Breakdown of Dalton Smith’s hit

Dalton Smith’s hit on 2012 NHL Prospect Daniil Zharkov during period one in game 5 of the OHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Smith was handed 5 minute major for “hitting to the head” and a game misconduct in conjunction. Zharkov left the ice, but would return to the game.

Full video http://twitvid.com/CQZX2
Slow motion http://twitvid.com/HWC1

Hit to the head? No.
Left the ice? No.
Charged? No.
Led with elbow? No.
Legal hit in OHL? Yes.

Unfortunately Zharkov put himself in a vulnerable position and had his head down while carrying the puck. Smith lead with his forearm and hit him right in the high chest area. His skates remained in the ice and did my lift.

My call? No suspension.

What you may have missed… Pre-game 5: Bulls @ 67’s

What you may have missed….

Suspension

After a spearing incident before game 2, Marc Zanetti’s OHL playoff fate was finally decided on Tuesday afternoon.  He was slapped with a 5 game suspension and won’t be available until game 7 if this current series goes that long.  Interesting to note, there was no video explanation for Zanetti’s suspension. I have attached a link to a video of the incident captured by from my phone.

Video here: http://www.twitvid.com/PD53R
Official word here: http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/article/ohl-announces-disciplinary-action/119767

Game 3

It was 3-1 going into the third period and it appeared the 67’s would take a 3-0 stranglehold on the series; however, the Bulls had other plans. Michael Curtis, Jake Worrad and the Bulls clawed their way back to tie the game to force overtime.  With momentum now in the Bulls favour, it took all of 14 seconds into the extra frame to decide the fate of the game.  Off the faceoff, Adam Payerl chipped a puck past rookie d-man Sean Callaghan creating a two-on-one rush. Jordan Mayer fired the puck top-shelf past Petr Mrazek to give the Bulls the overtime win and life in the playoff series.  The 67’s would now lead 2-1.

Game Summary: http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/schedule/show/game/61437

Game 4

After a heart-breaking overtime loss, one would think the 67’s would come out firing.  Instead, they became quickly frustrated after a series of undisciplined plays causing them to be short-hand for nearly half of the period.  Two quick goals and it was 2-0 Bulls before the 4 minute mark.

After taking 4 more penalties (8 straight), the 67’s began to regrouped in the second period and Petr Mrazek helped keep them in the game stopping all 14 shots in the period.  But Malcolm Subban was the difference as the 67’s had several great chances including a flurry of scoring opportunities late in the period. They were unable to capitalize. The score remained 2-0.

Austen Brassard gave the Bulls a 3-0 lead after he scored half way into the third period.  However, it was all but over.  Something clicked and the 67’s stormed back scoring three goals in a span of 7:15 to tie the game and force overtime.

Brady Austin stole the 67’s thunder after he fired a wrist shot past Mrazek who was screened by Jake Cardwell.  The Bulls tie the series at 2 with game 5 heading back to Ottawa Friday night.

Game summary: http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/schedule/show/game/61447

Thoughts.

Coming into this series, most thought it would be a walk in the park.  However, analyzing the regular season more closely gives you some other thoughts.

–Home ice advantage. The atmosphere plays a huge part, but in this series the ice surface has played a bigger part.  On the Olympic-sized ice, the 67’s struggle with part of their game.  The 67’s outscored the Bulls 24-4 in Ottawa, but only 17-14 in Belleville.  During the regular season, all the games were close 1-goal games with the exception to one 2-goal game.  The ice surface encourages speed and reduces physical play which has led to many 67’s wins this season.

–Lack of discipline.  The 67’s were the third least penalized team during the regular season, but they are now at the middle of the pack.  Good news is that the 67’s penalty kill is top in the playoffs at 95.5% success rate, but the undisciplined play has more importantly affected the momentum shifts during the games.  Their getting away from their game plan and getting caught in Belleville’s.

–The 67’s best players have not their best players this series. Generally speaking, Tyler Toffoli has been the only veteran to step up.  Petr Mrazek has shown flashes of brilliance, but no one has come close to what they showed in the regular season.  Toffoli needs to continue his good play, but the likes of Shane Prince, Dalton Smith, Cody Ceci and Sean Monahan need to find a spark to get them going again.

–Mrazek mediocre.  While Mrazek’s season hasn’t been as flashy as last season or his time during the 2012 World Junior Championships, his game has not been up to par.  He has been making some outstanding saves, but he also has let in some weak ones that he wishes he could have back.  Defense has to improve, but Mrazek needs to be there as well.

Bulls seeing red as 67’s take a 2-0 series lead

The Ottawa 67’s faced off against the Belleville Bulls for the 12^th time this season in front of a home crowd of 8,958.  There was no love lost between these two teams tonight.  After several minutes of chirping at centre ice lots of pushing and shoving broke out during the pre-game warm ups.  It was quickly broken up by the officials and Marc Zanetti was assessed a 5-minute match penalty for spearing and thus thrown from the game before it even started.

This set the tone.

Fired up after last night’s overtime thriller and tonight’s pre-game incident, both teams came out of the gate flying.  The 67’s started to throw the body around more and made an impact on the pace of the game.

Brett Gustavsen made a great effort to get the 67’s on the board.  He recovered from a collision in the corner, skated straight to the net, grabbed a rebound from Remy Giftopolous’ shot and fired it past Malcolm Subban for the early 1-0 lead.

Three minutes later, the Bulls respond as Sean Callaghan couldn’t hold the puck in at the blueline causing to a two-on-one break the opposite way.  After a great first stop from Petr Mrazek, the puck flew into mid-air and Michael Curtis tapped it in for a high rebound.

Sean Monahan would regain the 67’s lead after jumping on a big rebound and shooting it into the open net after the powerplay expired.  Subban made a great first stop, but with no defenseman covering the right side and Subban now out of position, the net was wide opened and 67’s capitalized.

Rough play started early, but the game’s first fight did not come until the 14 minute mark.  After making an extra shot at Mrazek after the whistle, Tyler Graovac took exception and attempted to drop the gloves with Joseph Cramarossa.  It wasn’t much of a fight since the linesmen jumped right in with Cramarossa still managing to get a couple extra shots.  Three minutes later, Dalton Smith and Adam Payerl continued what they started in the warmup.  Smith took Payerl to the ice with four shots.

Time expired for the first 20 minutes.  Unlike last game where the teams took their turns dominating the play, both teams skated away with an even effort.

They did, however take their turns with undisciplined play after the first and into the second period.  After killing off a lengthy 67’s two-man advantage, the Bulls were stopped on a lengthy two-man advantage for themselves.  There were several great chances and great goaltending on both ends as the teams were scoreless in the second.  Sean Monahan must have had 3 great chances but was unable to bury them.

Early in the third, Monahan jumped on a bouncing puck, grabbed his own rebound and made no mistake to fire it past Subban for the eventual game winner.

Cramarossa would respond for the Bulls and finally solved Mrazek again after some hard work from his line. It appeared that the puck re-directed off of Steven Janes, but it was Cramarossa original bullet shot that got past Mrazek.  The intensity just cranked up higher for the final 10 minutes of the third with the 67’s holding on to a thin one-goal lead.  After pulling the goaltender for an extra attacker, Prince rounded out the scoring on an empty net for his first goal of the playoffs.  Subban was solid with 29 saves, but Mrazek stole the show after stopping 44 shots fired his way,

The 67’s now hold a 2-0 series lead over the Bulls.  Both teams have a time to recoup before heading to Belleville for games 3 & 4 on Sunday afternoon and Tuesday night from the Yardmen Arena.

Three Stars
1. Petr Mrazek, Ottawa
2. Sean Monahan, Ottawa
3. Joseph Cramarossa, Belleville

First round playoff preview: Ottawa vs Belleville

Ottawa 67’s (1)

Record: 40-20-5-3

Last year’s playoffs: Swept in first round by the Sudbury Wolves

Top performers:
Tyler Toffoli 52 goals, 100 points in 65 games
Shane Prince 43 goals, 90 points in 57 games
Sean Monahan 33 goals, 78 points in 62 games
Cody Ceci 17 goals, 60 points in 64 games

NHL Draft Picks:
Shane Prince, Ottawa Senators, round 2, 61^st overall in 2011
Tyler Graovac, Minnesota Wild, round 7, 191^st overall in 2011
Dalton Smith, Columbus Blue Jackets, round 2, 34^th overall in 2010
Tyler Toffoli, Los Angeles Kings, round 2, 47^th overall in 2010
John Mcfarland, Florida Panthers, round 2, 33^rd overall in 2010
Petr Mrazek, Detroit Red Wings, round 5, 141^st overall in 2010

Top Eligible for 2012 Draft:
Cody Ceci, #16 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Season review:

The 67’s came out to a good start at the beginning of the season but things really started to click after the first month. The 67’s found themselves ranked in the CHL Top 10 for several weeks. Tyler Toffoli, Shane Prince and Cody Ceci – to name a few were at the top of their games. Despite their outstanding play, none of them were selected to represent their country in the World Junior Championships. Most came back with extra fire to prove their critics wrong.

By the end of the season, Tyler Toffoli was two points away from winning the OHL Scoring Title for the second year in a row (100 points). Toffoli did manage to have back-to-back 50 goal and 100 point seasons. Shane Prince was in the top 10 in scoring for the second half of the season and had the OHL’s longest scoring streak of 40 points in 21 straight games. Cody Ceci proved to be solid on the back end and saw his stock value rocket up towards the top 10 in a defense-heavy draft.

The 67’s held first place in the Eastern Conference for the majority of the season until the Niagara IceDogs did a full 180 and stormed to the top knocking everyone out of the way. It wasn’t until the last month that first in the East became unreachable for the 67’s – this was largely in part of the IceDogs stellar play but the 67’s not so great play either. In the last month, the 67’s have struggled offensively and relied on a relatively young defense. Sometimes the team was bailed out by World Junior standout Petr Mrazek. Even then, Mrazek has not put up the numbers like he has in the past but alike rookie Michael Nishi, they both were able to put up a solid game consistently.

Facing the Belleville Bulls for the first time in the post-season is probably the best thing the 67’s could hope for. After winning only 4 of their last 11 games, the lack of momentum going into the post season could be a killer for confidence and would risk them being heavily under prepared – like last post season.

Keys to victory:
-Top players & consistency. The 67’s best players have to be their best players. In the last month, this hasn’t been the case & the players have lacked consistency.
-Physicality. Ottawa plays well against Belleville when they throw the body. The Bulls do not respond well to it.
-Take advantage of opportunities. Specialty teams are important and so is home ice advantage. This team needs to win right away to gain more confidence.

 

Belleville Bulls (7)

Record: 35-32-1-0

Last year’s playoffs: Swept in first round by the Mississauga St. Michaels Majors

Top performers:
Brendan Gaunce 28 goals, 68 points in 68 games
Austen Brassard 27 goals, 51 points in 64 games
Adam Payerl 22 goals, 47 points in 61 games
Jordan Mayer 17 goals, 47 points in 64 games

NHL Draft Picks:
Austen Brassard, Winnipeg Jets, round 5, 149^th overall in 2011
Stephen Silas, Colorado Avalanche, round 4, 95^th overall in 2010

Top Eligible for 2012 Draft:
Brendan Gaunce, #11 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings
Daniil Zharkov, #19 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings
Garrett Hooey, #61 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings
Malcolm Subban, #1 of North American Goalie in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Season review:

The Bulls were off to a fantastic start in the first 28 games of the regular season with a record of 19-9-0. But were subject to a lot of man injuries and found themselves falling in the last half of the season. The record fell to 16-23-1 in remaining 40 games.

Despite his stats dropping and his games vs Ottawa, Malcolm Subban has the Bulls MVP for a lot of the season. He finished the season with a 2.50 GAA, save percentage of .923, won two CHL Goalie of the Week Awards and is the top-ranked goaltender in the upcoming NHL Entry draft. He is capable of stealing wins for his team and has done so a couple times this season.

Brendan Gaunce has been another great player for the Bulls. He is his team’s leading scorer with 68 points in 68 games. Gaunce is also ranked high in this year’s NHL Entry draft and has proven to be a very effective on both ends of the ice vs the 67’s.

Keys to victory:

-Malcolm Subban is the top ranked North American goaltending prospect for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft for a reason; however, he has yet to prove it to Ottawa after losing all 4 games vs 67’s this year.
-Stick to the game plan. The Bulls need to play to their game plan and not let the 67’s force them into theirs. Position by position, Ottawa is arguably better on paper.
-Take advantage of large ice surface. Use the speed to try to beat Ottawa.

Hamilton leads IceDogs to a 5-1 win

Freddie Hamilton scored his 6^thgame winning goal at the 19:52 minute mark in the first period to lead the Niagara IceDogs to a 5-1 victory over the Ottawa 67’s.

It was a highly anticipated battle for first place in the Eastern Conference.  The Ottawa 67’s were hosting the red hot Niagara IceDogs – a team that has only lost 3 games in their last 26 games since the new year.  Instead of coming out firing, the 67’s allowed themselves to get caught up in lost momentum from an early double highsticking minor and set the tone for the remainder of the game.

The 67’s successfully killed off the 4 minutes against the league leading IceDogs’ powerplay but the IceDog’s momentum continued.  The Niagara IceDogs drew first blood after Freddie Hamilton scored right off the faceoff just under 7 minutes into the game.  The 67’s would get their first shot on net only 7:28 into the first.

After some decent chances, the 67’s would finally respond when Shane Prince grabbed a Tyler Graovac drop pass and fired it past Mark Visentin to tie the game at 1.  With 4 minutes left in the first, it appeared the two teams would head to intermission in a tie.  However, F Hamilton had other plans.  He notched his second of the game with 7 seconds left to give the IceDogs a 2-1 lead going into the second period.

The 67’s never seemed to recover from the early momentum changing penalty.   Niagara continued to beat Ottawa to the loose pucks, the battles in the corners, quality chances and most importantly on the scoreboard.  Mrazek made a couple highlight reel saves on Alex Friesen but was beat moments later.  Ryan Strome stole the puck away from Jake Cardwell creating a 2-on-1 rush the opposite way.  He fed the puck to F Hamiliton who made no mistake to tap it past Mrazek for his hattrick goal.

The IceDogs would add two more early in the third period.  Andrew Agozzino got his 39^th of the season than 30 seconds later Joel Wigle would add his 9^th.  Visentin was not tested much, but helped keep him team in the game.

The 67’s remain in the second spot in the Eastern Conference while the IceDogs go up 3 points remaining in the first spot.  The IceDogs also clinch their division with the convincing win.  Ottawa will look for redemption on March 17^th when they travel to Niagara for their final meeting of the season.

Meanwhile, the 67’s will prepare for their other three remaining games in the regular season vs Majors, Wolves & Battalion and will try to gain ground on the IceDogs.  The 67’s host the Mississauga St.  Michael’s Majors Sunday afternoon at 2pm.

THREE STARS
1. Freddie Hamilton
2. Andrew Agozzino
3. Mark Visentin