On Friday night, the Erie Otters dug their edges in and battled hard to tie their first round playoff series with the Sarnia Sting.
The 4,500 fans who bought tickets expecting offensive pyrotechnics and a high octane aerial show were served a steady portion of physicality, grit, pugnacity and truculence by their Otters.
Don't make the mistake of characterizing the Erie Otters as the 1984 Edmonton Oilers river hockey squad. This Otters team is a chameleon that has been forced to changed its color palate based on the Sarnia Sting's in-your-face, highly aggressive and at time dirty style of play.
For sustained, long stretches in Game 2, the action reminded me of a demotion-rodeo-street fight-hockey game all rolled into one tasty treat. Bodies from both teams were strewn all about the ice in all three zones. Game 2 started as Game 1 ended: nasty.
In the third period of Game 1, Otters forward Nick Betz was knocked out of the game with a serious upper body injury that he sustained when he was railed into the wall. Betz was in a vulnerable position, however, was crushed any all the same by Stinger tough guy Alex Black, who was assessed a 5 and a game for his indiscretions.
With Betz (likely concussion) out of the lineup on Friday night ( he will sit out Games 3 and 4, too), Jake Marchment, who shook off a shoulder injury that sidelined him Thursday, drew back into the lineup and added some heavy hits and backbone to an Otters team that doesn't like to be branded as a soft, skilled team. The Otters showed their fangs on Friday night when big, bag hombre defenseman Cory Genovese's rocked Noah Bushnell's world in a long, angry fist fight that saw the Sting forward get the worst of it.
"They have some guys who take liberties with our skilled guys and Geno took care of it for us. That guy took five or six hard punches from Geno before he knew he was in a fight", a proud captain Connor McDavid told me after the game.
McDavid also told me that he thought that his team likely took Sarnia too lightly in Game i on Thursday night. Their approach to Game 2 was more urgent, physical and direct.
"We knew that was the way we were going to play, battle hard, get in on the forecheck and create chances and use our speed against them," defenseman Kurtis MacDermid said after the game.
Sarnia's aggresive Guy Boucher inspired 1-3-1 Trap allowed the Sting to clog up huge chunks of ice in the neutral zone, thus frustrating the Otters' trademark flash, dash, and flow of the Otters. In the first 20 minutes, the Sting choked teh Otter' creativity and pace and they slowed the game down to a crawl. They blocked shots and denied the long streth passes that the Otters love to breakout out of the zone with.
Sarnia goalie Taylor Dupuis had to be sharp and was. He made 26 saves.
In the end, Erie's patience was a virtue.
"I think eventually we got them to sit back on their heels," Marchment said, "and that gave our speed a little more time to move."
Remi Elie picked up his second goal in two games and Devin Williams made 24 saves for the Otters.
Those McDavid, Baptiste and Strome guys were pretty sensational, too.
McDavid popped the cork and opened the scoring with a nifty backhander that evaded Dupuis just five minutes into the second period period.
After Sarnia killed a five-on-three, Elie had his revenge, giving the Otters a two-goal lead off a turnover in the neutral zone gave Elie a breakaway that he punctuated with a low laser beam snap shot.
Buffalo Sabres prospect Nick Baptiste buried a heavy one-timer from Strome and McDavid for his first goal of the playoffs. After the game I joked Baptiste that his clapper finally landed in Lackawanna. He laughed and said, "I wasn't missing that one. I'll say that."
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The game got ugly midway through the third period when Otters defenseman Darren Raddysh was aggressively slashed down to the ice by a vicious Pavel Zacha two-hand chop. It was an ugly play. Raddysh, the Otters' best D-man, was lost for the rest of the game in a critical two goal playfof game. The Otters were able to overcome Raddysh's loss, however, Otters owner/general manager Sherry Bassin was seen asking the OHL to review the incident for a possible suspension. Raddysh's injury is non weight bearing, meaning, he could not apply any weight to his injured leg. I hated the slash for Zacha, who is expected to be drafted in the top 20-25 selection of the first round in the 2015 NHL Draft.
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Sting defenseman Alex Black wasn't suspended for the head hit that injured Betz in Game 1. OHL vice president Ted Baker said the hit didn't warrant a 5-minute penalty and game misconduct, and the league doesn't suspend players based solely on injuries.
Thursday was a busy day as a few NHL GMs signed highly sought after, undrafted NCAA free agents. Kenney Morrison signed with the Calgary Flames. Kyle Baun signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. The San Jose Sharks signed Wisconson University goalie Joel Rumpel. Last Saturday, Casey Bailey signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
However, the cream of the college crops, BU goalie Matt O’Connor, has not been signed yet.
Yet.
Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray and his college scouts have been watching O'Connor play all season long. Suffice to say, teh Sabres are interested in him. O'Connor should be interested in Buffalo as well.
O'Connor's BU Terriers survived a scare in the single elimination playoff game with Yale on Friday afternoon. O'Connor and the Terriers trailed 1-0 after 40 minutes, however, clawed their way back into it to force OT. Boston University lives to play another day in the NCAA playoffs.
The Terriers will face Minnesota-Duluth in the regional final on Saturday at 5:30 p.m
BU junior Danny O'Regan scored 7:27 into overtime to lift the Boston University to an exciting 3-2 victory over Yale in the opening game of the NCAA Northeast Regional.
Down 1-0 after two periods, the Terriers shot blanks for the first 50 minutes of the game. Ahti Oksanen ended the scoring drought at 8:21 of the third and senior Evan Rodrigues gave BU a 2-1 lead less than three minutes later.
Matt O'Connor made 21 saves for the winners.
Jack Eichel recorded one assist.
Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray was in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday afternoon to watch O'Connor and Eichel play. Murray continues to show serious interest in signing O'Connor to shore up Buffalo's net. I expect that Murray will pounce on O'Connor and his agent with a contract and a Mont Blanc pen the moment that the Terriers are eliminated from the playoffs. That is IF they get eliminated. Buffalo's season ends on Saturday April, the same day that of the NCAA Frozen Four Finals to determine the national championship.
Sabres fans should be rooting for BU Terriers to be eliminated prematurely from the post season tourney. The sooner O'Connor is knocked from the playoffs, the sooner he he has to report to Buffalo and play in games. The Sabres only have seven games remaining in this their worst season in franchise history.
Murray recently told WGR Buffalo that he has a need to upgrade his goaltending and that he can meet all of O'Connor's contract demands. Murray can check off all of the demand boxes. For example, Murray can burn a year on O'Connor's eventual 2 year contract by playing him in NHL games this season.
The Sabres need a #1 goalie moving forward. Chad Jonson, Anders Lindback, and Matt Hackett are back-iups at best. Murray has been searching high and low for his future starter. He's inquired about Anaheim youngster John Gibson. Ditto Ottawa's Robin Lehner. Murray also has looked into Montreal Canadiens prospect Zach Fucale and Boston Bruins prospect Malcolm Subban.
Murray would be wise to give O'Connor what he wants in order to sign him now. Let him play a couple of NHL games this season and then train with Buffalo goalie whisperer Archie Irbe.
Murray believes that O'Connor is worth the initial buzz that has surrounded him this season in Hockey East.
“He’s a prospect. He’s a big guy who’s having a tremendous year. A late bloomer and we know goalies aren’t good until they’re older anyway. But no, he’s a good enough prospect that a lot of teams are interested.
“He’s a free player. Free being he costs you money, but he doesn’t cost you a draft pick. He doesn’t cost you another player. Those guys are always a good roll of the dice. And with our goaltending situation, he makes sense to us. He makes sense for us to give him a kick at the can with us, and we get a try with him. But he needs development, he needs some time. That’s what we’re supposed to do as an organization, is make players better.”
Teams showing interest in O'Connor include Buffalo, Ottawa, New Jersey, Arizona, and Toronto.
If and when the Terriers are eliminated from the NCAA playoffs he will be free to sign with whichever NHL team that he chooses.
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