Around the OHL
Canada vs. USA
Canada and the United States will face-off Sunday evening at 7:40 pm Eastern in the final preliminary game of the men’s hockey event at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Canada enters the game with five points courtesy of an 8-0 win over Norway and a 3-2 shootout win over Switzerland. USA beat the Swiss 3-1 and Norway 6-1 tolead Group A with six points. A total of 13 OHL graduates will compete in Sunday’s game including seven on Team Canada and six on the United States.
Los Angeles Kings’ teammates Drew Doughty of Canada and Dustin Brown of the United States are both Guelph Storm alumni with Doughty playing from 2005-08 and Brown playing from 2000-03. The United States’ Ryan Callahan also played for the Storm from 2002-06. Knights’ graduates Rick Nash (2000-02) and Corey Perry (2001-05) for Team Canada will try and contain young star Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks who had a dynamic season with the Knights in 2006-07 before being selected first overall at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Peterborough Petes alumni Chris Pronger (1991-93) and Eric Staal (2000-04) for Canada will also be up against American Petes grad Jamie Langenbrunner (1993-95). Canadians Michael Richards and Joe Thornton and Americans Tim Gleason and Bobby Ryan round out the OHL content in the game.
OHL Playoff Races:
Playoff races are heating up for the final few weeks of the regular season and it looks like the battle will go right down to the wire in both conferences.
The Niagara IceDogs had won five times and picked up points in seven of their past 10 games and moved into a three-way tie with the Oshawa Generals and Sudbury Wolves for seventh in the Eastern Conference heading into Thursday night action before beating the Brampton Battalion 4-3 to move ahead with 49 points heading into the weekend. Assuming none of those teams catch the Peterborough Petes or Brampton Battalion in the next three weeks, only two will make the playoffs.
"Our mindset is that our last games are all playoff (games)," said veteran forward Andrew Agozzino, the IceDogs’ top scorer with 31 goals and 53 points this season. "The playoffs started for us a few weeks ago right after the Christmas break. We’ve been playing really well since then if we are going to get into the playoffs and do anything, we’re going to have to go on a good run now."
The IceDogs picked up huge wins against Oshawa and Belleville last week and also picked up a point in a shootout loss in Kingston. Overage forward Josh Moes said that the team approached those games like playoff matchups.
"We were very focused and excited – we took it as a playoff game," Moes said. "There’s not much to say. If you can’t get up for these games then you might as well not even be playing hockey. We treat all of these games coming up as playoff games because we’re right in the mix there."
The Belleville Bulls have slipped out of the playoff race with six straight losses heading into Wednesday’s matchup against the Kingston Frontenacs, who have become one of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference with seven wins in their past 10 games.
Meanwhile, the Owen Sound Attack and Guelph Storm are waging a battle for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Heading into the weekend, Owen Sound has a four-point lead over Guelph but the Storm have three games in hand and have been a dramatically improved bunch over the past several weeks.
"This team has talent," said veteran defenceman Ryan Gottschalk. "Taylor Beck, Peter Holland, Mike Latta – guys like that. I think over the last couple of months our team has started gelling together. We’ve got some solid lines and it’s been working for us."
Gottschalk came over from the Barrie Colts in December and has been a key contributor to Guelph’s turn-around.
"It’s a completely different feeling coming over from Barrie," Gottschalk said. "When we first got here we were way out of a playoff spot but all the guys have banded together, we made a few key acquisitions and we’re fighting really hard for that playoff spot right now."
Corralling a Record:
Overage sniper Bryan Cameron is closing in on the Barrie Colts’ mark for the most goals in one season.
Cameron, who came to Barrie from the Belleville Bulls at the start of the season, scored six goals in three games last week to up his season total to 44. Sheldon Keefe set the team record of 48 during the Colts’ championship season in 1999-2000.
Cameron has 13 games left to try to reach the mark but the way he’s been finding the net lately, he could do it in one of three games this weekend.
"It’d be an honour," Cameron told the Barrie Examiner. "If it happens, it happens. As long as we’re winning games, that’s all that really matters."
Hockey Legend Retires Jersey:
The Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors added a new banner to the rafters at the Hershey Centre on Monday prior to their Family Day game against the Erie Otters retiring the number three jersey of hockey legend Red Kelly.
"It’s unbelievable" the 82-year-old Kelly from Simcoe, ON, told the Canadian Press. "I’ve got a few pictures on my wall at home of being at St. Mike’s with the Majors logo and seeing it here today brings back a lot of great memories not just from hockey, but from the academic side as well."
Kelly won eight Stanley Cup championships in the NHL after attending St. Michael’s College from 1943-47 where he won a Memorial Cup in his final season.
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