OHL Notebook: Clinching playoff positions

With five weeks left in the Ontario Hockey League regular season, we could see at least four teams having clinched playoff spots by the end of the week.

The Oshawa Generals clinched early while the Soo Greyhounds and Erie Otters have both clinched spots, with the Greyhounds also clinching the West Division title, in the past week.

The Barrie Colts are next on the list and could clinch an Eastern Conference playoff spot with just a single point this week. The Colts are in action this week with home games against Owen Sound on Thursday and Niagara on Saturday before travelling to Sudbury on Sunday afternoon.

As they prepare to face London, Kingston and Ottawa this weekend, the Oshawa Generals could become the second team to clinch a division title with three points as they currently hold a 25-point lead over Ottawa in the East Division standings.

Speaking of playoff positioning, the Sudbury Wolves, with their 9-43-1-1 record through 54 games, surprisingly haven’t been mathematically eliminated in the Eastern Conference yet.

That will change soon as the Wolves are 27 points behind the Peterborough Petes and Mississauga Steelheads for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with 14 games to go. One more loss officially eliminates the Wolves from the OHL playoffs.

Just how tough have things been for the Wolves this season?

They’ve scored just 117 goals this season, 22 less than the next closest team – the Kingston Frontenacs with 139. The Frontenacs have 11 more wins than the Wolves, due in large part to the fact Kingston has given up just 154 goals.

What makes things worse for the Wolves is their goals against total of 263, just under five per game on average.

It will be interesting to see what the organization does in the summer to improve prior to the 2015-16 season.

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PILING ON THE POINTS

London Knights forward Mitch Marner reached the 100 point plateau over the weekend.

The OHL’s leading scorer has 38 goals and 100 points in 50 games this season in London.

The number of 100-point scorers could be up this season as 10 players have 82 points or more with as many as 14 games left in the season.

All 10 players finishing the season with 100 points is doubtful as teams could be resting players on the final weekend of the season but four other players, Marner obviously excluded, are within 12 points of the century mark. Dylan Strome or Erie could hit the mark this weekend as he sits at 98 points. London’s Christian Dvorak is four points away.

A pair of Barrie Colts are close as well including Joseph Blandisi who has 89 points with 14 games remaining while Kevin Labanc is 12 points short of 100.

And you can’t count out Erie’s Connor McDavid, who has 86 points in just 34 games. At that pace (over 2.5 points per game), McDavid should hit 100 as well as Erie has 14 games remaining in their schedule.