The London Knights and Saginaw Spirit were the OHL’s best in the regular season. With a win over Guelph on the final day of the schedule, London overtook the Saginaw Spirit by two points for the top spot in the overall standings and captured the Hamilton Spectator Trophy.
The two clubs split their regular season meetings with each team winning twice on home ice.
This is the fourth meeting between the teams historically in the playoffs. All of these took place from 2009 to 2013 and London won all three.
Here’s what the teams will be like in 2024:
goaltending
The Knights’ Michael Simpson has now won five consecutive series by exactly one goal. He has repeatedly reached the big time and has a 2.38 goals-against average and .907 save percentage, both of which rank in the top five in the OHL postseason.
Saginaw was leading the goal with Andrew Oakey until he collided with the Soo Greyhounds’ Bryce McConnell-Barker in Game 2 of the Spirit’s second-round series. Oakey missed the remainder of the series, but according to Saginaw head coach Chris Lazzeri, he is close to returning.
Nolan Lalonde was acquired from Erie via Sarnia at the beginning of the year and he stepped up to help the Spirit defeat the Greyhounds in seven games.
OK has the best goals-against average and best save percentage so far in the post-season.
What the coaching staff is saying
Latest news from Canada and around the world
As it happens, it will be sent to your email.
London Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter: “They’re a solid team. They are preparing for more Memorial Cups this year. They are well built and well trained. We have to be out of the box and do the right thing because there is not a single weakness that you can point to.”
Saginaw Spirit head coach Chris Lazzari: “It’s a well-kept secret that we’ve wanted to play these guys at some point because you want to play the best of the best if you want to try to win. We’re looking forward to the challenge.” It’s going to be difficult.”
protect
Both these teams know how to play good team defense. London have given up an average of 2.5 goals per game. The Spirit are surrendering 2.4 goals per game.
Every club has a desire to block shots and make life difficult for their opponents.
The play of the London D-core of Isaiah George, Jackson Edwards, Oliver Bonk, Sam Dickinson, Alec Leonard and Jared Woolley has been crucial in leading the Knights to an 8–0 lead up to this point.
They are playing well in their own zone and are also performing well in attack.
Edward Kitchener was London’s third leading scorer in the series and George and Dickinson each had three points in four games.
Saginaw also gets offense from their defense but their biggest question mark comes from that side of the ice as well.
Zayne Parekh has been setting records on offense since entering the OHL a year ago at the age of 16. He became the first 16-year-old blue liner to score 21 goals in a single season in 2022-23 and followed that up with 31 goals this year.
He missed two games against the Greyhounds due to injury. One of them was Game 7 but Lazzari acknowledged that he too could return.
Nice mix of spirits on the back end. He also gets great offense from Rodwin Dionisio and Jorion Donovan and are very good players. He can do it all. Braden Hache came from Barrie and brought leadership and grit. This season he was named captain of Saginaw.
Crime
Both clubs look to top the 300-goal mark in 2023–24. London has been led throughout the year by Flyers prospect Denver Barkey and his regular season scoring of 102 points and Maple Leafs first-rounder Easton Cowan, who played 42 consecutive games with at least one point.
In the playoffs, Jakob Julien and Kasper Halttunen have been hot. Julien is coming off back-to-back hat-tricks and Halttunen is second on the Knights with six goals in eight games.
Max McCue, Landon Sim and Caleb Lawrence have also stepped up offensively. The Knights will be without Lawrence for the next four games as he serves his suspension from the series against Rangers.
The most popular player on the Saginaw roster is Calem Mangone. He may only be five feet seven inches tall but Mangone led the Spirit with five goals and seven points in the series with Sault Ste. Mary.
Saginaw also added Owen Beck, who won an OHL championship last year with Michael Simpson and Peterborough, and former Spirit captain Josh Bloom, who spent the year in the American Hockey League and then returned to the OHL.
Add Vegas prospect Matyas Sapovaliev, Strathroy native and Minnesota prospect Hunter Haight, and former first overall pick Michael Misa, and Saginaw’s offense is deep and deadly.
special teams
London had the best power-play percentage of the Internet era in the regular season. Saginaw was 2.6 percent behind the Knights.
London set an OHL record with 29 short-handed goals in the regular season and although he did not have a single short-handed goal in eight postseason games, he had the second-best success rate on the penalty kill.
The Spirit power play has been pretty quiet so far in the playoffs, clicking at 13.6 percent. They ranked seventh in penalty kill percentage in the postseason.
Schedule
Game 1 – Friday, April 26, at London, 7 p.m.
Game 2 – Sunday, April 28, at London, 2pm
Game 3 – Monday, April 29 at Saginaw, 7:05 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, May 1, at Saginaw, 7:05 p.m.
Game 5 – Friday, May 3, at London, 7pm*
Game 6 – Sunday, May 5 at Saginaw, 2 p.m.*
Game 7 – Monday, May 6, at London, 7pm*
* Play if necessary
©2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.