Guelph / Waterloo set to do battle

from: http://www.guelphmercury.com

Canes, Siskins square off on Wednesday

March 02, 2010, Mercury staff, sports@guelphmercury.com

GUELPH — The Guelph Hurricanes and Waterloo Siskins begin their Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Midwestern Conference quarter-final playoff series Wednesday at Waterloo.

The Hurricanes (16-29-6) finished seventh in the conference while the Siskins (43-7-1) were second, one point behind the first-placed Brantford Golden Eagles (42-5-4).

The series shifts to the Sleeman Centre for Game 2 March 6. Game time is 7:30 p.m., the same as the opening game.

Waterloo will host Game 3 March 7 beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Game 4 switches back to Victoria Road Arena March 9 starting at 7:30 p.m.

The fifth, sixth and seventh games of the series will be played only if necessary.

If needed the fifth (March 10, 7:30 p.m.) and seventh (March 14, 1:30 p.m.) will be played in Waterloo while the sixth (March 13, 7:30 p.m.) would go at the Sleeman Centre.

Pegrum scored vs. Waterloo earlier in the season

The Hurricanes and Siskins met seven times during the regular season with Waterloo winning six of the games. The Hurricanes won 4-1 at Waterloo Jan. 17 in the game that saw Guelph goaltender Drew Pegrum score an empty-net goal.

In other games in Waterloo, the host Siskins won 5-4 Oct. 2, 8-0 Nov. 20 and 5-2 Jan. 8. In Guelph, the visitors won 5-3 Nov. 7, 4-2 Nov. 26 and 5-1 Feb. 6.

Despite their seventh-place finish, the Hurricanes enter the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the conference. They claimed eight points in their final six games as they had three wins, a loss and two setbacks in overtime.

Tough weekend ahead for Hurricanes

The Guelph Hurricanes (11-19-4 26 pts.) have a tough weekend ahead as they first travel to Waterloo to take on the 2nd Place (27-5-0 54 pts.) Siskins Friday night.

Siskins Wil Sibley has beaten Guelph 3 times

The Siskins have been winning with top notch goaltending and tough checking. They have a balanced  attack. In the previous 4 tilts, Waterloo has come out on top, 5-4, 5-3, 8-0 and 4-2. Three key factors that Guelph needs to do to win are:

1. Shoot !(early and often) The Canes have averaged 27.75 shots per game vs. Waterloo.  Waterloo’s goaltenders have a save % of .923. This translates into 2 goals against. So if they want to increase their goals, they need to increase the number of shots.

2. Stay out of the penalty box! Waterloo has converted 18.09% of their Powerplays (6th in GOJHL).

3. Get Solid goaltending! Attention Chris McDougall… pretend we are playing Stratford.

After battling with the Siskins, Guelph travels to the Bell City to take on the take on the 1st Place Brantford Golden Eagles (28-4-3 59 pts.) on Saturday night.

McQuade leads the GOJHL scoring with 103 pts.

 Two Brantford players that have killed the Canes this season are goaltender Daryl Borden (26-4 2.51 GAA) and Josh McQuade, who leads the league in scoring with 103 pts. (40 goals and 63 assists)

The Golden Eagles sport the GOJHL’s leading Penalty Kill with 89.95% , including 20 shorthanded goals.

Two keys to victory in this game are:

1. Hit them, hit them and then hit them again. This is a run-and-gun finese team that the Hurricanes can upset if they keep laying the body on them.

2. Neutralize Josh McQuade. McQuade has scored 7 goals and 2 assists in 3 games vs. Guelph, including 2 hat tricks. How do they do that….read point #1. Oh and when they hit them, do it cleanly, because Brantford also has the #4 PowerPlay in the GOJHL converting on 23.66% of  them.

One more key factor in both these games.

If Guelph remains in 7th or 8th in the standings at the end of the regular season, it is likely that they will either face Brantford or Waterloo in the first round of the playoffs.