Four remain in the NHL, four remain in the AHL.
Tonight marks the commencement of the AHL Conference finals series as Toronto and Hershey kick off in the East. The West will wait until a late 8pm start on Saturday to get under way at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California.
For Ontario it has been, dare I say, a comfortable playoff run thus far. The Reign are 7-2 this postseason, having dropped one game in both their opening round and second round to San Jose and San Diego. While the losses came in particularly lackluster fashion, overall Ontario has proven to be a well oiled beast for teams to handle. The defensive structure imposed by coach Mike Stothers has seen the team ride out a second straight Conference finals appearance (Last year under the Manchester Monarchs banner). In front of stingy goaltending, penalty killing, and defense, the L.A. Kings affiliate are hoping to make it two titles in two years.
For Lake Erie, this is the franchise's first ever appearance in the Calder Cup playoffs under the wing of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they are certainly making a go of it. While the team was founded in 2007 and operating in partnership with the Colorado Avalanche, in 2011 they switched up and landed with the Columbus Blue Jackets (Formerly affiliated with the Springfield Falcons). While they had previously posted three out of four seasons above .500, they were never quite enough to make the playoffs in a good Central division (Sound familiar?). 2015-16 has been a revitalized year for the team under fourth year coach Jared Bednar. An influx of youth mixed with some NHL quality veterans pulled the Monsters to a 43 win season and their best ever year under the arm of the Blue Jackets.
Let's break down the teams, their personnel, what to look for, and more in our Western Conference series preview between the baby Kings and the baby BJs.
Ontario Reign
If you have followed along throughout the post-season on the blog, you know exactly what you are getting from the Ontario Reign. However, if you are a visiting Lake Erie fan you may not be familiar. In fact, I do not think anyone would expect you to be considering neither of these teams played each other during the regular season! So bear with it if you know the Reign.
It is defense first hockey. Structured. Tenacious. Grinding. Physical.
Throw that in a blender with a little bit of skill and creativity in the top end forward positions and you have the Reign. As a team they allowed the fewest goals against at 2.03. They also reinforced their defense first mentality with the 1st overall penalty kill (88.7%) during the regular season. Unsurprisingly, neither of those things have changed moving into the postseason. The Reign penalty kill has continued to garrote opponents, with a 27-29 kill efficiency (93.1%). Goals against? 1.88.
The question for Ontario almost always comes from the offensive side of the puck, however when you allowed under two goals a game you are not asking for that much from offense. Especially when you put up as many shots as the Reign do. It is has been an absolute deluge of shots for Ontario this postseason, outshooting opponents 316-195 over the nine games they have played. If you do the math, that's a torrid 35.1 shots per game. They have scored at just a 2.6 goals per game rate despite crunch opponents on the shot differential. Again though, when you limit opponents to so few opportunities and so few goals, 2.6 is more than enough to win you hockey games.
Their early game forecheck, with two men in, have hemmed teams in for extended periods of time and slowly ground down opponents. On the flip side, with the lead, Ontario has switched gears accordingly and locked down the neutral zone on both San Jose and San Diego. It was evident against the Gulls, whose high octane puck movers of Shea Theodore and Brandon Montour might as well have been trying to traverse a minefield on a unicycle.
They have some real subtle skill in the top six, with some huge bodies in the bottom six. Coupled with a group of quality puck movers, Ontario has looked like a complete team thus far.
Key Players
From the back end out the Reign have been stalwarts on the season. Goaltender Peter Budaj was tremendous during the regular season, and despite not being tested as much during the postseason, has carried that form over. On the rare occasion there is a miscue or high quality chance, Budaj has been more than capable in staving off the opportunity.
The real meat of Ontario comes from a quality group of defensemen. The top two pairs of
Kevin Gravel/Derek Forbort and Vincent LoVerde/Kurtis MacDermid, have worked wonders in matchups at even strength for Mike Stothers. Gravel and Forbort were tasked with shutting down San Diego's top line and top pair, and did an admirable job throughout. The Reign coach has really had little to protect from his third pairing as well, given that NHL veteran
Jeff Schultz is generally anchored to a younger puck mover ala Nick Ebert, Kevin Raine, or Zach Leslie. That has been the key. There is no need to hide any players in the defensive group, as all are capable in their own end, and all are capable at moving the puck out in transition.
Up front it begins and ends with
Nic Dowd. He is the catalyst of the Reign offense and the commander of the center ice for them. Even if his line is not producing chances offensively (Which has been rare), they are generally stingy defensive fighters. Alongside
Michael Mersch at times, the duo have done everything from powerplay work, D-zone faceoffs, to late penalty kills.
Two other plays who have stepped up for the Ontario Reign have been the big, burly,
Justin Auger and the exciting and skilled
Adrian Kempe. The latter seems to have a knack for this "Big game" stuff...
Auger, who stands at a healthy 6'7" has scored some timely goals for Ontario in these playoffs. He is tied for second on the team in points (5) and goals (3) for the post season. Nic Dowd is leading the team with eight points in nine games, with Adrian Kempe leading in goals with four.
There are a lot of role players to like as well, as guys like
Ryan Horvat, Jordan Samuels-Thomas and Andrew Crescenzi will do things like win big defensive zone draws, kill you penalties, or block shots. It is a blue collar group, through and through.
The wild card to look out for?
Michael Amadio. Fresh off his massive OHL season and an impressive second round against San Diego, Amadio may be pressed out of the lineup with the return of injured Brett Sutter or Jonny Brodzinski. However, he seems to have earned his keep with strong three zone play and some penultimate offensive flashes.
Lake Erie Monsters
While it is easy to laud the Ontario Reign for their defensive efforts, do not look too far down the list for Lake Erie. They were also a very stingy defensive team this year backed by a solid blue line and good goaltending. They finished 3rd in goals against during the regular season and 5th in penalty kill. Just like the Reign struggled with at times though, the question has become who will score?
That has changed considerably however in the postseason. The Monsters put up 33 goals in nine games for a whopping 3.67 goals per game. That is a stark contrast to the 2.78 that landed them 21st in the league during the regular season. Their powerplay also has turned around, going a massive 10-35 for a 28.6%. During the regular season that number was just 16.7%. Even without powerplay production, the Monsters offense is still clicking at a 2.5 goals per game rate which is not bad.
You could point to many things for the offensive breakout of the Monsters, but the most obvious would have to be the talented youth. With various rookies in the lineup, it seems that a number of players have spiked, figured it out, etc. just at the right time. Thinking back to Ontario's own Michael Mersch, it often makes sense that after a full year in the AHL these players start to figure it out right in time for playoff runs. Let's get to those players.
Key Players
Mentioned above were some talented rookies, and you need look no further than
Oliver Bjorkstrand sparkling for an example of "Turning it on"
While Bjorkstrand finished his rookie year with a modest 29 points and 17 goals in 59 games, he had 10 of those goals and 16 of those points in the final 22 games of the season. He currently has eight points in nine games. Also inserted into the lineup is highly rated prospect
Zach Werenski. The aggressive puck mover has come exactly as advertised, leading the team with 10 points in nine games. He has been an exceptional addition to the Lake Erie powerplay. While young Michael Paliotta and John Ramage (Both of whom are nursing injuries) are no slouches on a powerplay, neither have the dictating pace and play of Werenski.
Bjorkstrand, Werenski, and
Sonny Milano will all grab headlines, the center depth has been tremendous for Lake Erie in the playoffs. Regular season leading scorer
T.J Tynan has been excellent centering the 1A line alongside Kerby Rychel and
Josh Anderson. The 6'3" Anderson, in particular, has had a wonderful playoffs. He is currently tied for the team lead in points amongst forwards with nine in nine and a team leading five goals.
Michael Chaput and Alex Broadhurst make up the 1B combo if you will, and have also been offensive monsters. Below Tynan and Chaput on the 3rd line is third year pro and Czech draft pick
Lukas Sedlak. He has been skating alongside the aforementioned Bjorkstrand.
So while there are names that probably seem familiar to your from numerous national tournaments and draft lists, Lake Erie is sporting a really diverse and talented top 9 group of forwards. On the backend There is a good blend of youth, with Werenski, Swiss youngster
Dean Kukan, and
Dylan Heatherington, coupled with some veterans like
Steve Eminger, Jamie Sifers and Justin Falk. As mentioned before Paliotta and Ramage, who are generally regulars, are sidelined with injuries that could hold them out for an undetermined amount of time.
Between the pipes it might be a little unsettled. Anton Forsberg got the call for the majority of the year with
Joonas Korpisalo playing in Columbus, but the latter has been sent back down to relinquish his No. 1 duty. He has been leaky in the playoffs. He has posted an .898 save percentage. He was pulled in Game 6 of the Grand Rapids series after allowing three goals on nine shots. This came after back to back games where he allowed 10 goals (five on each night) in Games 4 and 5. There was a barrage of 65 shots combined in those games so it was not all on Korpisalo, but it is something to keep an eye on.
What to look for
This should be an extremely fun series to watch, after the inevitable feeling out process of potentially discombobulated hockey in Game 1. These teams are not all that dissimilar in terms of their makeup and approach to the game. Lake Erie plays a game that thrives on clogging up center ice and the neutral zone (1-2-2 forecheck), but also driving plays to the boards in their defending zone.
This is not an uncommon sight for a Monsters game (Lake Erie in white)
View post on imgur.com
Space is very hard to come by in the offensive zone for many teams. Grand Rapids gave Lake Erie all they could handle in the latter part of the series, primarily due to their speed on transition, powerplay, and some untimely goals from Korpisalo here and there. Ontario, while they have quick players, is not a team that thrives on speed. However, good transition hockey might challenge Lake Erie. The other challenge for the Monsters might come in dealing with the sheer size of Ontario on the forecheck. On the flipside, Ontario will have to break the center lane of Lake Erie, and get their defensive structure to open up. Creative Reign players like Nic Dowd and Adrian Kempe will be challenged in this series to create space and openings with very little provided to them.
While special teams are not often huge during the regular season, in a seven game series it could be critical. While Ontario limited San Diego to just two goals over their previous series with the extra man, they are tasked yet again with a powerplay that is lethal. Look for that to be a key in the series as well.
For Ontario, dealing with the powerplay along with a good set of balanced top 9 forwards will be crucial. Thankfully the Reign themselves have a group of capable defenders and top 9 forwards to match up with them. Numbers give the slight odds favorite to the Reign, but it will not come easy. The Reign also have the head to head goaltender and defensive match up victory on paper, but it is simply that: On paper.
Expect a tightly matched series, but not a particularly low scoring one. Since these two teams have yet to play each other this series it could be a wild tilt in terms of figuring out strengths and weaknesses along with shutting them down altogether. If the Reign can stay out of the box and/or limit the Lake Erie special teams, their five on five chances look good. If Lake Erie can lock out the offensive weapons that the Reign have, they could eventually chip away at the Ontario defense with their own offense. Again though, it will not come easy for either team.
Series gets under way in Ontario tomorrow night. Here is the full schedule
Keep checking in for pre and post game write ups throughout the series.
Keep locked in with
Ontario Reign Insider Lindsay Czarnecki,
Sheng Peng from Jewels from the Crown,
Press Enterprise reporter Jim Alexander, Mayor's Manor correspondent
Spike Coffman , and last but of course not least
Jesse Cohen of All the Kings Men Podcast and The Royal Half.
Also follow me on twitter for series updates and live tweeting
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