OHL championship opens Friday night

It’s down to the final two teams in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

Friday night at the General Motors Centre in Oshawa, Ont., the hometown Generals will host the Erie Otters in the opening game of the OHL final.

The two clubs advances to the league final thanks to six-game series victories in their respective conference finals. The Otters beat the Soo Greyhounds in the Western Conference final while Oshawa beat North Bay in the Eastern Conference final. Both teams lost in the conference finals a year ago with Erie losing to Guelph while the Generals were swept by North Bay.

Generals Coach D.J. Smith spoke of how the Otters pose a different threat compared to what the Eastern Conference champs saw against the Battalion.

“They’re a different team because they provide more of an offensive threat,” Smith said of the Otters. “In saying that, they play very good defence as well. When you’re trying to score, it opens you up defensively as well. We have to be prepared to play really tight defence but we’ve got to also try to score some goals. It’s a tough mix. They’ve got some special players.”

“Our team is going to have to be 20 guys playing their best game every night,” Smith added.

For Erie Coach Kris Knoblauch, the Otters face a similar challenge in facing a different style in the Generals compared to the Greyhounds.

“The style of the Greyhounds and the Generals are quite different,” Knoblauch said. “They’re going to pose a lot of challenges for us with Oshawa being a very strong, powerful team. They have a lot of emphasis on defence with their goals against being evidence of that. They’re definitely going to give our team a lot of challenges.”

“The biggest challenge is how strong they are,” Knoblauch also said. “They’re loaded with 19- and 20-year-olds who like to compete and battle. We had a team last round whose play was different but this is going to be a much different challenge.”

Otters forward Connor McDavid, who has posted 42 points in 15 playoff games, is coming off a series against the Greyhounds in which the NHL draft eligible forward posted 19 points in the six-game win.

“I don’t think there’s a specific plan (to slow McDavid down) and even if there was, I wouldn’t tell you anyway,” Smith joked. “I don’t think I’m any smarter than anyone else. It certainly has to come down to individual people and the five guys that are on the ice have to commit to doing it. If one of those five aren’t committed and wants to go on their own page then it’s going to be a lot more difficult. We’re not going to shut him down but we’re going to try to limit his chances.”

Smith also said that the Generals don’t plan to change their style in the series.

“We change a little bit for each team but you have to keep your own identity,” Smith said. “We’re going to forecheck. We’re going to hit; we’re going to grind. That’s just the way that we play. We expect a long series. At the end of the day, we have to make sure we’re finishing every single check all night long. That’s something we won’t change.”

For Knoblauch and the Otters, opening the series up offensively would mean surrendering more chances. Patience will be the key for the Otters.

“We know our chances are going to be limited,” Knoblauch said. “If we try to change our game and open things up a lot, we’re going to give up a lot. We just have to be patient and make the best of the opportunities that we get.”

Following game one on Friday night, game two is Saturday night in Oshawa before shifting to Erie for games three and four on May 11 and 13.