Ottawa 67's outscore Niagara IceDogs, Sarnia stuns Erie: OHL post-game questions

Pavel Zacha and Sarnia stymie Connor McDavid and Erie and steal Game 1 on the road; Ottawa overcomes a four-goal game by Vince Dunn to get the jump on the Niagara IceDogs; Barrie rides a big second period to top Belleville in the other Eastern series opener.

On with the post-game questions!

Eastern Conference

Ottawa 8 Niagara 5 (67's lead 1-0, host Game 2 on Saturday) — To what extent did the 67's get away with getting away from the game plan? In a strange and sloppy game, Ottawa scored on two of its first three shots on IceDogs goalie Brandon Hope, as well as three of its first four in the third. Who was it who scored 34 fewer goals in the regular season?

"Wasn't your typical 2-1 playoff game, was it?" Ottawa coach Jeff Brown said. "That's how good they [Niagara] are. No lead is safe. We did what we had to do, but we're going to have to tighten some things up before Game 2 if we want to be successful again. There will be a lot of teaching points on the video.  .

"In the playoffs you got to take one for the team and I was proud of them for that," Brown added.

The 67's, the league's least-penalized team by a considerable margin, ended up with an 8-3 edge in power plays. They scored once with the extra skater and once short-handed to cancel out Niagara's two man-up markers. Ottawa's bent on not letting the unexpected offensive success go to its head.

"There's emotional highs, emotional lows," said centre Sam Studnicka, who had three points. "We really got to focus on keeping a level head. We cannot get too up when we're playing run and gun with these guys."

What went sideways on the IceDogs? All but one of the seven non-empty netters the 67's scored came from close range. Niagara's top three forwards managed one assist each; Carter Verhaeghe and Brendan Perlini skated with overage Cody Payne, while Josh Ho-Sang was up and down the lineup.

"We played a good middle period, but I thought we were loose defensively," IceDogs coach-GM Marty Williamson said. "We were overhyped at times. I thought our emotions were out too much and that sometimes leads to poor decisions. We played a good second period and scored five goals. [Vince] Dunn was phenomenal. Ottawa played hard and that's what we expected from them. They seal the lanes well. We didn't seem to have patience to our game.

How much did the second-period fight between Perlini and Jeremiah Addison alter the course of the game? All empirical evidence that fighting has little impact on a game considered, the IceDogs lost a top triggerman for five minutes right as they had a chance to go ahead by two, maybe three goals. Ottawa soon tied it. And Addison ended up with a Gordie Howe hat trick.

"I saw [Perlini] and Midds [67's defenceman Jacob Middleton] going at it," Addison said. "I just tried to grab him. I didn't expect him to drop his gloves. He's not really a fighter. He dropped them and gave me a good go. It just happened."

How did 67's captain Travis Konecny fare in his playoff debut after missing five games with a shoulder injury? The sophomore captain was the checkee more often than the checker, but still produced two points with a power-play goal and a cross-ice setup a Nathan Todd tally 49 seconds into the third that put Ottawa ahead to stay.

"I like when they come after me and get me into the game," Konecny said. "If they want to keep doing that, go ahead."

How much does allowing seven goals on 30 shots come back on Brandon Hope? Not very much. Niagara left some big gaps and had a shaky start. Ottawa's second goal came when a Dante Salituro pass out hit defenceman Blake Siebenaler and bounced out. But Hope also made two first-class saves in the second, including a breakaway turnaway on Studnicka.

Niagara has Dallas Stars draft pick Brent Moran waiting in relief if needed.

"He made some huge saves in the second," Williamson said of Hope. "I'll sleep on it, but he's been our guy. I'll make the call [Friday]."

Barrie 3 Belleville 2 (Colts lead 1-0, host Game 2 on Monday) — How important was Barrie's supporting cast? For all the plaudits lavished on the century club, Barrie got off the deck after spotting Belleville and Jordan Subban the first goal thanks to overage centre Garrett Hooey levelling at 1-1 in the second period. The Colts upped the tempo from there the line with Hooey and Justin Scott produced another goal in that frame on a point shot from Ottawa Senators defence prospect Ben Harpur, opening a two-goal spread that was just enough.

In the long run, why is starting with a nail-biter to Barrie's benefit? Cols goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, entering his second playoff after a statistically suspect final seven weeks of the regular season, made 16 of his 37 saves in the third period after Bellevile opened the throttle to push for a comeback. That can go a long way toward helping a young goalie focus.

Western Conference

Sarnia 3 Erie 2 (Sting lead 1-0, Otters host Game 2 on Friday) — How did the Sting, who won just 10 games after the deadline (11, now), pull off the road win? Sarnia, as touched upon early in the week, needed to be in attack mode, rather than take the craven 'lay back and hope Erie has bad timing' tack. Goalie Taylor Dupuis (32 saves) was dialled in throughout the night and the Sting went ahead on two goals in the last 2½ minutes of the second period. Stephen Pierog, rounding out a nice night for the Sarnia OAs (defenceman Josh Chapman copped third-star recognition), scored the eventual game-winner in the third

There likely was an element of puck luck involved. It's rare that Erie would not score on a five-minute man advantage, as it did after a boarding major/game misconduct assessed against Sarnia defenceman Alex Black after a check on Otters wing Nick Betz in the first period. It appears Betz might not return for at least three games.

How do the Otters respond, based on their small sample size with inexplicable losses? Erie lost twice in the second half to teams that wound up below .500, 4-3 to the Sting on Jan. 8 and 6-5 at Peterborough on Jan. 29 (both games were also on Thursday, check the fee to get clearance for the Twilight Zone theme). The first time they won the next six games; the second time, they finished a road trip with a pair of wins.

"They're a honest team, they play hard and I don't think we gave them credit for that," Otters wing Nick Baptiste said of Sarnia. "The great thing about playoffs is it's [best of] seven games, we don't have a lot of time in between, we have to play them [Friday] night."

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