Specialty wins

Michael St. Croix (Edmonton Oil Kings)

Sunday was a day for the teams with Ranger and Islander prospects to come away with wins in their playoff matchups. Not much scoring from the prospects but the key to winning on Sunday was very much the special team units as having a strong power play and penalty was very much a key to winning.

Michael St. Croix (NYR 2011 4th) helped prove the old adage that sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. St. Croix had a primary assist on his Edmonton Oil King's 2nd goal as the Oil Kings earned a 2-0 win over the Medicine Hat Tigers in game 2 of their WHL's Eastern Conference semifinal series.

A better word might have been "escaped" as Medicine Hat put up quite a fight especially in the 2nd where their New Jersey trap kept the Oil Kings at bay.

St. Croix's assist was more of a "excuse me I am falling" play as that is exactly what happened with St. Croix falling down and the puck wound up on the stick of Cody Corbett who put it past Tiger goalie Cam Lanigan. It was a power play goal at 1:56 of the 3rd period for a 2-0 Oil King lead.

Griffin Reinhart (NYI 2012 1st) helped the Oil Kings kill off Medicine Hat power plays as Edmonton at one point put the Tigers on 5 power plays over the course of the 2nd period. The Oil Kings would not be holding a 2-0 series lead if not for their special teams as they scored 2 power play goals on 4 chances.

The series now shifts to Medicine Hat for game's 3 and 4 starting on Tuesday.

In Oshawa, the Barrie Colts showed the Oshawa Generals a new look by using Mitchell Theoret (NYI 2011 7th) with Anthony Camara and Mark Scheifele to start game 3 and then moved Scheifele to the 2nd line where he set up 2 first period power play goals as the Colts went on to a 4-0 win in game 3.

The Colts were 3 for 5 on their power plays while holding the Generals to 0 for 5.

Theoret was scoreless in this game as his Colts now hold a 3-0 series lead over the Generals. Game 4 will be on Tuesday in Oshawa.

In London, Tommy Hughes (NYR 2013 UFA) was scoreless as his London Knights thanks to 2 late 3rd period goals escaped an excellent goaltending duel with a 2-0 win over the Kitchener Rangers. The win gave the Knights a 2-0 series lead but now the series shifts to Kitchener for game 3 on Monday.

Hughes was scoreless as he was part of a strong defensive effort that kept Kitchener to 0 for 7 on their power plays.