The OHL’s Best Goals of 2010/2011
Here are the five best OHL goals of 2010-11. Remember, the Canadian Hockey League season is just 21 days away.
5. Ryan Spooner, Kingston Frontenacs (Feb. 17 vs. Peterborough Petes)
This was torturous for a Petes partisan, since Spooner asked to be traded early last season. The Boston Bruins prospect with the Downy-soft hands ended up being traded within the East Division to the Frontenacs. In one of his return visits to the Peterborough Memorial Centre, Spooner took advantage of former teammate Austin Watson snapping his stick on a point shot, turning two of his former teammates, the other being goalie Bryce O’Hagan, for a sweet short-handed goal.
4. Nail Yakupov, Sarnia Sting (Nov. 14, 2010 vs. Kingston Frontenacs)
The top prospect for the 2012 NHL draft does a lot of his best work close in, often collaborating with teammate Alex Galchenyuk, who might even possess the greater upside of the two. The list would incomplete without a little Yakupov, though. Here he is taking a deft feed from the since-graduated Kale Kerbashian and roaring in on goal to roof an OT winner.
3. Darren Archibald, Niagara IceDogs (April 13 vs. Oshawa Generals)
Archibald, who will likely be trying to make the Vancouver Canucks‘ Chicago AHL affiliate this season, scored more than 40 goals as an overager. You think he had junior hockey figured out backwards and forwards? Here he is pulling off the stick-between-the-legs move to score on the rival Generals in a playoff game.
2. Richard Panik, Guelph Storm (Jan. 28 vs. Sarnia Sting)
The Storm’s season was often one big tease, as a team will a lot of 19-year-old talent never meshed and crashed out in Round 1 of the playoffs. However, big-time players often make big-time plays on big-time days. In a nationally televised game in late January, Panik, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, pulled the off-the-skate move to finish off a slick solo rush.
1. Ryan Strome, Niagara IceDogs (Oct. 28, 2010 vs. Plymouth Whalers)
It was the pièce de résistance of Strome, the IceDogs’ and maybe the entire league’s season. You could debate all day what was the better move the future New York Islander pulled off — pushing the puck between his own feet as he deked by defenceman Beau Schmitz, or banking the disc off the side of the net so he could complete the play after luring New Jersey Devils-drafted goalie Scott Wedgewood out of his crease.
Small wonder a lot of people will feel sad if Strome, the NHL’s No. 5 overall pick, doesn’t have an encore performance as a junior after posting 106 points as a 17-year-old.
