Just three New York Rangers prospects were in action as the second round of the three league's playoffs got underway. And it is not a bad night when two of the prospects were named their games "first star" for their performances.
Brennan Othmann had a rather quiet first round but he made sure that didn't happen in the second round. The Flint captain almost doubled the number of points he recorded in the first round as he went 1-3-4 to lead his Flint Firebirds to a 5-3 win over the Soo Greyhound in game one of their OHL playoff series.
The OHL's "First Star" of the night earned his first point of the game as a secondary assist as the Firebirds cashed in on a power play at 5:58 of the first period giving Flint a 1-0 lead. Still in the first and back on the power play, Othmann scored his only goal of the game when he fired a wrist shot that beat the Soo goalie low and on the left side.
It was a rare goal for Othmann coming on the left side but at 19:34 of the first, it gave the Firebirds a 2-0 lead as they went into the first intermission. The lead would last through the second period but in the third, the Greyhounds would tie the game on two quick goals.
The tie would last 52 seconds as Othmann teamed up with linemate Riley Piercy for the go-ahead goal. The two worked a "2-on-1" with Othmann drawing both the defender and the Soo goalie towards him and then hitting Piercy with a pass for a wide-open goal at 7:16.
That was Othmann's third point of the game and he finished up his scoring by showing how unselfish he can be. The Soo net was empty and Othmann could have scored but he gave up the puck to linemate Coulson Pitre for the easy goal and final score of the game.
Othmann was 1-3-4 with a +1 on four shots to bring his playoff totals to 5-4-9 as Flint takes a 1-0 series lead over the Greyhounds. Game two will be Sunday in Flint.
In Kamloops the WHL's second seed Dylan Garand's Kamloops Blazers opened their series against eighth seed Vancouver Giants fresh off their upset win of top-seeded Everett. The Blazers behind Garand's 30 saves defeated the Giants 3-1 to grab a 1-0 series lead.
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| Dylan Garand (Kamloops Blazers) |
Give the Giants a lot of credit as they played with no pressure at all and it almost paid off. They didn't have Garand in goal for them and he was the difference maker. Garand stopped all nine shots in the first period and then 13 more in the second.
He lost his bid for a shutout in the third but kept the Giants from getting any closer after they made it a 3-1 game. Garand improves to 5-0 with a 0.80 goals against, a 0.968 save percentage, and two shutouts.
He has allowed only four goals while face 125 shots and leads the WHL goalies in every area accept shutouts where he is second. Game two will be Saturday night in Kamloops.
Ryder Korczak and his Moose Jaw Warriors are facing the top team in all of the CHL leagues in the Winnipeg Ice for their second round WHL playoff opponent. And in game one of this series, the Ice just spanked the Warriors 6-1.
The Warriors were dominated in every area of the game as the Ice would out-shoot them 13-3, and 16-4 in the first two periods alone. This game was pretty much over by halfway of the second period when the Ice had scored their fifth goal of the game.
Korczak was decent on his faceoffs going 11-6 and he earned the primary assist on Moose Jaw's only goal. But lowly Vancouver had much more fight in them than the Warriors did in their game.
This series won't go more than five games if that. Game two will be Saturday in Winnipeg.
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