OHL Playoff Notebook: Greyhounds ready for Otters

The Ontario Hockey League’s version of the final four begins on Thursday night in Sault Ste. Marie.

Three of the top four teams in the regular season standings comprise the conference final participants as the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds face the Erie Otters in the Western Conference final and the Oshawa Generals meet the North Bay Battalion in the Eastern Conference final.

The Greyhounds and Otters represent the top two teams in the west while Oshawa finished atop the east standings and the trio of clubs were the top three in the overall standings.

North Bay finished tied for second in the Eastern Conference standings with the Barrie Colts.

The Greyhounds enter the Western Conference final having won all eight of their playoff games to date.

The team opened the playoffs with a four-game sweep of the Saginaw Spirit before sweeping the Guelph Storm in round two.

Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe called the series with the Otters their first big test of the playoffs.

“We were able to get through the first two rounds without any sort of setback,” Keefe said. “We’re playing a team that is near the top of the Western Conference and, like ourselves, was built to win this year. They believe they can beat us and are capable of doing so.

“We faced a very young Saginaw team that was just happy to make the playoffs and a Guelph team that was possibly satisfied with winning in the first round,” Keefe added. “That challenge is much different here and we recognize that. We’re expecting a very tough, challenging series that, in many senses, is like the playoffs just beginning here for us.”

Greyhounds netminder Brandon Halverson enters the series with a 2.05 goals against average (second to North Bay’s Jake Smith) and a 0.920 save percentage, which is second among the goaltenders remaining in the playoffs, also to Smith.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth in Halvy’s game throughout the season. He’s a guy that’s had a lot of different experiences since the end of last season,” said Keefe. “All of those experiences sped up his development. Getting through the trade deadline with us making it clear that he was our guy, that also helped his mindset. He has been excellent for us for quite some time now”

The Otters finished the regular season with a 50-14-2-2 record, good for 104 points and top spot in the Midwest Division and six points behind the Greyhounds in the conference standings.

“We’ve had a lot of success taking advantage of other teams weaknesses and line matchups,” Knoblauch said. “I don’t think that’s going to be the case with the Greyhounds. They’re a very deep team with four lines and six defencemen. It’s going to be very difficult to get those matchups if there are any. They are deep and get goal-scoring throughout their lineup. We have to be very good defensively because any of those four lines can score.”

The Otters then opened the playoffs by beating the Sarnia Sting in five games in round one. The second round saw the Otters sweep the London Knights.

“The first two rounds were a little more difficult than they may have seemed,” Knoblauch said. “It helped us prepare for the series against the Soo and something that our players are looking forward to.”

Knoblauch expects goaltender Devin Williams to be a key piece in the series for Erie as he adjusts to life as a starting netminder.

“The regular season was hard on Devin,” Knoblauch said. “It’s difficult to go from being a backup goaltender to being a starter. There’s a lot of pressure on him.”

Of note, the goaltenders with the top four goals against average numbers are currently still in the playoffs. Smith and Halverson rank one and two while Oshawa’s Ken Appleby is third (2.32) and Williams is fourth (2.44).

The series also features a pair of potential teammates in the National Hockey League in Darnell Nurse of the Greyhounds and Connor McDavid of Erie. Nurse is a prospect of the Edmonton Oilers while McDavid is expected to be selected with the top pick in the 2015 NHL entry draft by the Oilers in June.

Nurse told reporters that’s not something he’s thinking about just yet.

“Our series starts (Thursday) and I’ll worry about that once it’s over,” Nurse said when asked about the possibility of being teammates with McDavid in Edmonton.

The veteran blueliner did speak highly of his teammate with the Canadian national junior team.

“Connor’s a really special player,” said Nurse. “He has the ability to change games no matter what the situation is. It’s going to be a tough challenge but one I’m looking forward to.”

For McDavid, the series provides a second opportunity after the Otters lost to the Guelph Storm in the 2014 Western Conference final.

“Last year, getting so close (to the final) and losing to Guelph in the Western Conference final was tough for a lot of guys,” McDavid said. “It left a pretty bitter tasted in our mouth from last year. We’re looking forward to get this thing going.”

The Greyhounds and Otters split their season series with each team winning on the road.

The Otters took the season series opener in Sault Ste. Marie by a 6-4 score on Oct. 24. The Greyhounds won game two in Erie on Feb. 8, beating the Otters 6-1.

The Western Conference final opens on Thursday night at the Essar Centre at 7:07 p.m. Game two is Friday night, also at 7:07 p.m. at the Essar Centre

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Eastern Conference Final Preview

This marks the second consecutive season that the Generals and Battalion have met in the Eastern Conference final.

The Battalion swept last years meeting.

The Generals enter the series coming off wins over the Peterborough Petes in round one and the Niagara IceDogs in the second round, both in five games.

“Our team played really well and had some adversity in both series which I don’t think we had (in the first two rounds) last year,” said Smith. “We’re bigger and stronger than we were a year ago but the same North Bay team is probably bigger themselves so it’s a tough task at hand.”

The Generals added at the trade deadline in an effort to get bigger heading into the playoffs, adding Michael McCarron (London), Brent Pedersen (Kitchener) and Matt Mistele (Plymouth).

“It wasn’t an accident that we went out and got bigger (at the trade deadline),” said Smith. “We felt we got man-handled in that series last year (against North Bay). The four teams remaining are the four biggest teams in the league. If you’ve done your research, you see that big teams win in the playoffs and we had to get bigger.”

The Generals also acquired defenceman Dakota Mermis from London in the deal that brought McCarron to Oshawa on Jan. 1.

North Bay swept the Kingston Frontenacs in the opening round before beating the Barrie Colts in five games in the second round.

“Both our first round series’ were a lot closer than the games indicated,” said Butler. “In the Kingston series, after the first game they were all one-goal games and we were lucky to get the breaks to win. In the second series against Barrie, all the games were very close.”

“We’ve had two tough series,” Butler added. “(Oshawa) was the best team in the Eastern Conference for a reason. We know that they’re big and strong and a very good, physical team. We know we’ve got our work cut out for us in this series.”

The Eastern Conference final opens on Friday night at the General Motors Centre in Oshawa.