Greyhounds v. Knights

Soo Greyhounds have a chance to achieve a franchise first when they meet the London Knights in the first round of the upcoming Ontario Hockey League playoffs. Despite being OHL rivals for close to 55 years, the Greyhounds and Knights have only faced off three times before in a best of seven series. And the Greyhounds have lost all three previous playoff sets.

Yes, London has won all three – the Knights prevailed in six games in 1988, took a four game sweep in 2006 and then sealed a seven game verdict in 2007.

1988. The 1988 series took place back when both teams had different ownerships and played in older arenas than what are now in place in both London and Sault Ste. Marie. And the six game thriller from back in ’88 was one in which yours truly took in every single match — three in London and three in the Soo.

What a series it was — and featuring two head coaches who had no love for one another, namely Wayne Maxner of the Knights and Don Boyd of the Soo. Adding spit to the rivalry between the two “gentlemen” was that before Boyd coached the Greyhounds, he coached the Knights. And it was Maxner who replaced Boyd as the head coach and general manager in London.

The Knights had a better regular season record than the Greyhounds. As London overachieved with a regular season record of 40-22-4 with Maxner at the helm, the Boyd-coached Greyhounds were an underachiever with a record of 32-33-1.

Still, with so much firepower, the Greyhounds were the favourites — at least slightly — to upend the Knights in what was a much anticipated first round playoff series. And with good reason.

The Greyhounds were an offensive powerhouse led by Dan Currie, who scored 50 goals. Currie was followed by Tyler Larter with 44 goals, Mike Glover with 41, overage Mike Oliverio with 37 (in just 51 games) and fellow overage Brad Stepan with 34.

London, meanwhile, had Tim Taylor as its leading scorer with 46 goals and also featured overage stalwart Ron Goodall, who gunned 26 goals in 27 games for the Knights after being being acquired in a trade with the Kitchener Rangers. After Taylor and Goodall it was a drop off to Donny Martin with 30 goals, Dennis McEwen with 27 and Trevor Dam with 25. Good numbers but not what the Soo had.

Between the pipes, the Greyhounds seemingly had an advantage with the world class Shawn Simpson while the Knights had rookie sensation David Schill as their starter and a well tested backup in Chris Somers.

The series was a six game stare down between Maxner and Boyd and colourful media coverage via the Sault This Week, Sault Star and the London Free Press. And when all was said and done, the Knights prevailed in a Game 6 sizzler at the old Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie.

The difference in the series?

Plain and simple, Maxner out coached Boyd. While Goodall had nine goals in the series for the Knights and Oliverio scored seven times for the Greyhounds, Boyd basically went with two lines of forwards while Maxner very effectively employed a third line, all rookie shutdown unit of three lads from the Maritimes — Danny LeBlanc, Steve Martell and Doug Synishin.

2026. The Greyhounds were buyers leading up to the Jan. 9 OHL trade deadline while the Knights were sellers. Over all, this edition of the Hounds are a better team than the Knights. Thus, my early prediction is for the Hounds to take the best of seven series in five or six games.

The Hounds are better than London from goalie Carter George to defencemen Chase Reid and Lukas Fischer to forwards Marco Mignosa, Brady Martin, Jeremy Martin, Jordan Charron and Christopher Brown on out.

There is some good, young talent on London, for sure. The Knights have two good goalies in Sebastian Gatto and Alek Medvedev, have a star defenceman in Los Angeles Kings,National Hockey League first rounder Henry Brzustewicz and a nice collection of high end forwards in Jesse Nurmi, Ryan Brown, Braidy Wassilyn and rookie Jaxon Cover.

Saying that London head coach Dale Hunter is an upgrade on John Dean of the Greyhounds is not a shot at Dean. Even at his age — he is 65 years old — Hunter is still the best coach in the OHL.

But this is a Greyhound team that was put together to at least win a round or two of the playoffs while the Knights clearly signalled at the trade deadline that they are looking ahead to next season and beyond.

Again, the Hounds should take this series — if not in five, then in six. And even if it goes to seven, it is a series that the Hounds should most definitely win.

above action photo by Bob Davies/Soo Greyhounds