CHL Playoff Update – 2nd round underway
By Aaron Bell
The first round of the Canadian Hockey League playoffs is in the books and the Guelph Storm and London Knights are about to meet up in one of the most anticipated second round match-ups in recent history.
The Storm finished first in the Ontario Hockey League this season with 52 wins and 108 points and come into the series as the favourite – and home ice host for the first two games. But the Knights have won back-to-back OHL championships and are the host team for the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup and want nothing more than to knock off the regular season champs along the way.
The Knights swept aside the Windsor Spitfires in the first round but it was a costly win. They lost goalie Anthony Stolarz to a suspension that will carry him through the second round. They also lost a pair of overage defencemen – Zach Bell suffered a broken leg and required surgery while Brady Austin was been listed as day-to-day for the next round with mono.
“We have to deal with what we’ve got and move forward,” veteran forward Bo Horvat told the London Free Press this week. “It’s always a little different when you’re losing some guys in a series, but to go four straight and get some extra rest before the next round, it’s going to be key for us.”
Meanwhile the Storm knocked off the Plymouth Whalers in five games in the opening round and are looking for their first league championship in a decade. Veteran forward Brock McGinn has six games to go in a suspension from the first round while scoring star Robby Fabbri missed most of their first round series with an injury.
“It’s game on – it’s time to go to war,” Storm forward Kerby Rychel told the Guelph Tribune. “They’re a deep team at every position and they have some world class players over there but so do we. Whether you’re the first forward or the 15th forward and we’re getting contributions from everyone right now.”
The series opens on Friday in Guelph (7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT on Sportsnet ONE).
The Erie Otters and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds meet up in the other Western Conference series while in the Eastern Conference, the Peterborough Petes completed an impressive upset win over the Kingston Frontenacs on Tuesday.
The third place Frontenacs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the series but the Petes responded with three straight wins – including a come-from-behind home ice win in Game 6 – to force Game 7. They tied the game in the second period and then won it in overtime to advance to a second-round matchup against their arch-rival Oshawa Generals, who swept the Mississauga Steelheads in the first round.
The North Bay Battalion also needed a Game 7 win to continue their first season in their new home. They defeated the Niagara IceDogs on Tuesday to advance to a second round match-up against the Barrie Colts, who knocked aside the Sudbury Wolves in five games.
In the Western Hockey League, the seventh place Brandon Wheat Kings scored the biggest upset of the first round by taking out the second place Regina Pats in four straight games. They will face the Edmonton Oil Kings, who swept the Prince Albert Raiders in the first round.
“At the end of the day when you sum it up, it was two things: determination and commitment,” Pats coach Malcolm Cameron told the Regina Leader-Post. “They just had more of it than we did. I’m not going to play a blame game. It’s a team thing. Sometimes you have to go through some disappointment to grow.”
The other Eastern Conference series will see the Medicine Hat Tigers face the Kootenay Ice. In the Western Conference, the Kelowna Rockets will face the Seattle Thunderbirds while the Portland Winterhawks will face the Victoria Royals.
In the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the red hot Halifax Mooseheads continued their winning ways with a sweep over the Charlottetown Islanders. They will take their 17-game winning streak into the second round against the Gatineau Olympiques, who eliminated the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in four straight in the opening round.
The first place Baie-Comeau Drakkar also swept their way through the first round and will face the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies while the Val-d’Or Foreurs will face the Drummondville Voltigeurs and the Rimouski Oceanic will face the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in the second round.