Storm’s defensive soundness an X factor in ouster of Knights: OHL post-game questions

Only one series remains in Round 2, between North and Barrie. Meantime, as you might have heard, the London Knights are in "competitive hibernation" until the start of the Memorial Cup on May 16, leaving them lots of time to catch up on all those PVR'd episodes of Quest For The Cup. On with the post-game questions!

Western Conference

Guelph 5 London 4 (Storm win 4-1) — Why is this a potential blessing disguise for London, if not for observers who chafe at seeing the Memorial Cup host be so much more rested than the three qualifiers? The matchup with Guelph coincided with London being minus some key components. Guelph was full value for the effort, but it gave London a mental out that this wasn't the real thing.

"You get (missing d-men) Zach Bell and Brady Austin in there, those are two big bodies that would’ve been knocking guys around out there,” veteran Knights forward Matt Rupert told the London Free Press. “They had a lot of goals in front. Every time we scored, they bounced back. It’s frustrating losing in the second round, but we did pretty good with missing the guys we did."

As noted, no host team that has had a longer layoff than the Knights has ever won the Memorial Cup. That's for a reason; those teams were all revealed to be pretenders. There was a luck-of-the-draw aspect here. London can now focus solely on those 10 days in May.

What is the under-appreciated aspect of Guelph's game? The Storm scored the most goals of any Ontario League club since 1999 (bearing in mind scoring spiked across the league this season), as you know. Getting Detroit Red Wings second-rounder Tyler Bertuzzi back shored up what might be called its five-man defending, as the Storm defended in the modern way of making sure it had the puck most of the time. Bertuzzi, who missed several weeks with what was called a head/neck ailment, seemed to emerge as the guts and glue of the crimson and black as the series unfolded. On Friday, the Storm played 20 minutes of shutdown hockey as overage Ryan Horvat and Zack Mitchell were critical with their support work in the defensive zone. A lot of very good teams in recent years just haven't been able to keep London at bay. It's hard to believe Austin and Bell's availability would have been worth three wins to the Knights.

So are the Storm favourites against Erie? Guelph went 4-1-1-0 in the season series and will have home-ice advantage, plus there is the psychological effect of slaying the London dragon. Three seasons ago, the Owen Sound Attack was so buoyed by outlasting the Knights in a six-game opening round that it blew through the next two series in just one more game than the minimum, on its way to an OHL title.

Eastern Conference

North Bay 4 Barrie 1 (Battalion lead 3-2, Colts host Game 6 on Sunday) — What is the story of the past two games? Whichever flaccid power play briefly has a twinge of potency. It was North Bay's turn on Friday, as it went 2-for-5 with Marcus McIvor and Ben Thomson snapped in third-period goals, jacking the Battalion's efficiency in the series up to 13.6 per cent. It's not so much of a problem for North Bay, though, since its penalty killing has been airtight in all but one of their 12 playoff games.

Beyond that, the Battalion adhered to the KISS principle, turning in a scoreless first 40 minutes at home for the third time in the series. (It had some help after the Colts had a goal nullified by Brendan Lemieux making contact with the goaltender.) Dallas Stars draft selection Nick Paul also stepped up for his first goal in the series (remember, he had five in the seven-game opening-round win over Niagara). The Battalion is dealing with having regular forwards rotate in and out due to a myriad of maladies (Zach Bratina and Alex Henriksson were out on Friday), but it's getting the job done.

Oh, this isn't going to be another Barrie goaltending question? Afraid so. Colts coach Dale Hawerchuk rewarded Daniel Gibl for his relief win on Thursday by giving him first OHL playoff start. Gibl allowed four goals on 22 shots, including a backbreaking softie to first star Barclay Goodrow with 11:23 left.

Barrie's goalies were plagued by inconsistency for much of the season before Mackenzie Blackwood nailed down the No. 1 job late in the regular season. Going with Gibl was a defensible call after Blackwood let in four goals on seven shots on Thursday. Hawerchuk certainly has a tough call to make for Sunday night's game.

This seemed rather sedate for a swing game; same to assume it will be a lot more frantic on Sunday night? Sure why not, although it will be tough to top the fireworks at the end of Game 4.

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