honourable Mention: Joel Wigle, Erie Otters (OHL) - Erie was the favoured team headed into their second round series with the Soo, but to see the Otters win in four is quite surprising. Devin Williams held back the powerful Soo attack all series and the Otters got small contributions here and there while the Greyhounds did an adequate job shutting down the big guns. After taking a 2-0 lead in Game 4, however, Erie struck back with two usual suspects: Connor Brown scored his fourth and Andre Burakovsky scored his eighth of the postseason to tie the score at 2, and we had overtime.

It was a very unusual suspect to clinch the series for the Otters, as Joel Wigle cut in on a two-on-one with Vancouver Canucks prospect Brendan Gaunce and elected to wait out the defenceman and tuck in a backhanded shot to score his first of the postseason. Wigle has just six goals in 68 regular season games with Erie and scored his first OHL playoff goal in 30 games to clinch the series.

Potent Notables: Anthony Mantha scored twice in Val-d'Or's Game 3 win at Drummondville to take a 2-1 series lead, as teammate Guillaume Gelinas had three assists. The Drakkar got goals from four different goal scorers including Charles Hudon for a 4-2 win at Rouyn-Noranda to take a 3-0 series lead. Jonathan Drouin scored twice, but Ottawa draftee Vincent Dunn had two points for Gatineau in their Game 3 win over Halifax.

In the OHL, Cole Cassels led Oshawa to a 3-1 Game 3 win with two goals including the late empty-net tally… Zach Hall's shorthanded goal for Barrie was enough to give the Colts a 2-1 win against North Bay to give Barrie their first win in the series.

And in the 'dub, Mitch Moroz paced the Oil Kings with 1 goal and 2 assists, as his team holds a 3-0 series lead over the Wheat Kings. A late flurry by Seattle wasn't enough to give Seattle their first win over Kelowna: Madison Bowey, Damon Severson and Marek Tvrdon each had two point nights for the Rockets who have that commanding 3-0 series lead with the 5-4 win.