Visors and Risers

Credit Hockeysfuture.com Near the end of the 2015-2016 NHL season the Pittsburgh Penguins were rolling into the playoffs when suddenly their star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury went out with injury. The penguins were left with a glaring opening in one of their most important positions in the game with playoffs quickly approaching. Enter Matt Murray … This 20 year old goaltender had played his last 41 games in the American Hockey League, posting a record of 25-11-3 including a goals against average of 1.54 and a .940 save % including a rookie record 12 shutouts that season. Before his jump to the pro ranks this relatively unknown goaltender played four seasons in the OHL with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and was drafted by the penguins in the second round of the 2012 NHL entry draft. Murray came onto the scene and absolutely tore it up, helping to lead the penguins to their fourth Stanley Cup in team history. This season, Murray has been bet...

Courtesy of www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com The 2016-2017 annual coaches poll * that was released on March 16 was dominated by both the Peterborough Petes and the Erie Otters as both teams combined for 28 players being nominated for awards. This comes as no surprise for either team as they both were dominant in their respective Conferences, Peterborough finished 1st overall in the Eastern Conference while Erie finished x in the Western Conference. Award winners for each teams are as follows: Most Underrated Player Peterborough- Logan DeNoble (#1 overall in Eastern Conference with 35 points) Erie- Kyle Maksimovich (#2 overall in Western Conference with 20 points) Most Improved Player  Peterborough- Zach Gallant (#3 overall in the Eastern Conference with 16 points) Smartest Player Erie- Dylan Strome (#1 overall in the Western Conference with 32 points) (Strome also finished first in 2015-2016 and 3rd in 2014-2015) Hardest Worker Peterborough...

2016 OHL Champion London Knights Credit London Free Press  I'd like to start off this post by apologizing for not fully covering all of the first round matchup in their entirety, I haven't had the time to finish them off so I will briefly go over all of them right now: The Erie Otters were the first team to advance to the second round by sweeping the Sarnia Sting in four straight games. Peterborough was the next to advance to the second round with their four game sweep of the Niagara Ice Dogs. Sault St. Marie was the next team moving on to the second round of the playoffs with a four games to one victory over the Flint Firebirds. Owen Sound defeated the Kitchener Rangers in their first series four games to one. The Mississauga Steelheads doubled up the Ottawa 67's four games to two in order to move on to the next round of the playoffs. Oshawa won their first round matchup against Sudbury four games to two. Kingston  came away with a four to thre...

Credit Kingston Times The Kingston Frontenacs came away with a 4-3 series victory with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory in game seven. Game scores can be seen below, home team will be first and the series record will follow each game score. Game #1: Kingston (0) Vs. Hamilton (2) 1-0 Hamilton  The Hamilton Bulldogs spoiled Kingston's home playoff opener, blanking the Frontenacs 2-0 in front of 2,866 disappointed fans. Bulldog's Center Will Bitten scored both goals and goaltender Dawson Carty posted a shutout stopping all 19 Kingston shots for the victory. Kingston goaltender Jeremy Helvig stopped 27 of 29 shots in the loss. Game #2: Kingston (4) VS. Hamilton (5) 2-0 Hamilton  Once again the Hamilton Bulldogs spoiled Kingston's home ice advantage, beating them 5-4 in front of 2,375 fans at the Rogers K-Rock Center. Kingston finally solved the stingy Hamilton defense when they scored at 7:00 minutes of the first period and later at 16:00 minutes as well. Hamilto...

Credit Soo Times  The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds defeated the Flint Firebirds in the first round of the OHL Playoffs four games to one and are on to the next round. The Greyhounds are the are #2 seed in the Western Conference and will play the second lowest remaining seed in said Conference. Game scores can be seen below, home team will be first and the series record will follow each game score. Game #1: Sault Ste. Marie (5) Vs. Flint (2) 1-0 Greyhounds The Greyhounds took a convincing 1-0 series lead by defeating the Flint Firebirds 5-2 in front of a home crowd of 3,342 fans. The Greyhounds were led by forward Hayden Verbeek , who scored two of the three first goal and the eventual game winner at 8:25 of the second period. Flint goaltender Connor Hicks stopped 32 of 36 shots in the loss while greyhounds netkeeper Matthew Villalta stopped 19 of 21 Flint shots to earn his first win of the playoffs. Game #2: Sault Ste. Marie (3) Vs. Flint (6) 1-1 Ties Series  The ...

Credit Owen Sound Sun Times  The Owen Sound Attack Advanced to the Second Round of the OHL Tournament after beating the Kitchener Rangers four games to one in the first round. Owen Sound will play the third lowest remaining seed in the Western Conference. Game scores can be seen below, home team will be first and the series record will follow each game score. Game #1: Owen Sound (9) Vs. Kitchener (1) 1-0 Owen Sound  The Owen Sound Attack opened up their 2017 playoff campaign in convincing fashion tonight, defeating the Rangers 9-1 in front of a home crowd of 3,035 fans. The Attack scored their first goal at 7:33 of the first period and didn't stop scoring until the last minute of the second period, by that time they were up 7-0. The most impressive part about this win was that all nine goals were scored by different skaters, the Attack were led in points by assistant captain Nick Suzuki who had a goal and two assists. Rangers veteran goaltender Luke Opilka had a rou...

Credit Peterborough Examiner  The Peterborough Petes were the first team in the Eastern Conference to advance to the second round of the OHL playoffs by sweeping the eighth seed Niagara Ice Dogs in four straight games. Game scores can be seen below, home team will be first and the series record will follow each game score. Game #1: Petes (5) Vs. Ice Dogs (2) 1-0 Petes  The Peterborough Petes opened up their 2017 playoff campaign with a 5-2 home victory over the Niagara Ice Dogs in front of 2,681 fans. Niagara opened up the scoring at 4:12 of the first period when Kirill Maksimov scored his first goal of the playoffs. The Petes would then go on the score the game's next five goals, led in scoring by right winger Adam Timleck with two goals. Peterborough goaltender Dylan Wells was incredibly in cage for the Petes, stopping 32 of the 34 shots he faced. Game #2: Petes (6) Vs. Ice Dogs (3) 2-0 Petes Niagara was unable to find a way to stop Peterborough's offense in t...

Credit Sarnia Sting  The Erie Otters used four straight offensive explosions, scoring no less than five goals and scoring nine goals on two separate occasions to sweep the Sarnia Sting in four straight games to punch their ticket to the next round. Home teams will be listed first and the Playoff Series record will follow. Game #1: Erie (6) Vs. Sarnia (3) 1-0 Erie  The Erie Otters defeated the Sting by a score of 6-3 in front of 3,075 fans to start the first round of the OHL playoffs. After Sarnia scored three minutes into the first period the Otters went on to score three straight goals and eventual score the game winner at 13 minutes of the second period. The Otters were led by Kyle Maksmovich who scored two goals and nearly had the natural hat-trick if it weren’t for one of his teammates tipping a shot. Sarnia goalie Justin Fazio stopped 45 of 51 shots in the loss. Game #2: Sarnia (3) Vs. Erie (9) 2-0 Erie  The Erie Otters once...