It is Erie in Houndtown
Round two of the playoffs is coming to Houndtown.
Having sidelined Owen Sound Attack in five games in their first-round, best-of-seven, Ontario Hockey League playoff series, Soo Greyhounds will face Erie Otters in the second set.
The Hounds will have home-ice advantage in the series by virtue of having placed atop the West Division standings with 95 points.
Game 1 in the series is Wednesday night at the Soo’s Essar Centre.
Do not be misled by Erie’s second-place finish in the Midwest Division.
Yes, the Otters finished second in the Midwest behind Guelph Storm.
But the Otters put up 106 points during the regular season, which was second-most in the entire 20-team OHL, two points back of Guelph.
Erie finished 11 points ahead of the Soo in the overall standings.
Other numbers of note show Erie scoring 312 goals during the regular season while allowing 170.
By comparison, the Soo scored 267 goals and allowed 198.
As the Soo took care of Owen Sound in short order, Erie had more difficulty in its opening-round series with Saginaw Spirit.
While Erie upended Saginaw in five games, four of the matches in the series were decided by one goal — three in overtime.
Erie did not get great goaltending against Saginaw.
Oscar Dansk was chased from his only start after giving up five goals on 25 shots.
Devin Williams, Erie’s other goalie, was in net for all four Otter wins but had a sub-par save percentage of .893.
On the flip side, there are lamplighters aplenty on the Erie roster.
The Otters have 64-goal scorer Dane Fox, 45-goal scorer Connor Brown, 41-goal scorer Andre Burakovsky and 99-point sensation Connor McDavid up front.
And on defence, there is 54-point scorer Adam Pelech.
But there are no shortage of high-enders on the Soo side.
There’s the balanced attack featuring Sergey Tolchinsky, Tyler Gaudet, Andrew Fritsch, Jared McCann, Bryan Moore, Michael Bunting and rookie sensation Blake Speers, not to mention foot soldiers Dylan Corson and Jean Dupuy.
There’s the blueline backed by Darnell Nurse, Alex Gudbranson and Tyler Ganly in front of goalie Matt Murray.
PREDICTION: Greyhounds in seven.
PHOTO: Greyhound forward Dylan Corson. (Photo by Ali Pearson.)
I sure hope so, The Hounds are my team the rest of the way ! Go Hounds GO
Would love to see the Hounds knock off Sherry Bassin’s Otters.
I will take the ‘Hounds in 7 as well and yes it will be nice to wipe that smirk offa the face of Mr. Bassin.