OHL Playoffs - Day 20

Mississauga 4 Sudbury 3 OT - Mississauga wins series 4-0 (Prediction: Mississauga in 5)

The red hot Mississauga St. Mikes Majors are on one heck of a run that is an 18 game win streak. It started back at the end of the regular season when they won their remaining 10 games. That was followed up by a 4 game sweep of the Belleville Bulls and now a 4 game sweep of the Wolves.

And now, they will be playing for the Bobby Orr Trophy, awarded to the Eastern Conference Playoff Champions. All they have to do is await the winner of the Oshawa - Niagara series. The conference finals begin next week.

What is truly amazing is how they won this game. Alain Valiquette had to be amazing in goal again for the Wolves, and that he was, stopping all 15 shots he faced in the first period. His opponent at the other end, JP Anderson had to face but 3 shots. But the teams would head to the dressing room tied at zero.

In the second period it was the Wolves who opened the scoring with Eric O'Dell scoring his 7th of the playoffs at 7:38 with the assist going to Marcus Foligno. At 16:43 Sudbury upped the score when Foligno scoring from O'Dell and Josh McFadden. That's how the second would end with the Wolves out shooting the Majors 9-6.

Frank Corrado gave Sudbury a 3-0 lead at 8:41 of the third period. And with less than 10 minutes left in regulation, you figure it was game over right? Wrong!

At the 10:47 mark of the period Rob Flick scored to pull the Majors within two. Assists on Flick's goal went to Chris DeSousa and Maxim Kitsyn. Casey Cizikas would then pull Mississauga to within one goal when he scored at 14:45.

Sudbury would go down two men late in the period but the Majors were unable to capitalize on the 5 on 3. But with less than 2 minutes remaining and on another poer play, Marc Cantin and Cizikas would set up Devante Smith-Pelly with 1:51 remaining to even the score at 3 apiece. That's how regulation would end with the Majors out shooting the Wolves 18-8 in the third.

In overtime Riley Brace threw the puck at the net and it bounced off of Valiquette and right to Derek Schoenmakers who banged in for the overtime. Those were 2 of only 4 shots in the overtime. The Wolves had all 4.

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Owen Sound 4 Plymouth 1 - Owen Sound wins series 4-0 (Prediction: Plymouth in 6)

Well, I've never worried about eating crow and being totally wrong, and in this case was I ever wrong. I really expected Plymouth to put up a bigger fight, especially after how they Handled  Kitchener. But give Owen Sound credit. They deserved to win this in 4 games.

Owen Sound now awaits the winner of the Windsor Saginaw series for a chance to win the Eastern Conference Championship and the Wayne gretzky Trophy.

Owen Sound opened the scoring when my hometown boy Brendan Childerly scored his third of the playoffs 9:40 into the opening period. Liam Heelis  and Jarrod Maidens drew the assists on the goal. Cameron Brace made it 2-0 when he notched his first of the post season with the assists going to Andrew Shaw and Mike Halmo.

The period would end with the Attack out shooting the Whalers 17-14.

It was a back and forth second perios until Roman Berdnikov scored very late in the period. There were just 23 seconds left when Garrett Wilson and Jay Gilbert set him up for his thrid goal. Shots in the period were 14-13 in favor of the Whalers.

Jesse Blacker opened the scoring very quickly into the thirs when at the 53 second mark he scored an unassisted power play marker, his fourth of the playoffs to put the Attack up 4-0.

All that remained to be determined late in the game was whether Scott Stajcer, the games first star, would get the shutout. But with just 1:05 remaining in regulation James Livingston would spoil that when he notched his 4th goal. Robbie Czarnick would draw the only assist.

Stajcer would make 36 saves in the game. Not bad for a guy who missed most of the regular season and saw 2 games in relief only in the series against London.

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Niagara 6 Oshawa 1 - Niagara leads series 3-1

Not to take anything away from the Ice Dogs as they deserved this victory from the opening puck drop, but the Generals shot themselves in the foot in this one. The Generals took 7 of the first 8 penalites of the contest with 3 of the 7 going to Andy Andreoff, who had a total of 4 minor penalties in the game.

Jason Wilson would open the scoring at 5:52 when he notched his third goal. Simon Gronvaldt and Freddie Hamilton, who finished with 4 on the night, would add the assists. At 9:28 Wilson would get his second of the game on the powerplay to put Niagara up 2-0. David Pacan and Steven Shipley would get the assists on Wilson's fourth of the playoffs.

Dougie Hamilton would score his second of the playoffs on the powerplay to up the score to 3-0. Freddie Hamilton and Ryan Strome would assist on the goal. Christian Thomas would get Oshawa on the board with his 8th goal set up by Luca Lessio and Tony DeHart. But that's as close as they would come.

Darren Archibald notched his 8th as well when he scored unassisted at 4:47 of the third period to make it 4-1. Strome then scored his fifth from Wilson and Freddie Hamilton and Dougie Hamilton closed out the scoring with another powerplay goal at 18:40 from Strome and Freddie Hamilton.

Mark Visentin was spectacular in goal when he had to be for Niagara stopping 30 of 31 shots.

With the game out of reach it got chippy with hits from behind, hits to the head and fighting majors given out. Oshawa even took a run at Visentin late in the contest - maybe a message for the next game - which goes Friday back in the Cozy confines in St Catherines.

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Playoff Preview - Round 2 - Eastern Conference

Here's a preview of the Eastern Conference matchups in round 2 of the playoffs.

Mississauga (1) vs Sudbury (7) - Mississauga won season series 5-1

And they did so almost convincingly outscoring the Wolves 41-21 in those 6 games.

In Round 1 Mississauga swept the 8th seed Belleville Bulls while the Wolves surprised the hockey world and swept the 2nd seed Ottawa 67's.

Your draft eligible players to watch for Sudbury. Vs Mississauga, this is what they did:

Josh Leivo 1G 2A
Frank Corrado 0G 2A
Charlie Dodero 0G 0A
Justin Sefton 0G 0A

For Mississauga

Stuart Percy 1G 4A

For Bruins fans wanting to follow Marc Cantin, he had 1 goal and 4 assists in those 6 games against Sudbury.

Prediction: Mississauga in 5 games.

Niagara (3) vs Oshawa (4) - Season Series tied 1-1

In round 1 Niagara swept Brampton in 4 games while Oshawa ousted Kingston in 5.

For the serious draft junky, this is the series to watch. It's loaded with potential first round picks.

For Niagara, here's what the draft eligible players did vs Oshawa:

Ryan Strome 1G 3A
Dougie Hamilton 1G 1A

For Oshawa:

Boone Jenner 0G 1A
Nicklas Jensen 3G 0A
Lucas Lessio 0G 1A

This series will come down to home ice advantage. Therefore,

Prediction; Niagara in 7 games

OHL Playoffs - Day 8

Niagara 4 Brampton 1 - Niagara wins series 4-0 (Prediction - Niagara in 5)

Well, this is the second sweep in the OHL playoffs thus far and Niagara did dominate this one.

Andrew Agozzino scored twice while Freddie Hamilton added 2 assists for the Ice Dogs. Brampton goaltender Cody St Jacques just didn't have his best in this game, allowing 4 goals on 11 shots in 23 minutes of action. Matej Machovsky came on in relief and shut the door the rest of the way but it was too late.

Dougie Hamilton finished this series with 1 goal and 5 assists while Ryan Strome added 1 goal and 2 assists. For Brampton, Barclay Goodrow went pointless in 4 games.

Niagara now awaits the winner of the Oshawa and Kingston series as their next opponent.

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Sudbury 5 Ottawa 3 - Sudbury wins series 4-0 (Prediction: Ottawa in 5 games)

If you asked most people outside of Sudbury, you would have found few people that would have had Sudbury winning a single game let alone sweeping the 67's. But shockingly, it happened.

So what went wrong for Ottawa? That's the million dollar question. And I am sure that will be dissected over, and over, and over in Ottawa for days to come.

Sudbury has 3 draft eligible defensemen in Justin Sefton, Charlie Dodero and Frank Corrado who went pointless last night but were all on the plus side. Not only were they solid in game 4, but throughout the series.

They got timely saves when they needed them from Alain Valiquette. And they also got timely goals when needed, and last night it was Michael Sgarbossa who provided a pair of goals to give him 4 goals and 8 assists in the 4 game series.

Things don't get any easier for the Wolves though. They now have to face the league's regular season champs and the Memorial Cup Host Mississauga St Mikes Majors in the next round. A preview of that series will follow the completion of round one.

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Saginaw 4 Guelph 3 - Series tied 2-2

Saginaw went into Guelph trailing 2-1 in the series and after falling behind 2-0 they went to work. They scored a short handed goal, a 5 on 5 goal and 2 power play goals to take the lead and make it hold up for the victory.

Ryan O'Connor lead the way offensively with 2 assists while Mavric Parks stopped 30 of 33 shots for the Spirit. Brandon Saad added a single assist while Vincent Trocheck went pointless for Saginaw.

It was also a game of specialty teams with Saginaw going 2 for 3 on the power play while Guelph went 1 for 6.

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London 5 Owen Sound 2 - Series tied 2-2

This series is going exactly as i suspected it would and that Michael Houser and Jared Knight would have to play key roles for the Knights to win this series. And they are getting just that.

Houser stopped 36 of 38 shots and once again made big saves when he was counted upon. As for Knight, he played primarily a shut down role last night yet was still able to add 2 goals.

Joey Hishon remains virtually invisible in this series scoring only 1 goal, and that coming after his shadow Stephen Sanza left game 3 with an injury. Owen Sound needs Hishon scoring if they are going to take this series.

Seth Griffith added a goal for London while Vladislav Namestnikov added an assist. For Griffith, that was his third goal to go along with 4 assists. Knight now has 4 goals and 2 assists in the series.

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OHL Playoffs - Day 5

Kitchener 3 Plymouth 1 - Plymouth leads series 2-1

Kitchener came out in this game trying to physically intimidate Plymouth from top to bottom. So much so that even Ryan Murphy took a roughing penalty. And it worked.

They also needed a strong performance from Brandon Maxwell in goal and got just that when he stopped 35 of 36 shots, none more important than on a penalty shot with the Rangers up 2-1. Scott Wedgewood was equally impressive in the loss stopping 45 of 47 shots.

Ryan Murphy and Tobias Rieder set up Jerry D'Amigo for the opening goal before Alex Aleardi scored unnassisted to tie it. Murphy then scored unnassisted to open the third period on the power play and Gabriel Landeskog closed it out with an empty netter, also unnassisted.

Garrett Meurs and Stefan Noesen went pointless for Plymouth.

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Windsor 6 Erie 2 - Windsor leads series 2-1

No double overtime in this game as Windsor dominated on the scoreboard when they took the lead late in the second and scored three times early in the third with 3 goals in 1:02.

Ryan Ellis, Stephan Johnston and Jake Carrick all had a goal and an assist while Zack Kassian and Zack MacQueen added a pair of assists.

Ramis Sadikov stopped 28 of 33 shots for Erie while Jack Campbell stopped 30 of 32.

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Guelph 7 Saginaw 3 - Guelph leads series 2-1

Brandon Foote was again solid in goal for Guelph stopping 37 of 40 shots. Draft eligible Tadeas Galansky came on in relief and allowed 2 goals on 16 shots after Mavric Parks allowed 5 goals on 19 shots.

Both Brandon Saad and Vincent Trocheck got a point for Saginaw, both assists. For Guelph, Taylor Beck had 2 goals and Michael Latta 2 goals and an assist.

Andrey Pedan added 2 more assists giving him 0 goals and 5 assists in the 3 games to date. The big Russian defenseman had 2 goals and 10 assists in 51 regular season games for Guelph.

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Sudbury 5 Ottawa 3 - Sudbury leads series 2-0

Shane Prince returned to the lineup for Ottawa but it wasn't enough as the 67's offense could only muster 18 shots on Wolves goalie Alain Valiquette. Tyler Toffoli scored once ad added an assist in a losing cause.

Sudbury however, fired 53 shots at 67's goalie Petr Mrazek. Andrey Kuchin had 2 goals and an assist to lead the way. Charlie Dodero had a goal while Frank Corrado added an assist. Justin Sefton was held off the score sheet.

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Frankie Corrado

Frankie Corrado - Sudbury Wolves
6' - 175 lbs.

The higly touted Corrado, who was skipped over in the first round of the Priority Draft in 2009 and selected in the second by the Wolves, returns this season to a Wolves team experienced on the back end. And anytime you play on an experienced team, it allows you to play your game and not try and do to much, which bodes well for Corrado.

Last season, in 63 games, he scored 1 goal and added 8 assists with 46 penalty minutes, will be counted on to increase on those totals this season.

Corrado is a very good skater with excellent acceleration and has poise with the puck. He is also a hard body checker and doesn't go out of his way looking to make a big hit. He's worked on his defensive game but there are still areas to be improved on, such as his positioning, when to pinch, and when to go with it.

Corrado will be an excellent find for an NHL team in the 3rd round where they aren't looking for immediate help and can let a player develop for a few years, which is what i expect from Corrado.

You can read an interview with Corrado courtesy of The Scouting Report here.