Inside the CHL – Playoff Races Reaching a Fever Pitch
By Aaron Bell
The Ottawa 67’s may be holding on to their playoff chances by little more than a thread but there’s no doubt that rookie scoring star Travis Konecny and workhorse overager Philippe Trudeau have had the strongest grip on it.
After a pair of weekend losses left them precariously close to being out of the playoff picture, Konecny scored a pair of goals in regulation time and then counted again in a shootout to help the 67’s to a 5-4 win over the Mississauga Steelheads in the nation’s capital on Tuesday.
Trudeau made 47 saves and then turned aside both shooters he faced in the shootout to seal the win in his 58th game of the season for the 67’s.
The win left the 67’s and Steelheads in a deadlock for the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference with five games left in the regular season. The Niagara IceDogs also aren’t ready to give up on the season just yet and trail both teams by one point with an extra game to go.
Konecny, the first overall pick of the Ottawa 67’s in last year’s OHL Priority Selection, is second in team scoring with – fittingly – 67 points (on 24 goals and 43 assists) in 58 games as a freshman this season. He is the top rookie scorer in the OHL this season and trails Erik Bradford for the team scoring lead by one point.
Meanwhile, Trudeau has played 3,221 minutes this season, less than only Spencer Martin, who has racked up 3,253 minutes with the Steelheads.
Despite eventually getting the win on Tuesday and being in a favourable spot to make the post-season, 67’s coach Chris Byrne is looking for more from his squad.
“We sat back in that third period and didn’t generate any shifts in their zone,” Byrne told the Ottawa Citizen. “We looked like a worn out team there a little bit in the third period. We were fortunate to get the two points but we have a lot of work ahead of us over the next five games.”
Konecny also counted in a shootout last Wednesday to push the 67’s to a 3-2 shootout win over the Belleville Bulls that effectively pushed the Bulls out of the playoff race. That loss pushed the Bulls down to last in the Eastern Conference and they are seven points out of a playoff spot with six games to go.
“We need all the points and there’s no secret it’s a huge battle,” Bradford said after that win. “If Belleville had gotten two points it would have put them right back in the picture. We knew how critical that game was.”
In the OHL’s Western Conference, the Plymouth Whalers need just one point to clinch the final playoff spot. The Kitchener Rangers trail by 10 points with five games to go.
The playoff picture in the Western Hockey League is a little more wide open in the closing weeks of the season. Five teams are fighting it out for the final four playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference while the Tri-City Americans have a four point cushion over the Prince George Cougars for the final spot in the Western Conference.
There are still four playoff spots up for grabs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and all six teams still have a shot at them. Just seven points separate the 14th place Charlottetown Islanders and the 18th place Sherbrooke Phoenix.