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London Knights regain upper hand: OHL post-game questions
Fast starts spurred the Kitchener Rangers and London Knights to tie their Western Conference series up at 2-2, increasing the possibility of multiple seventh games in the Ontario Hockey League. On with the post-game questions:
London 5 Saginaw 2 (Western Conference semifinal tied 2-2) — Are the Knights going to hold serve and close out the series, with two games still to play at home? London eased the sting of successive losses by blowing the doors off the Spirit early with four first-period goals. They ticked off a number of items on their checklist. Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Vladislav Namestnikov got off the schneid by scoring just his second goal in eight post-season games, while the Scott Harrington- Olli Määttä-Jarred Tinordi big three on the blueline helped slow down the Spirit's offence, as Brandon Saad was shut out for the second time in the series.
The Spirit's chances of winning a second game in London are not overwhelmingly high, given the odds of winning the series that the Knights received. Saginaw, though, didn't roll over after spotting London a four-goal lead, with Vincent Trocheck potting a pair of goals. They also regrouped well after an earlier three-goal loss in the series.
Which goalie does Spirit start on Friday, 17-year-old Jake Paterson or 18-year-old Clint Windsor? Paterson was pulled after allowing three goals on seven shots, including one that came after he gave the puck away to London. Windsor filled in admirably for final 2 1/2 periods, stopping 23-of-24 shots.
One has to believe Saginaw coach Greg Gilbert throws Paterson in the barrel for Game 5. One rough start does not negate what he did to help the Spirit reach this point. The coach's comments to Kyle Austin about Paterson ("He's better than that. He just had an off night. I'm sure he'll respond and bounce back") seem to point to coming back with Paterson. Clint Windsor, as Ryan Pyette noted, has also "historically struggled against the Knights."
The Knights goaltending has largely escaped scrutiny. It is fair to say that workhorse Michael Houser, although he was the game's first star tonight, is due for a truly signature performance during the playoffs.
Kitchener 5 Plymouth 1 (Western Conf. semifinal tied 2-2) — Has Radek Faksa's return finally provided the Rangers with some scoring depth? The 18-year-old Czech was at much closer to a full gallop in his second game since returning from a concussion, scoring the game-winning goal and earning praise as the man of the match.
Kitchener once again got goals from the playoff scoring leaders, Michael Catenacci and Tobias Rieder. But the Faksa-Zack Lorentz-Eric Ming unit, which accounted for two goals, was their best.
From Josh Brown:
[Rangers coach-GM Steve] Spott has been desperate for secondary scoring throughout the playoffs. His top trio of Michael Catenacci, Tobias Rieder and Ben Thomson had been the sole line to hit the score sheet against the Whalers. That changed Wednesday.
Faksa potted his first of the series, Ming collected his first goal in 16 career playoff games and defenceman Max Iafrate also broke his semifinal goalless skid. Rieder grabbed his post-season leading ninth goal and Catenacci added an empty netter to round out the scoring.
"Whenever you can play on a line with Faksa and Lorentz it's quite special to see what we can do," said Ming. "We're three guys who have good vision and a good skill set. But we also move our feet and compete. That combination . . . is pretty unique." (Waterloo Record)
Depth is still an issue for Kitchener. Spott went down to three lines after the opening period. The Rangers seem able to get by with a short bench as long as goalie John Gibson (whose 38 saves lowered his playoff average to 2.11 and upped his save percentage to .950) can keep handling heavy workloads each night. Gibson's really had only one bad period in this series, the third in Game 3.
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
