London Knights hand Guelph Storm worst home loss of season: OHL post-game questions

Chris Tierney had five points to help London chase Guelph's Justin Nichols during its first win all season in the Sleeman Centre. Elsewhere, North Bay and Oshawa will hit the road with 2-0 series leads in their pockets in the respective Eastern Conference semifinals. On with the post-game questions:

Western Conference

London 7 Guelph 2 (tied 1-1, Knights host Game 3 on Tuesday) — How have the Storm recovered from losses? The Knights are a breed apart from the typical opponent, of course. It bears noting that the Storm, who were scuffling from the time Mitchell Marner (1G-1A, +1) and Tierney (2G-3A, +1) scored on London's first two shots of the night, have not lost two in a row since the weekend prior to Canadian Thanksgiving. In 4-of-5 tries since the trade deadline, it has come back and won by at least three goals in its next game after a loss. So there is that.

[Tierney’s 5 points lead Knights over Storm: Sunday’s 3 Stars]

Citing regular-season bounce-back efforts might be pretty thin gruel from a Storm point of view, considering it's allowed 11 of the last 14 goals (not counting the Game 1 empty-netter). Stretches of Sunday looked eerily reminiscent of the Plymouth-London conference final last season, with the Storm getting a lot of zone time but not getting the gold-plated chance vs. Jake Patterson (32 saves). Meantime, Nichols had an off night and got hooked after allowing four goals on 18 shots.

The Knights were in firm control once Toronto Maple Leafs pick Ryan Rupert burned Guelph for a sluggish first shift of the second period, scoring 44 seconds in to open a 3-1 margin.

But how is London's defence holding up? Nikita Zadorov, who had the dagger short-handed goal with that opened a 5-2 edge with 12:13 remaining, appears to be feeling no pain from the 35-minute-plus workloads. (The shorty did come after Zadorov got caught up ice and forced Marner to cover him and take a holding penalty, but that is neither here nor there.)

That being said, London has another injury concern with an older defenceman after Dakota Mermis was shaken up late.

Eastern Conference

North Bay 4 Barrie 1 (Battalion lead 2-0, Colts host Game 3 on Tuesday) — Remember when Battalion captain Barclay Goodrow went undrafted due to concerns about his skating? Me neither. The San Jose free-agent signing did it all through a second consecutive game that was knotted at naught-naught through the 40 minutes. Goodrow (2G-1A, +3) won big faceoffs and helping the Battalion survive some tough penalty kills over that stretch. In the third, he dodged an attempt to stand him up at the Colts blueline and went for a breakaway goal to open the scoring. That was the drop of blood in the water for the Shark hopeful, who tallied again on near-carbon copy break. Eventually, four goals in a span of 4:11 sent Barrie down Highway 11 with a 2-0 deficit.

"It's obviously something I've worked on and it's nice to pull away from guys like that, create some space," Goodrow told the North Bay Nugget.

Erie finisher extraordinaire Dane Fox, the OHL's leading goal scorer, will hands-down be named the league's top overage player. After Fox, there are few OA forwards who are vital to their club as Goodrow. All of the scoring so far in the series has come after the 40-minute mark. Up until North Bay's breakout, it felt like another 1-0 game that might run into the supper hour was in the offing.

"We just made a couple of little mistakes and they capitalized," said Colts coach Dale Hawerchuk, who mercy-pulled Mackenzie Blackwood (four goals on 28 shots) after the fourth goal and had Daniel Gibl mop up. "We tried to capitalize on a few of theirs and couldn't do it ... We'll make some adjustments and go over the little things that you have to do well against this club. They're a committed team that way. If we can match them with that and put some our chances in, we'll have some success."

Where can Barrie take hope from? Well, the convenient cliché is that one has to see a team at home, and on top of that, Colts star defenceman Aaron Ekblad was back on Sunday after not playing a game for nearly two weeks due to a lower-body injury. The consensus first blueliner off the board in the upcoming NHL draft had a decent afternoon but did take two penalties. How he bounces back on Tuesday could create a lot of swing.

"There's some work to be done, but it's no big deal," Ekblad told Rogers TV Barrie. "It never is over. We saw what Peterborough did [coming from 3-0 down in the first round to beat Kingston]. We're excited and positive in what we have here. We're not behind the 8-ball at all."

[WATCH: Red Wings pick Andreas Athanasiou
scores on beautiful between-the-legs shot in OHL playoffs]

That said, with overage Zach Hall out, the Colts are missing the production North Bay is enjoying from Goodrow and Ben Thomson (1A, +1 on Sunday). The change of venue and how closely the skill-and-sandpaper Brendan Lemieux is monitored by officials on Tuesday will be vital for Barrie. Lemieux's attempts unhinge the Battalion didn't succeed on Sunday, as he got an early unsportsmanlike conduct minor before getting an early shower after a receiving a misconduct with 9:04 remaining.

Oshawa 2 Peterborough 0 (Generals lead 2-0, Petes host Game 3 on Tuesday) — So is another high pick of the Philadelphia Flyers going to be suspended? In the third period, Scott Laughton put Peterborough's Anthony Stefano out of the game and received a match penalty for butt-ending. That will prompt an automatic review by the OHL. Laughton also had a five-game suspension for a cross-check from behind in the second round in 2013.

Laughton actually got the second match meted out by referees Mike Marley and Garrett Rank. Peterborough rookie defenceman Cameron Lizotte got the first for a slew foot.

Beyond that, the Generals have simply done enough to get by the understaffed Petes. Carolina Hurricanes-drafted goalie Daniel Altshuller has a 122:45 shutout streak going after 18- and 22-save shutouts in the first two games. Generals rookie Jacob Busch also scored the series' first 5-on-5 goal with a five-hole salvo midway through the first period.

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