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.

boxscore

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.

boxscore

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.

boxscore

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.

boxscore

Tadeas Galansky

Tadeas Galansky - Saginaw Spirit
6'3 - 185 lbs.

When i was conducting my survey of OHL general managers during training camp, a couple of GM's had voted Galansky as one of the top goalies and a couple of more as one of the top imports. My first reaction was really?

The Czech Republic native has plenty of potential judging from what everyone tells me. The problem in Saginaw is that he wont get a large amount of starts (20 - 25 this year) but in the starts he has had he is posting great OHL numbers.

I was able to catch him in one game this season, on TV albeit. But he has very good size and seems to move well. He has strong positioning and is always square to the shooter. Of course, the North American game brings a lot more traffic for him in front of the net, which is something he may have to work on.

All in all, there are enough OHL GM's that had praise for him, so he's someone I'm going to keep an eye on. Hopefully, NHL scouts will get a chance to see him more because of all the praise he receives.

My survey of OHL General Managers

As in the past, I conducted a survey of OHL GM's in 4 categories of their top 3 picks to go in the 2011 NHL entry draft. Again, this is just OHL players. New this preseason is the category of top import player. It probably would have been better to include that in the mid season rankings, as some of the GM's didn't feel knowledgeable enough to select more than 1 or 2.

The survey covered 60% of the GM's so it should be a pretty accurate picture of the league. In 2 instances, the survey was done with an assistant GM or head scout, one because he is a new GM and felt he didn't know the players as well yet. 

Each GM was asked to select a first, second and third pick in 4 categories. Those categories are, Top Goaltender, Top Import Player, Top Forward and Top Defenseman. The players are then scored based on those votes with the best possible score being 60 (12 first place votes).

Only 4 players received at least one vote from each GM. They are Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Puempel and goaltenders Tyson Teichmann and Matt Mahalak. Every player that received at least 1 vote is listed. So, without further delay, here are the results:

Top Goaltender

Tyson Teichmann (48)

Matt Mahalak (40)

Jordan Billington (11)

Tadeas Galansky (7)

Mike Morrison (1)

Jacob Riley (1)

It's pretty similar to my rankings which i did at the end of last season. Mahalak was an exception because he didn't play in the OHL last season, therefore wasn't eligible for my rankings. Tadeas Galansky was also picked in the top imports (below) therefore his numbers maybe a little skewed by that.

Top Import

Gabriel Landeskog (41)

Niklas Jensen (27)

Alex Khokhlachev (11)

Tadeas Galansky (7)

Vladislav Namestnikov (6)

Mika Partanen (2)

No surprise here as Landeskog has a year under his belt in the OHL. The fact that the rest are rookies, and some GM's stayed away from selecting 3 imports because they didn't know them well enough hurt some player. But i expect Landeskog to stay near the top of this category all season. It also indicates that Niklas Jensen is the real deal and comes as advertised. And with Khokhlachev and Namestnikov in the picture, this could become a tight year long battle.

Top Forward

Matt Puempel (42)

Brandon Saad (31)

Lucas Lessio (13)

Boone Jenner (8)

Daniel Catenacci (7)

Garrett Meurs (5)

Again no surprise here, but i thought the race would be a little tighter with rookie of the year Matt Puempel still holding down top spot. Similar to my rankings, but again, Saad and Lessio were not on my list having not played in the OHL last season. I must admit though, it would have been an interesting race between Puempel and Landeskog had i not included a top import category.

Top Defenseman

Scott Harrington (38)

Dougie Hamilton (30)

Ryan Murphy (28)

Stuart Percy (6)

I must admit the result here is very surprising to me with super d-man Ryan Murphy coming in third. I like Scott Harrington a lot, but was shocked that he came in first. It's also the tightest race of any of the categories, with only 4 defensemen league wide receiving any votes. Also surprising was the fact that neither Murphy or Hamilton received at least 1 vote from every GM. Also, in my opinion, there was a homer vote here (no comment on who) which, otherwise, would have made this a virtual 3 way tie. This will be the race to watch all season, and may not be decided until the draft floor in Minnesota in June 2011.