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...

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 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 Erienewsnow.com The 2016-2017 Ontario Hockey League's regular season has officially ended and the first-round matchups for the Western Division can be seen here below. The OHL playoff format is the same as the NHL where the highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed in each round, the finals are the winner of the Eastern and Western Division, all series are best of 7 (win 4 games). Western Division series are as follows: #1 Erie Otters Vs. #8 Sarnia Sting  - The Otters had their third straight 50 win season, going 50-15-3 - Sarnia Barely made it into the playoffs winning only 31 games this season - Erie won the regular season series 3 games to 1, losing only one game against the Sting at home 5-3 on March 4th - Leading Scorer for Erie: Alex Debrincat  65 goals, 62 assists - Leading Scorer for Sarnia: Jordan Kyrou  30 goals, 64 assists   #2 Sault St. Marie Greyhounds Vs. #7 Flint Firebirds  - Greyhounds finished seco...

The Greyhounds from Sault Ste. Marie only needed 29 shots on goal to score 6 goals and defeat the Kitchener Rangers by a score of 6-1 in front of home crowd of 3,800 fans. The Greyhounds opened up the scoring halfway into the first period when forward Bobby Macintyre scored on the power play and left-winger Boris Katchouk scored a shorthanded goal, the first of two for Katchouk that would end up being the game winner. Rangers right winger Joseph Garreffa scored their lone goal with 3 minutes left in the game, but it was too little too late at that point. Greyhounds rookie goaltender Matthew Villalta saved 40 of the 41 shots he faced for the victory while Rangers goaltenders Luke Opilka and LukeRichardson combined to save 23 of 29 shots in the loss. This victory pushed the season series between these two teams to 3-1-0 in favor of Sault Ste. Marie and the 5-year series to 12-7-0 in favor of the greyhounds. The Greyhounds next game will take place on the roa...

Friday March 10, 2017  Essar Centre, Marie Ontario Canada  Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (43-15-4, 2nd in Western Conference)    Vs.  Kitchener Rangers (34-25-4, 6th in Western Conference)  Credit therecord.com This game is a battle of two teams who have already punched their ticket to the OHL playoffs but are still fighting for better positioning for the postseason. Kitchener, Currently 6th in the Western Conference, is currently 14 points behind 5th ranked Windsor but is also in danger of being surpassed by 7th ranked Flint who is just two points behind. Sault St. Marie, currently 2nd in the Western Conference, is just 3 points behind Conference leading Erie who also holds the overall top spot in the league. Sault Ste. Marie:  Zachary Senyshyn  (Boston Bruins 2015 1st round pick, #15 overall) - One of two 2015 first round draft picks still playing in the OHL ( Dylan Strome ) - 60 points in 53 games this season (41 goals,...