Neugsie's OJHL Corner

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Early August Pre-Season Power Rankings SW Top 5

Well, it's August, and that means the OJHL season is going to be upon us before you know it! Camps will start in just over two weeks, and pre-season games right after, and while it's true that I have no idea who will make certain teams, both in and out of the league, this blog is for fun; so with that in mind, I'll make power rankings based on what I know at the moment.

Here is the SW Conference Top 5, in my opinion.

Southwest Conference

#1: Oakville Blades - the team is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and while they didn't get the Dudley Hewitt Cup tournament as they had hoped, new general manager Jordan Seliger, head coach Mike Tarantino, and company, are absolutely loaded. Adding grit in defenders Nick Turenko and Jeff Clarke, and in big forward Chris Brill-Morgan will make trips to Sixteen Mile a lot less fun, while former St. Catherine's Junior 'B' power forward Tyler Hildebrandt has all the tools to supplement an offence already full of firepower. Christian Rajic is easily among the Top 3 most explosive players in the conference (maybe even the league), and look for sophomore D-man Michael Mannara to step into a bigger role this year. Jackson Bales will look to be a key producer as well, along with Ryan Foss and Bryce Misley, who was one of the league's top 1999-birth year forwards a year ago.

#2: Georgetown Raiders - Head coach and GM Greg Walters built a young team last year that went to the finals by clearly and seriously buying in. They also had an elite veteran goaltender last year in Andrew Masters, who they lose to graduation, but whoever wins the starter job between new-comers Josh Astorino and Marcus Paulino will have a finely-tuned machine in front of them. Jack Jacome is with the aforementioned Rajic in the Top 3 most dangerous customers in the conference (also, maybe the best player in the league), while smart big men Austin Cho, Griffin James, and Jake Payette will make the Raiders D-Corps as tough to face as any in the OJHL. Look for big years up front from talented scorers Jordan Crocker, Daniel Hardie, and Ryan Takamatsu. It should be another fun year at Alcott Arena.

#3: North York Rangers - new bench boss Geoff Schomogyi inherits an extremely dangerous and cohesive group that were within one game of the conference final last year. The health of elite goaltender Jeremie Lintner will be huge for the Rangers, as when he was healthy last season, he was as good as anyone in the OJHL. The loss of Grayden Gottschalk to the Ontario Hockey League will hurt, but Chris Sekelyk and Keegan Blasby are as good power forwards as there are in the OJHL. Additionally, the sublime skill of Nick Campoli should put the sophomore centreman firmly on the radar of National Hockey League scouts. The energy line of new captain Kyle Clarke, with Louis Kereakou and Nick Zanette were extremely effective last season, and all three took steps forward productively. A lot of impetus on the back end will be put on former OHLer Shawn Tessier, who came to the Rangers in the middle of the season last year, but he has a lot of character behind him in Adam Giacomin and Jacob DeMaeyer. It's worth repeating though: if Lintner is healthy, everyone should fear NYR.

#4: Buffalo Jr. Sabres - who stays or goes on a year-to-year basis south of the border is a mystery to me, but from the great improvement they made as an organization last season at their beautiful HarborCenter arena, I can only assume they'll continue that growth curve. Slippery talisman and captain Zach Evancho is gone, but if all or most of Chris Berger, Timmy Nicksic, David Baskerville, and Brendan Dunning are back, than Buffalo should certainly be an offensive force. On the back end their monster Wilson Vershay is gone, but true hockey fans love the gritty, in your face style of Evan Bennett, and Aaron Reinig and his cannon of a shot only scratched the surface of his potential last year (and he had nine goals and 35 points!). The amount of power plays Buffalo gets every year will serve Reinig very well this year though, you can count on that. Canisius commit Tucker Weppner has the tools to be a solid goaltender in this league, but whether he puts it together for a full season will go a long way in determining Buffalo's fate.

#5: Burlington Cougars - The Cougars had an incredible turnaround with Mark Jooris at the helm as head coach and GM last year, and even though they lose captain and power-play trigger man Willy Paul, they do keep a big corps of the group that upset the Blades in the second round last year, and pushed the Raiders to six games in the conference final. The biggest question is whether star defenceman Zac Hermann will make the USHL's Omaha Lancers - my belief is that he is more than good enough to do so - which leaves the question of whom will replace them at the top of the Cougars defence depth chart; especially with Griffin James off to Georgetown. One option could be Junior B import Max Balinson, who has a lot of skill. Veteran scorers Chris Cobham, David Thompson, and James McLaughlin look to lead the line up front, and will be supported by talented newcomer Jeff Schrattner. Like last year, they will score goals; but can they keep them out? I haven't seen import goaltender Mario Cavaliere enough to make a claim on him, though both of last year's goalies have graduated.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Plundering the Coyotes

It should come as no surprise that Jerome Dupont and Mark Jooris, the general managers of the Buckland Cup champion Trenton Golden Hawks and the OHA Coach of the Year at the junior level, respectively, were paying attention to the 2015-16 Richmond Hill Coyotes AAA midgets. Of course, being ranked No. 1 in Ontario will do that, and although the club slipped up at the OMHAs, and had to watch a North York Rangers team that many of the Coyotes were familiar with lift the Telus Cup in New Brunswick a month later, it was still a remarkable year for head coach Kevin Ryan and company.

In order to accomplish that sort of notoriety at the midget level, a club has to be flush with junior ready - or almost ready - talent, and this group was no different, and this off-season, Richmond Hill's ranks are being plundered at an incredible rate. According to the team's twitter account, 11 players from the squad, comprising 1998 and 1999-birth year players, have moved on to juniors, and look to make an instant impact, especially on the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

The 2013-14 York Simcoe Express minor midgets certainly deserve a shoutout along these same lines (the group that spawned recent Colorado Avalanche second rounder Cameron Morrison), with the pick of the Coyotes litter coming out of there. The group of YSE minor midgets/Coyotes midgets includes new Burlington Cougar Andrew Badali, a mature and fleet-footed winger, as well new Trenton Golden Hawks Cole Thiessen, a smooth skating, point-producing machine from the back end, and the dynamically skillful Dante Spagnuolo.

Joining Badali on the Cougars is Darius Dimitriadis, a great passer with a solid frame, while sniper Conor Smart will look to fill one of the holes left in the high-powered offence of the Oakville Blades. Vinny Boniauto, a speedster that played on a very good Toronto Titans minor midget team two years ago, will join new head coach Justin Teakle on the Orangeville Flyers.

I am not privy to the other signings at the moment, though I'm sure whoever runs the Coyotes' fine twitter account will divulge that information soon enough. Nevertheless, the young men about to break into the OJHL out of Richmond Hill, as well as their excellent, athletic goaltender Ryan Franz, who is set to join Kanata of the Central Canadian Hockey League, are all fine individuals who I have seen play many times.

They will make their marks on the OJ before long.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

OJHL Transactions Notebook #1: My teams in June

OJHL transactions come in all shapes and sizes. Often they are of the player-for-cash variety, in the absence of draft picks like in major junior, and most general managers would rather deal a player of real quality to another league, or at least out of division, rather than risk facing him in a key game down the stretch or in the playoffs.

This off-season so far, bringing players in from Junior B, or sending them back there, has been the norm around the league. Teams like the Oakville Blades, North York Rangers, Wellington Dukes, and Trenton Golden Hawks had a lot of success last year finding veteran players from the more quality Junior ‘B’ outfits, so digging for that next ‘later-blooming’ gem has been the name of the game so far.

We have also seen teams off-load to Junior B, bringing in cash from those wealthy, quality outfits that provide no risk of on-ice competition.

With the off-season transaction market in the OJHL in full swing, I have decided to put together a little notebook of my thoughts concerning what has gone on so far.

I’ll start with the three teams I know the most about.

The first, and easiest team for me to talk about is the Oakville Blades. I was around one of their mid-summer split-squad games, which was really quite competitive and high tempo for a summer game I might add, and I was impressed with what GM Mike Daley and Coach Mike Tarantino and staff have started to build. It is no secret to anyone that star talent the likes of Patrick Kudla and Josh Kosack will be highly sought out by next-level clubs, and that Tyler Rollo has his heart set on being a fulltime Peterborough Pete next year. Captain Ryan Garvey will skip his overage year and head to St. Lawrence University next year, while the big-bodied, highly-touted defender Ian Blacker has rightfully signed and committed himself to the OHL’s London Knights for 2016-17. So with all that in mind, Daley and company have done well to move on, and take whatever fallback they get from that treasure trove as bonus.

The Oakville transactions that have been reported signal a clear design to be a far less enjoyable team to face in the physicality department. Tyler Hildebrandt from St. Catherine’s Junior B is a big boy with a smooth stride, and by all accounts is a late bloomer with a huge offensive upside, who will not have any trouble getting around Sixteen Mile Sports Complex’s big ice surface.

Dealing young Eric Holland to Aurora is certainly painful, as he is a very talented kid with a lot of potential, but it makes sense in the overall scheme of things to bring in the versatile and truculent Nicholas Turenko in exchange. The well-built 6-foot-2 veteran Turenko says he is most comfortable playing defence, but I’ve seen him play centre plenty of times, and he has done well at that as a two-way ‘East Division-type’ player (as an aside, I guess OJHL people use ‘East-Division-type player’ as a term meaning ‘he’s not a nice guy on the ice’). I’ve also heard nothing but great things about Turenko’s character.

The last kid to be reported heading to Oakville so far this off-season is the former Strathroy Junior B defender Jeff Clarke. Another big, 6-foot-2 physical type, the former Elgin-Middlesex Chief was a well-thought-of pick of the London Knights (sounds like Ian Blacker…), and is only a 1999-birth year. I know coach Tarantino will move the pairings around a lot all year this season coming up; but I expect big things from the recent Lake Superior State commit Mike Mannara, and the big-bodied presence of Clarke appears a strong fit beside either him, or the equally fleet-of-foot Brayden Sampson.

The Blades have a great facility and organization, and Daley, with his staff, does a very nice job recruiting kids and making deals, so I’m sure there is more adding to come. I did see a whole bag load of monsters in Oakville red, white, and blue at their split-squad game.

Neither the North York Rangers nor the Toronto Patriots, the other teams that I have ties to, have revealed anything so far, with the exception of the Pats adding former Toronto Jr. Canadiens bench boss Mario Cicchillo behind the bench, so anything I could say would be pure speculation.

All I can say about the Pats is that I know for an absolute fact that Coach Cicchillo is a huge believer in the games of Lee Lapid and Eric Eremita, the two guys he sent to his new club in the middle of the year last year. I have seen good things from both, and can especially attest to the very high quality of their respective characters – they are both very good kids. No idea if the likes of Jeremy Pullara, Mario Ferraro, or Louis di Matteo – the holdovers from the 2015 championship – are back.

The Rangers lost a bunch of guys to graduation, including leaders like Jeremy Szabo, Michael Morgan, Tyler Currie, and Gianluca Baggetta, but a new group will keep the club very competitive this season. What can motivated 20-year-olds Keegan Blasby, Jeremie Lintner, and Shawn Tessier accomplish this year? I can’t wait to find out. The only transaction I know from them is that they’ve added 17-year-old winger Jake Dale from Blyth Academy Prep.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

A little look at the 2016 Dudley Hewitt Cup

The 2016 Dudley Hewitt Cup, or the "Central Canada Region Junior 'A' Championship" as it is officially termed, begins this afternoon in the northeastern Ontario community of Kirkland Lake.

Kirkland Lake, a town with a population just under 9,000, is home to the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League powerhouse Gold Miners. While they are the hosts, they also were the finalists in their league, losing out to the other NOJHL team in the event, the Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds, who represented the region at the RBC Cup after winning the Dudley last year.

I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, I really don't. The Thunderbirds, the Gold Miners, and the Fort Frances Lakers (the team that will represent the Superior International Junior Hockey League for the third year in a row), are all legitimate champions in their own leagues, and do well to compete year in and year out. That being said, the Trenton Golden Hawks, the champions of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, are a different animal to the teams that the OJHL has sent in recent years.

Now, you know I can say that with good conscience, as I worked for the last two OJ teams to make the event, and had a really good look at the St. Mike's team that went back in 2013, so I am actually taking a risk in making that statement. I loved the Toronto Patriots teams that represented our league in Wellington in 2014, and Fort Frances last year; they represented passion, and unity, and commitment to playing the game the right way, as they were well instructed to by their coaching staffs (Jason Fortier, Ed Kirsten, Brandon Cordua, Derek Foam, Ryan Daniels, Mike Tarantino, etc.). And they had plenty of talent to go along with it, there is no doubt about that. HOWEVER, I still maintain this Trenton team is the type of beast that shouldn't simply believe they can compete at the RBC Cup, like Fortier's Pats did in Vernon. B.C. in 2014, but actually that they are legitimate favourites to win the national championship.

The prevailing story line for the Golden Hawks has certainly been their national-calibre depth, and the tremendous talents of Daniel Urbani in net, but there are secondary ones.

The most intriguing to me personally is a shot at redemption for Mitch Emerson. As a 19-year-old deadline acquisition for the Pats last year, Emerson played a huge role in being a finisher for pretty young Toronto team down the stretch. But the whole Patriots team struggled to score in the Dudley Hewitt last year, as they dominated puck possession in every game, but were used to a more counter-attacking style in the OJHL to find the back of the net. Mitch did score a huge goal for the Pats at the tournament last year, Toronto's fourth goal on a nice wrister from the slot that brought the club tantalizingly close to an epic comeback in the semi-finals against the host Lakers, but I know he would've wanted to contribute more overall (but believe me, he isn't alone in that category).

So, while he certainly has no need to put any sort of undue pressure on himself in Kirkland Lake this week, with a deep group of forwards around him and a scholarship already in his pocket, I expect him to be a real presence. I expect him to tell the Hawks, who, despite being an older group, do not have the same kind of experience he does in general, that taking anyone for granted can kill you, and with that information in tow, the Hawks are well-suited to be successful.

The emergence of Josh Allan as a secondary productive presence to superstar captain Adam Clements on the back end was crucial to Trenton's dominance in the playoffs. He should be great again in Kirkland Lake.

The team at the event I expect to give the Hawks their biggest headache is the Soo Thunderbirds, a well-coached, confident, veteran team used to winning, and very used to winning on the ice in Kirkland Lake (their biggest NOJHL rivals, in fact). What an incredible year for 21-year-old Michael Caruso. I don't care what league you play in...30 goals for a defenceman is impressive, and the hometown boy was brilliant. His little brother Matt is a small, skilled forward on the club too, and did well as a 97-born player to lead the Birds in post-season scoring. I get the sense that the Thunderbirds were building for this year, and will not need to lean on anyone specifically (like they did last year with this year's emerging NHL prospect Boris Katchouk, a member of Canada's U18s, who had a great season with the OHL's Greyhounds after lighting the Dudley Hewitt on fire). The likes of Matt Pinder, Jaren Bellini, and Brett Jeffries all have done well representing the northern league at the yearly regional all-star event, and if former OJHLer Khadyn Butterfly is in any sort of shape to contribute, he will be an absolutely dynamite addition to this squad. On paper, they should face the Hawks in the final.

The biggest thing I'll say about the Fort Frances group is that they do have excellent goaltending. Both Pierce Dushenko, who was sensational at times at the Dudley last year, and rookie Brandon Bodnar, who owned almost all SIJHL goaltending categories this season, are very capable. Now 21-year old forward Dylan Robertson has stepped out of the shadow of the departed Wyatt Cota and Lucas Debenedet, and has turned in a very productive year. Big-minute offence-first defender Nick Minerva was very productive again as well, but after the goalies, Robertson and Minerva, I can't really comment any more.

I haven't seen any of the current Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, but I know diminutive forward Brayden Stortz put up a massive season, with 100+ points in 54 games. Expect him, 51-goal man Logan Fredericks, and crucial defender Blake Anderson to be at the forefront if the hosts are to make noise. Victor-Olivier Courchesne will have be brilliant in net as well.

As I mentioned, the game is played on ice. But Trenton is deep, veteran, confident, and unlike the past three OJHL entrants into the Dudley, are used to travelling on buses to games, and are used to an organization that spares no expense and energy to keep its players focused, and well-supported. Their coach, Jerome Dupont, has won an RBC Cup before, and has been the Dudley a couple times as well, so he knows full-well what to expect. I'm sure he's put in a call to Jason Fortier as part of what I know is an extensive amount of preparation Dupont will have done already - he is one of the best prepared coaches in Junior 'A' hockey. So with all that, it's time for the Hawks to prove me right.

Friday, April 8, 2016

The NYR Midgets: a Telus Cup preview

For the first time ever, a North York Rangers midget club will battle for the Telus Cup - the National Midget championship - starting Apr. 18 in Quispamsis, N.B.

When I saw the club's roster coming together early in the Greater Toronto Hockey League season, I do remember saying to myself...if this team does not AT LEAST make the final of the league, then something has gone horribly wrong. It was loaded to start, it got more loaded as time went on, and the fact that head coach Rob Vessio's men lost only four times in a 33 game schedule, while still impressive, is not a huge surprise to me.

Note: As with any preview, I don't purposely omit anyone, I simply go with what I feel I need to point out without boring a neutral party.

Great teams almost always start with goaltending, and in Jett Alexander and Kyle Henderson, NYR has two good ones. Jett, a 1999 birth year, shone last year on a North York minor midget team that really struggled, and earned himself a 12th-round draft pick from the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League. He is built to be a goaltender, with a strong 6-foot-4 frame, has good athleticism, and was absolutely sensational in one of his two call-ups with the North York Junior 'A' team (when he was called into duty in Wellington against the Dukes - an extremely hard place to play) .

The older Henderson, a 1998 birth year, has not been fazed either, solidly platooning with Alexander, and I can tell you that Coach Vessio has been nothing but pleased with the work ethic and attitude of the young man that came in after ripping up the minor hockey system in Washington, D.C. I expect Vessio will continue that back-and-forth system between the two at the Telus Cup, and not out of a classic 'it's minor hockey so everyone gets a turn'-type place, but out of a legitimate belief that both guys can get the job done.

The back end is very solid, and while it isn't overly physical, the hockey IQ is huge. There are three guys specifically that I personally know very well, in Jeremy Smith, Liam Gillanders, and Mark Perone; but to a man, all six guys on the corps could easily be top pairing D-men in the GTHL this year.

If there was a GTHL midget video game, I really do maintain that Jeremy Smith would have the highest overall rating. The former Don Mills Flyers minor midget and Upper Canada College player has skill, speed, and vision that is absolutely through the roof - a fact that earned him a spot in an All-Canadians prospect game a couple years ago with legitimate NHL prospects like Mikey McLeod, Tyler Benson, Sam Steel, Victor Mete, and others. Injuries might have derailed his more direct path to notoriety, but he was probably the North York junior team's best defenceman in the one game he played with them this year (at tiny St. Mike's Arena no less, a tough place for the best of D-men to shine). He is a joy to watch, let me tell you.

Liam Gillanders, and Mark Perone are both guys with good size, excellent IQ, and very very low panic thresholds. Perone absolutely loves to compete against anyone, and does not care who you are, how big you are, and what the score is. Gillanders is the smoother puck mover of the two, and both could easily play Junior 'A' hockey right now, in my opinion (at least).

Having the depth of a full six-man, all-midget defence-corps is huge, especially as the Rangers are about take on teams with full, junior-sized rosters from the west at the Telus. Even more importantly, Vessio trusts them all.

Up front, the dynamic duo of Willy Calverley and Aidan Casey were rarely stoppable this season, and were literally unstoppable through the OHF tournament to the tune of 18 goals and 29 combined points in seven games.

Calverley was the leader of a tremendous North York 1998's minor midget team that impressed en route to a plucky performance at the OHL Cup two years ago under a great coach in Lorne Hunchuk. His elite-level passing and patience was a big reason that current North Bay Battalion forward Daniil Vertiy was taken as high as the second round by the OHL's Windsor Spitfires (with no disrespect at all intended to Vertiy, who is a tremendous player and is doing very well for former North York Junior 'A' coach John Dean up in North Bay!). Willy has been everything Vessio has hoped for and more this year, and to top that off was very good in a couple appearances for the junior club.

Casey was, without a doubt, the best puck wizard in the GTHL this year, and has all sorts of junior-ready skill with the disc on his stick. He has a slight build, and I'm sure the western coaches that do their homework will be looking to hit him, but good luck with that: he's also very very slippery. He had 14 points in six games at the All-Ontarios, and generally looked like he found the GTHL pretty easy this year, so he is a lot of fun to watch.

After those two guys, the Rangers midgets take a turn towards the more classic NYR midget teams: a bunch of big, angry belligerents. This team will not be intimidated as other Toronto-area teams might have been against teams from the west and pacific in the past, with hard-working, physical guys like Will Hunter, Jason Pineo, and Daniel Tsiampas in tow.

James Turner's north-south, hard-working style earned him a look at the OHL's Guelph Storm's training camp this past season, while Pineo and Tsiampas have solid, effective, and extensive junior experience already.

It's hard to miss the hulking presence of Matteo Santia as well, as the big man is not very fast, but gets to his spots, and does not mind parking in the goalies face - exactly where Vessio wants him.

Finally, Vessio has found a way to hold on to a midget club that has 11 forwards, and six defencemen, so while other GTHL clubs heading to the Telus Cup have had to call up minor midgets to help fill a roster usually smaller in number than their adversaries on a national level, North York does not need to do that. The benefits to chemistry, and importance of the attitude that "we are all we have, and we are all we need", as a result of not needing to add extra players at this point, cannot be measured. With all those factors in mind, I believe this Ranger club will absolutely be competitive at the national level. Now, like with the rest of this dream season for the North York midgets, what you have on paper means almost nothing when the puck is dropped, so it's time for the lads to show what they are truly made of.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Burlington v Georgetown: SW Conference Final Preview

Matchup Breakdown

#1 Georgetown Raiders season record: 37-13-3-1 (78 points)

Leading scorer vs. Burlington: Josh Dickinson (3 goals, 6 points), Ashur Elliot (2 goals, 6 points)

Goaltenders (Playoff stats): Andrew Masters, 8-3-0, .921 save percentage; Billy Day, 0-0-0, 1.000 save percentage

#5 Burlington Cougars season record: 34-17-1-2 (71 points)

Leading scorer vs. Georgetown: Ben Morris (2 goals, 5 points), Jordan Peacock (1 goal, 3 points)

Goaltenders (Playoff stats): Andrew Lee, 8-3-0, .904 save percentage; Austin Washkurak, 0-1-0, .881 save percentage

Head-to-head record: Georgetown won three of four, with Burlington’s win coming in overtime

How Georgetown wins: Three words: ride the wave.

The Raiders were tremendous in Game 6 of the second round in closing out the veteran North York Rangers on the road, and it was done with a masterwork of tenacity and attention to detail that head coach Greg Walters could only have dreamed of seeing from his young group. Uncle momentum is a great friend of Georgetown’s right now.

As good as the highly touted Jacome brothers, Brendan and Jack, have been this post-season, the most tantalizing thing about the Raiders right now is that they closed out the Rangers with plenty of scoring by committee. Face-off-and-defence-first centreman Bailey Molella was the goal-scoring hero in Game 6, while early-season dynamo Daniel Hardie was the hero of Game 5. It really is coming from all over the place for Walters and co.

The OJHL’s highest rated NHL prospect Matthew Cairns continues to take steps forward, both with the puck on his stick, and perhaps more importantly, in the area of showing some serious snarl. He is a sure-fire draft pick if he keeps up the belligerence level he showed in Round 2.

The fascinating match in this series is going to be Georgetown’s highly aggressive penalty kill vs. Burlington’s deadly power play, so if the Raiders can repeat the incredible job they did in Round 2 (to the tune of forcing the high-powered Rangers to an abysmal 2-for-30 over the series), they will have a great chance of taking this series.

The Raiders play with a tempo and a simplicity that Burlington has not yet seen in the post-season, either from Toronto in the first round, or Oakville in the second, so if the games stay five-on-five for the most part, Georgetown will have to be considered a heavy favourite.

As usual, you do not go anywhere late in the post-season without strong goaltending, and while Georgetown’s 20-year-old star net minder Andrew Masters wasn’t exactly brilliant against the Rangers, he was better than his counterpart, and a repeat performance in that area will be needed against a Burlington attack that isn’t always pretty, but often finds way to scores goals.

How Burlington wins: Repeat the formula that frustrated an exceptionally talented group of Oakville Blades in Round 2: dominate in the trenches. A grind-it-out, physical series will suit the Cougars well as they have a clear advantage in strength and size.

The Raiders are a tenacious bunch, and the older Cougars will have to keep their emotions in check if they are going to keep this series close. Both clubs overcame tough series’ in Round 2, but Burlington’s was longer, and had all sorts of wild emotional swings, so keeping scores low, and letting that vaunted power play be a difference maker, will likely be big parts of the Cougars’ game plans.

Andy Lee was lights out in net at times in the first two rounds, but he was ordinary at others. For head coach Mark Jooris’ men to have any sort of shot against the top seeded Raiders, Lee will have to be the first star, if only because Georgetown loves to throw everything and the kitchen sink towards the blue paint. The good news: Lee has proven capable of doing it.

Burlington’s attack is certainly at its best when hulking winger Jordan Peacock is at the centre of the show, so watching for whether the 20-year-old is engaged mentally and physically will be a key way of seeing how the series is going on a game-to-game basis.

Niagara commit Zac Hermann has been superb all post-season on the Cougars’ back end, and along with Willy Paul leads a talented and gritty Burlington blue line. That two-headed monster, along with the emerging two-way presence of Stef Alonzi up front, will have to continue their impactful trends for the Cougars to keep the finals in their sights.

Unlike in the series vs. Oakville, the difference in ice surface-size between the two teams in the conference final is negligible.

Georgetown question marks: Will Andrew Masters ever run out of gas? Can the Raiders shut down the explosive Cougars power play, as well as they did the Rangers? Can they continue to get secondary scoring from a mostly unheralded group of forwards behind the Jacome brothers and Jordan Crocker? Can the youthful, and smallish Raiders forward corps avoid getting physically intimidated by the bigger, older Cougars?

Burlington question marks: Can the older, slower Cougars avoid getting warned down by the buzz saw Raiders, which never seem to tire? Can Andy Lee keep the Cougars in games? Can Burlington match Georgetown’s tempo for a 7-game series? Will the Raiders give the Cougars power play a chance to make a big impact in the series?