Preliminaries are often better than the main bout on a fight card, so perhaps it’s not so bad that the league-leading Erie Otters and Kitchener Rangers are more apt to meet in Round 2 than later in the playoffs.
The Otters’ 6-5 shootout win against Kitchener on Sunday had everything — a tension-riven third period, a last-minute tying goal from unlikely source Kyle Pettit, presaged by a controversial Rangers penalty, the buzzer-beating shot on a Rangers near-winning goal in the 3-on-3, and some through-the-media verbal jousting between coaches Kris Knoblauch and Mike Van Ryn. Erie emerged four points clear of London and seven ahead of Kitchener in the race for home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs with 12 games left.
The Rangers have been to Erie twice this month and deposited five goals behind Otters overage goalie Devin Williams each time, although Erie was missing No. 1 defenceman Travis Dermott on Sunday. That is going to be something the Rangers will likely remind themselves of if a playoff matchup materializes. The Otters can play up Dermott’s absence.
The Rangers made a point, figuratively, which is good for a team who will be short-staffed for the stretch. Two-way forward Mason Kohn is likely facing a stiff suspension for a cross-check.
The kicker is since the OHL uses a conference playoff format where a division winner gets home-ice advantage over an at-large team that had more points, Erie and Kitchener hold the No. 1 and 4 seeds despite being first and third overall. A monster Midwest Division is nothing new; this will be the third time in four seasons it will have at least two teams with more points than the West Division winner.
Jeff Marek hosts Sportsnet’s weekly CHL podcast, a one-stop shop for news, analysis, opinion and interviews covering the WHL, OHL and QMJHL.
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An easy fix is borrowing the old WHL format, where teams were reseeded by record after the first round. Erie’s reward for leading the league, post-Connor McDavid, shouldn’t be facing a 100-point team in Round 2 when it could instead face the still very good Sarnia Sting or Windsor Spitfires. Both Kitchener and London should play each other in Round 2, instead of one of them facing the Otters.
Abandoning a conference format for a 1-through-16 free-for-all, QMJHL-style, is a non-starter. It sounds good in theory; in practice it means extra travel for mismatches between teams that only play twice a season. Hypothetically, if one seeds the playoffs based on Monday morning’s standings with the division leaders slotted 1-4, the end result is Oshawa-Erie, Saginaw-Kingston, Niagara-Sarnia and Ottawa-Barrie.
First-round games are often a hard sell since mismatches are a fact of life, so part of the trade-off is having that element of rivalry. The Oshawa Generals’ road to the 2015 OHL and MasterCard Memorial Cup titles began with getting a push from the Peterborough Petes, who were never going to win but were not about to be a pushover for their archrival.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, Amadio world
There’s a certain poignancy to the goal streak — 12 in five games — Los Angeles Kings third-rounder Mike Amadio has authored on for the North Bay Battalion.
The Battalion’s outlook seemingly dimmed when overage wing Zach Bratina, who had a six-game goal streak in October, retired in the fall due to brain injuries. Amadio was pencilled in to be the setup man for Bratina, but is warming to the role of finisher while being Stan Butler’s No. 1 centre and penalty-killing fore-checker. His regular wings, overage Mathew Santos and 18-year-old Maurizio Colella, have been paramount at winning puck battles and creating space for Amadio.
Amadio’s year began with a so-so camp with L.A., but the 19-year-old is five goals away from breaking Wojtek Wolski’s season record of 47, set in 2005-06. Amadio has multi-goal efforts in four of the last five games.
Toronto Maple Leafs top prospect Mitch Marner should be voted the OHL’s most outstanding player. It’s hard to think of a forward who is more vital to his team than Amadio, whom the Kings will surely sign in due time. Thanks in large part to Amadio, the young Battalion with Kyle Wood as its sole 19-year-old defenceman and Santos as the lone overage skater, are a playoff dark horse.
Downward ‘Dogs
There is a guarantee of seeing some scoring in the Niagara IceDogs’ home barn this week. The nationally ranked Brock Badgers and McMaster Marauders are playing basketball at the Meridian Centre on Wednesday. So there is that.
The IceDogs, who were shut out against Kingston on Sunday, have been hitting the crest on goalies’ jerseys more than the back of the net. A team with creative centre Josh Ho-Sang, Coyotes first-rounder Brendan Perlini and overage centre Stephen Harper has scored three or fewer goals in 10 consecutive games.
That has contributed to Niagara, which added Team USA goalie Alex Nedeljkovic for a playoff run, being 6-8-0-1 since the Jan. 11 trade deadline. The IceDogs have staked a lot on this season; of course, it isn’t over yet.
Mrazek-ical moment
Since import goalies were banned from the CHL the season after Petr Mrazek turned pro, it was only fitting that the Detroit Red Wings goalie and Ottawa 67’s alumnus would break with convention during a ceremonial faceoff. Instead of the captains coming to centre ice last Friday, the Kingston Frontenacs’ Jeremy Helvig and Ottawa’s Leo Lazarev, a Russian, took part in the pregame photo op.
Lazarev, who moved to the Waterloo, Ont., area to play minor midget and Junior B in order to get into the OHL priority selection, has a 2.73 average and .905 save percentage in his second season with the 67’s.
By the way, if you think it’s a contradiction that the 67’s quite rightly recognize Mrazek’s development while the CHL’s policy implies it was a bad thing the NHL’s goals-against average leader maturing in their league is a bane on the game since Mrazek is Czech, evidently that’s your problem.
Canadian NHL team prospect of the week
Stephen Desrocher, D, Kingston Frontenacs
The Leafs sixth-rounder (155th overall) helped Kingston win two of three, although his best stat line came in the loss. Desrocher managed to be plus-4 during a 5-4 divisional loss against the Peterborough Petes. The Toronto native and his teammates made sure that defeat was a one-off. Kingston finished the week with four consecutive scoreless periods.
New name to know
Jacob Paquette, D, Kingston Frontenacs
A 16-year-old defenceman on a loaded-up contender often ends up getting more arena poutine than ice time in the second half. The six-foot-two, 198-pound Paquette, a Fronts second-rounder last spring, has earned the trust of the coaching staff and contributes on Kingston’s OHL-leading penalty kill. The Ottawa native has also been an even or plus player for 10 consecutive games.