Oshawa Generals Remain Undefeated in Memorial Cup, Devils Sign another Prospect

The Oshawa Generals moved into the next round of the 2015 Memorial Cup by sweeping the round robin portion. The Ontario Hockey League champions defeated the Western Hockey League champion, Kelowna Rockets 2 to 1 on May 26 to run the table in the round robin round.

In a game where the Colisee Pepsi paid tribute to native son Patrick Roy, the game was fittingly low-scoring. All of the game’s goals came in the second period. The game was scoreless until 4:15 of the second frame when Cole Cassels notched his first goal of the tournament when he sniped one from the top of the right faceoff circle. Dakota Mermis and team scoring leader, Michael Dal Colle got the assists. Oshawa then went up by two towards the end of the period at 17:16 when Tobias Lindberg connected from deep in the slot from Sam Harding and Anthony Cirelli.

The Generals remained up by two for less than a minute. At 18:11 of the second, Kelowna closed the gap when Gage Quinney slammed one home from the side of Oshawa goaltender Ken Appleby’s crease. The assists went to Tyson Baillie and Madison Bowey. A tense third period passed and the Oshawa Generals would advance directly into the Memorial Cup Final on May 31 against the winner of the semifinal between the Quebec Remparts and the Kelowna Rockets (the Remparts had defeated Rimouski Oceanic in the tiebreaker on May 28 to advance to the semifinal). The semifinal will be played on May 29.

Congratulations to the Oshawa Generals for their fantastic accomplishment. They have been winning the close games that they needed to in order to get to the championship round. Should the Generals win the Memorial Cup, it will be well earned and will be a great moment in the history of a club that has won the trophy on four previous occasions (1939, 1940, 1944 and, most recently, in 1990).

Meanwhile, on the home front, the Devils signed another prospect, one who has experience in a major professional league. Sergey Kalinin was signed to an entry level contract by the Devils, General Manager Ray Shero announced on May 29. As per club policy, no terms of the deal were announced.

Kalinin is a 6 foot 3 inch, 190 pound 24 year-old native of Omsk, Russia and played five seasons with Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia. The forward played 58 games for Omsk this past season, scoring 12 goals, 13 assists for 25 points and had 49 penalty minutes. He served as Omsk’s captain in 2014-15. He made his KHL debut in 2009-10 after parts of two years with Omskie Yastreby of the Minor Hockey League (a league that is roughly equivalent to the CHL in North America). Over 213 games played in the KHL, he had 31 goals, 38 assists and 69 points to go along with 113 penalty minutes. In the playoffs, he played 39 games and had three goals and two assists for five points and twelve penalty minutes.

In international play, he has played for Team Russia at the 2011 World Junior Championships, winning a gold medal and the 2014 World Championships, also winning gold.

Oshawa Generals Edge Oceanic, Beat Remparts in OT

The Oshawa Generals, Ontario Hockey League team of Martin Brodeur’s son, Jeremy, are unbeaten in the 2015 Memorial Cup round robin tournament so far.

They opened the Canadian Hockey League championship on May 23 with a game against Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Rimouski Oceanic. Oshawa’s Tobias Lindberg opened the scoring just 4:07 into the first period off an assist from Michael McCarron when Lindberg put one in from the side of the crease. Roughly five minutes later, Michael Dal Colle scored from the high slot for Oshawa giving the Generals a 2-0 lead. Matt Mistele and Mitchell Vande Sompel had the assists on the goal.

Rimouski would score the next two as Tyler Boland scored from the slot at 15:26 of the first with Andrew Picco and Anthony Chapados getting the helpers. Less than a minute later, Alexis Loiseau tied things up when he jammed one in on the side of the net unassisted.

With the score tied 2-2 going into the second frame, the OHL champs looked to regain the upper hand. They did so when Stephen Desrocher scored at 18:33 with an assist to Cole Cassels to pull ahead 3-2.

The third period began with Oceanic tying things up once more when Jan Kostalek, from Christopher Clapperton and Frederik Gauthier, scored on the power play in the high slot, beating goaltender Ken Appleby. The stage was now set for a hectic finish. The game winner came off the stick of Oshawa’s Hunter Smith from nearly the same spot as Lindberg’s goal way back in the first period. The assist went to Bradley Latour.

The team returned to the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City on May 24 for a game against the host and QMJHL team Quebec Remparts. This game would also come down to the wire for the Generals, but this game would take almost a full extra period to play to finish things.

The Generals once again got the scoring started when Michael McCarron scored off assists to Vande Sompel and Dal Colle at 2:18 of the first period. About three minutes later at 5:43, Quebec’s Raphael Maheux scored on Appleby from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The assists went to Anthony Duclair and Ryan Graves. Dal Colle finished out the scoring in the first when he put Oshawa ahead 2-1 with an assist from McCarron.

The game continued its back-and-forth nature when the Remparts tied things 2:45 into the second. Graves scored from just inside the blueline from Marc-Olivier Roy and Vladimir Tkachev.

There were two power play goals in the game, one for each team, and they both came in the third stanza. At 2:34 of the third, Dakota Mermis scored from almost the same place as Grave’s goal in the second to give the Generals a 3-2 lead. He got help from Lindberg and Desrocher. The first power play goal came just minutes later at 5:39 when Dmytro Timashov scored with the extra attacker from a bad angle at the goal line, from Roy and Nikolas Brouiliard. This tied the game at three.

Quebec would briefly take the lead in the third when Timashov got his second of the game at 8:48 from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The assists went to Adam Erne and Kurt Etchegary. The Remparts kept the lead until Quebec took a penalty with about four minutes left in regulation. It was on this power play that Lindberg scored from Cassels and Dal Colle to tie the game.

Oshawa now had the momentum as the game headed into overtime, but it took almost the entire extra session to declare a winner. At 18:07, with about two minutes left, Desrocher scored the game winner from the left circle hash marks off an assist from Cassels. The Generals now had two wins in two games in the Memorial Cup tournament. Michael Dal Colle leads the team and all scorers in the Memorial Cup with four points.

Next up for Oshawa are the champions from the west, the Kelowna Rockets on May 26. Although Jeremy Brodeur has not gotten any playing time in the round robin yet, he is still a capable backup who, should the Generals win the Memorial Cup, could call himself a champion.