Saginaw Spirit Advance to Semi-Finals for Only Second Time in Spirit History

 From Saturday April, 2nd -  2011 Home Game:

The Saginaw Spirit played a good, disciplined, playoff hockey game Saturday April, 2nd at The Dow Event Center. Their disciplined play paid off as they won a crucial game four in this best of seven series in the 1st round of the 2011 OHL Western Conference playoffs.

Both teams came out flying in the first period. The Spirit Defensemen seemed to have a hard time clearing guys out in front of Goal Tender Mavric Parks early on. I counted at least four times throughout the first half of the 1st period where the Guelph Forwards got high quality shots on goal from directly in front of the Spirit net. Mavric Parks did a fantastic job making some nice saves to keep the puck out of the net. On one of those shots, a Guelph winger hit the post and the puck bounced off of Mavric’s back and dropped to the ice behind him, almost trickling across the goal line before Parks was able to find the puck and cover it up. It was only a matter of time before Guelph’s Peter Holland found the back of the net. Holland was camped out in front of the Spirit net (without anyone putting a body or a stick on him) for what seemed like an eternity, before he made easy work of a Stephen Gaskin pass from behind the net beating Parks glove side high.

The Spirit’s disciplined play would eventually pay off for them as they went over a period and a half without committing a single penalty. Guelph however, would head to the “Sin Bin” three times in the first period. The Spirit would capitalize on the 2nd of those 3 penalties. At 17:44 of the 1st period, Saginaw’s John McFarland scored a Power Play Goal that tied the game at one.

I have been noticing throughout this series that the one weak spot in Guelph Goal Tender, Brandon Foote’s game is that he tends to stay “down” a bit too long at times. When a Goalie tends to do this, teams usually exploit that weakness by shooting “high” on him. Well, “Johnny Mac” obviously did his homework, and watched some game film on the Guelph goalie. McFarland, or as I refer to him, the “Irish Assassin” took a wrist shot from the right point and went Glove Side VERY High on Foote and blew it by him to tie the game. That goal was very similar to Ryan O’Connor’s two goals earlier in this series. It should be noted that the Spirit have scored at least 1 or 2 goals in each of their 3 home games of this series against Foote by going glove side high. The 1st period ended tied at one.

Saginaw continued their disciplined play throughout the 2nd period. Brandon Saad had a “frustration” slashing penalty and Ivan Telegin was whistled for a questionable “holding the stick” penalty that looked like it should have been called holding against the Guelph player, but those were the only two setbacks for the Spirit in the 2nd period.

Second period penalties have been a stumbling block for this Spirit Club throughout this series. Four minutes and 36 seconds into the 2nd period, Spirit Captain, Jordan Szwarz crashed the net and scored. Szwarz followed his initial shot with a 2nd shot off of the rebound to score and put the Spirit up 2-1. A few minutes later, Guelph’s Francis Menard would tie the game at 2 on an almost identical goal to the Szwarz goal. Once again, the Spirit Defensemen had a hard time clearing out in front of the net. This gritty Guelph team would not go away, and they struck again at the 10:34 mark of the 2nd period on a Scott Kosmachuk goal, giving the Storm a 3 to 2 lead. The disciplined play of the Spirit would pay off (yet again) late in the 2nd period when Saginaw Sniper, Josh Shalla scored Saginaw’s 2nd power play goal of the night with just over 2 minutes left in the 2nd period. The two teams would head into the locker room tied 3-3 after two periods of play.

Spirit Captain, Jordan Szwarz would score his 2nd goal of the night at the 5:16 mark of the 3rd period, giving Saginaw a 4-3 lead. I know it sounds like a broken record, but Saginaw continued their disciplined play throughout the 3rd period, while their Defense CONTINUED to have a hard time clearing guys out in front of the net.

At 9:03 of the 3rd period, Guelph’s Daniel Erlich barely got his stick on the puck and scored off of a nice feed from Taylor Beck, who was behind the Spirit net. The tension was thick inside The Dow Event Center throughout the 3rd period, but the Spirit players had a look of confidence on their youthful faces.

It’s hard to describe in words, but throughout the other Spirit home games, you could almost tell if they were going to win or lose by their body language. It’s hard sometimes for us as fans to distinguish, but we must remind ourselves that these Spirit players are for the most part, just High School Kids. When they lost game 3 at home, you could see the players hanging their heads throughout the game, even when the game was tied. This past Saturday night was different, they had a look of confidence. At 11:46 of the 3rd period, Vincent Trochek scored on what seemed to be an impossible angle. The Trochek goal ended up as the game winning goal as the Spirit beat Guelph by a score of 5-4.

The win gives Saginaw a 3games to 2 lead in the series over the Guelph Storm. Saginaw now has a chance to clinch the series on Sunday in Guelph.

UPDATE: The Spirit beat the Guelph Storm on Sunday night by a score of 6-5. The win clinches the first round of the playoffs and advances the Spirit to the Western Conference Semi Finals for just the 2nd time in team history. The Spirit must now wait to see who their next opponent will be.

The Owen-Sound Attack is the highest ranked team in the Western Conference, and they have also won their first round series (against the London Knights). As the top ranked team in the Western Conference, Owen-Sound has the luxury of playing the lowest ranked team in the Western Conference for their next round (which would be Plymouth, if they were to win).

So, one of two things will now happen for the Spirit. Number 1, if Kitchener beats Plymouth (whose series is tied at 3 games each) on Monday April, 4th then Saginaw would face Kitchener in the next round. If Plymouth were to win game 7 tonight vs. Kitchener, then Saginaw will have a different opponent. So, if Plymouth were to beat Kitchener tonight, then the 2nd scenario would be that Saginaw would play the winner of the Windsor Spitfires and the Erie Otter’s series. The Erie Otters and Windsor Spitfires are also tied in their Series at 3 games apiece. Erie and Windsor play game 7 on Tuesday night.

Saginaw is the 2nd highest ranked team in the Western Conference so they will automatically have home ice advantage in the next round, no matter their opponent.

I was informed by the Spirit front office that whomever Saginaw’s next opponent may be, the 1st game will likely be played on Friday April, 8th or Saturday April, 9th at The Dow Event Center. I would imagine that the puck will drop at its usual time of 7:11 P.M.