Othmann and Cuylle Advance While Rempe And Team Force A Game Six

Brennan Othmann (Todd Boone)

It was another three New York Rangers in action on Saturday evening. Will Cuylle of Windsor and Brennan Othmann of Flint are looking to eliminate the Soo Greyhounds and Kitchener Rangers. Matthew Rempe and his Seattle Thunderbirds are looking to duplicate what the Rangers have done as they are down 3-1 to the Portland Winterhawks.

 It is hard to describe a Flint Firebirds game without mentioning their captain Brennan Othmann. For the first time in franchise history, the Firebirds are going to the OHL Western Conference Finals. In-game five, the Firebirds destroyed the Soo Greyhounds 7-1 to win their playoff series 4-1.

Othmann had three assists in the second period, all coming on the power play, and was part of a 7-0 run that left no doubt about who was winning this series. First Othmann set up Garvin Hayes for a power-play goal that made it 2-0.

2:25 later Othmann earned a secondary assist on Zacharie Giroux's goal to make it 3-0. Just 1:38 with Flint still on the power play, Othmann set up Zacharie Giroux for the third goal at 15:24 and this one was pretty much over.

Othmann finished 0-3-3 on just two shots as he improved his playoff numbers to 8-9-17  which is good for fifth place among the top OHL scorers. Flint advances to face the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL's Western Conference Finals.

Will Cuylle and his Windsor Spitfires are going to play for the right to earn a shot at the OHL championship after they eliminated the Kitchener Rangers 3-2 to win their series 4-1. It wasn't easy as the Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Windsor started their comeback in the second period.

Windsor scored three unanswered goals to finish off the Rangers in five games and advance to the OHL Western Conference Finals to face Flint. Cuylle has had himself a good playoff run of his own. He is 6-8-14 (12th best OHL) and an OHL leading +16.

Then there was Matthew Rempe and his Seattle Thunderbirds who were facing elimination in game five of their series against the Portland Winterhawks. Rempe was barely used in this game and while I couldn't get anyone from Seattle to confirm or deny this, it was believed to be a coach's decision as Seattle shortened their bench. 

It looked like just two centers took the majority of the faceoff but if this was a coach's decision then it worked as Seattle forced a game six back home on Monday. Can the T-birds pull a "Rangers" and bounce back to force a game seven this Tuesday?