The Ontario Hockey League playoffs moved deeper into the second round tonight with game one of the series between the Mississauga Steelheads and the Oshawa Generals and game two between the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and the Owen Sound Attack.
The Generals took a 1-0 series lead over Michael McLeod, Nathan Bastian and the Mississauga Steelheads with a 3-2 win in game one of their series at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.
Oshawa jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Joe Manchurek on the power play at 4:40 and Jack Studnicka at 7:46. The Steelheads got on the board at 12:57 of the second period when Vili Saarijarvi scored on the power play with assists to both McLeod brothers (Michael had the primary while Ryan had the secondary).
Michael McLeod then took a high-sticking minor to set up an Oshawa power play that Riley Stillman converted on at 16:45 in what proved to be the game winner.
Jacob Cascagnette would pull Mississauga a little bit closer, scoring at 2:40 of the third period on the power play with assists to Spencer Watson and Michael McLeod. Jeremy Brodeur – Marty’s son – made an amazing 50 saves on 52 shots against for the Generals.
Brodeur was named the game’s first star while Michael McLeod was the second star and Bastian the third star. McLeod had the two assists while Bastian had five shots on goal.
Game two comes on Sunday from the Hershey Centre.
Meanwhile, in Sault Ste. Marie at the Essar Centre, Colton White and Blake Speers’ Greyhounds were busy defeating the Attack 4-1. Sault Ste. Marie now has a 2-0 series lead over Owen Sound.
The Greyhounds began the scoring at 5:22 of the first when Barrett Hayton scored on the power play. The game winner also came off the stick of Hayton (Boris Katchouk and White had the assists) this one also came on the power play at 19:59 of the first period. At the end of the first, it was 2-0 Soo.
The Greyhounds added an insurance goal at 14:36 of the second when Bobby MacIntyre scored unassisted to make it 3-0. Owen Sound got on the board at 7:26 of the third when Petrus Palmu scored, but the Soo would add an empty netter by Tim Gettinger to wrap things up with the 4-1 victory to take the 2-0 series lead.
In goal, Joseph Raaymakers made 34 saves on 35 shots against for the Greyhounds in being named the first star of the game.
Game three is Sunday as well from the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre in Owen Sound.
And finally, the NCAA men’s hockey championship game is set as Devils prospect Joey Anderson and Minnesota-Duluth coming off of their dramatic 2-1 late second win over Harvard last night, will be facing Denver University in the game at the United Center in Chicago.
Denver is coming off of a 6-1 victory over Notre Dame in the other semifinal played later last night in the 2017 NCAA Frozen Four. Congrats to both teams as Joey Anderson gets a chance to skate for a national championship.