Perlini, IceDogs set for OHL final

The Ontario Hockey League final will see two teams that have rolled through the playoffs.

In three rounds, the London Knights and Niagara IceDogs have combined to lose just three games en route to a meeting in the league championship.

Among the IceDogs leaders is Sault product Brendan Perlini, a first round draft pick of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.

Perlini finished the regular season fourth in IceDogs scoring with 25 goals and 45 points in 57 before adding six goals and nine points through 12 playoff games.

“He’s had a good year and we’ll miss him for the first two games,” IceDogs General Manager/Coach Marty Williamson said of Perlini, who played with the Canadian National Junior Team during the World Junior Hockey Championship at Christmas. “He’s one of the pieces of the puzzle. When Perls is on and playing fast, he’s a tough man to handle. He’s a first round pick by Arizona for a reason and he’s a big part of our team.”

Perlini will miss the opening two games of the series due to a league-imposed three-game suspension for a cross-check in the IceDogs four-game sweep of the Barrie Colts in the Eastern Conference final.

The Knights will also get a boost in the series as Max Jones is set to return from a 12-game suspension in game three.

Jones was suspended after a hit on Owen Sound Attack forward Justin Brack in the first round of the playoffs.

In a conference call previewing the series on Wednesday, both coaches expect a tougher test than what they saw in their respective conference final series’.

“They’ve got a good team and it starts like us with good goaltending, good ‘D’ and good scoring,” Knights Coach Dale Hunter said. “It should be a really interesting series.”

The Knights advanced after a four-game sweep of the Erie Otters in the Western Conference final.

Knights forward Mitchell Marner also said he expects a tight series with Niagara.

“It’s going to be a hard-fought series,” said Marner, who was named the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player on Tuesday. “We know Niagara has a great team and they’re all-around solid. We just better be ready to come and play every night.”

Meanwhile, the IceDogs got to the OHL final thanks to a sweep of the Barrie Colts in the Eastern Conference final.

“We never would have thought that we would beat Barrie in four-straight,” said Williamson. “But they were four hard-fought games that could have gone either way. We’re getting the timely scoring and playing good hockey and we’re going to need that to continue to have a chance against London.”

Williamson would also credit the Knights for their “underrated” defensive game.

It’s been a tough season at times for the IceDogs, who entered the playoffs as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Williamson would say consistency was an issue during the regular season.

“We played a lot of good games. Everybody thought we horrific season but we weren’t that bad,” said Williamson. “We struggled with consistency, especially against some of the bottom-placed teams.

“It just seems like for about the last 10 games of the regular season and into the playoffs, our consistency and our effort-level was a lot better and we gave ourselves a chance to win hockey games rather than shooting ourselves in the foot like we did a fair bit early in the year,” Williamson added.

Niagara captain Anthony DiFruscia called the season a roller-coaster.

“It’s back to work now,” DiFruscia said. “We’ve come a long way this year. We’ve been up and down and it’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster season but we’re ready to play. We’ve just got to stick to the same game plan and be ready to battle against the Knights.”

The series features the OHL’s top regular season power play (London – 29.2 percent) and second-ranked penalty kill (Niagara – 84.2 percent).

The series opens on Thursday night in London.

In the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies opened the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final on Wednesday night with a 4-2 win on home ice over the Shawinigan Cataractes. Philippe Myers had a goal and an assist for the Huskies. Gabriel Fontaine, Anthony-John Greer and Nikolas Brouillard also scored while Martins Dzierkals assisted on two goals for Rouyn-Noranda. Gabriel Gagne and Samuel Girard scored for Shawinigan. Game two in the series is Friday night in Rouyn-Noranda.

The Western Hockey League final gets underway on Friday night as the Brandon Wheat Kings host the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The three league champions will then travel to Red Deer, AB later this month for the MasterCard Memorial Cup, which kicks off with game one on May 20.