Junior Ontario Hockey

The discussion should be about why Tugwell is outplaying Patterson. Both teams took 33 shots tonight. London hit the twine five times. Chatham did it four. If my math is correct, that puts the Nats up 2 games to nada. Goaltending wins close series. This is a close series. If I was the coach for Maro...

Where's Morgan? His imposing presence was missed last night by the Maroons. That said, for a team with this much depth and fire-power, one or two guys out shouldn't make that much difference. London, too, is missing the closest thing they have to a power F with Goodman out.

Not a bad summary. One thing is for sure: there are suddenly a lot of cracks appearing in what appeared to be a solid line-up in Chatham. But credit is due to the young Nats who simply out-worked a veteran team.

Oh, and btw... the refs were crap. A couple of very questionable calls against London, while lots of looks the other way when Maroons were mauling the Nats.

Nats out-skated and out-scored Maroons. Great defensive effort that frustrated Chatham players and fans alike. Tugwell was rock solid. Thompson has the boys believing. Will be interesting to see if they can carry the momentum on to the big ice at western fair.

Maroons looking good right now. Handed out a shellacking the last couple evenings to the Nats and Rockets (125 shots for in two games!). Coin toss between them and Leamington, but I'd give the edge to Chatham due to their mix of skill, experience and size. On big ice, Leamington has a chance. In a s...

Great game to watch and I especially enjoyed the outcome. Full marks to the Nats for a gutsy come back. Flyers haven't been held to one goal too many times this year. Wheaton was the star of the game IMO... one of the league's best in soaking up the rebounds. The OT penalty was legit. In fact, if an...

Hard to argue against Leamington right now. Most goals for and, of greater importance IMO, lowest goals against. True offensive depth needs to be measured not just by # of pucks in the net, but also on whether or not your forwards play 200 feet. Flyers are the only West team at this point in the sea...

Nick Dampier was also the difference last night vs London in a 2-1 shoot-out win in which the Nats outshot the Stars by a considerable margin but simply couldn't score. Could count on one hand the number of rebounds Damps let out. He was like a sponge all night. Got beat only once in the shoot out. ...

Well, I guess we can all agree to disagree on what we see, though I can't resist pointing out that Quick decidedly did not have control of the puck... both players were racing for a loose one. I will also agree with GoWest in wondering how two Nationals stood idly by while their goaltender was black...

Rather than argue all day on this point, here's some food for thought... NHL Rule #69 says: "(When) the goalkeeper is out of the goal crease, and an attacking player makes other than incidental contact with the goalkeeper and no goal is scored on the play, a minor and/or major penalty (is calle...

Tugwell is fine, thankfully. No concussion and cleared to play is the report. Quick could have, and should have, avoided a full-on collision. Say what you want... Q is a good, skilled, rough and tumble player, but you can't ever justify running a goalie like that. He knows it. And he would be wise t...

Another 1998, no doubt

I agree with Oglethorp, but with Warren and Hughes added to the mix, the Nats are going to be a team to watch in the second half of the season. They gave first-place Leamington a run for their money first game out of the blocks after acquiring DiLoreto, Ruddock, Warren and Hughes (3-2 loss) and then...

Interesting comment to read about being "wrong about money." That may be true, but thought StM is a community owned team. If there's a "very wealthy business man" behind the franchise, then he may have lots of money but clearly doesn't know how to spend it to build a competitive ...

Two words: no money. Lincolns can't afford to attract or retain quality players, especially out of towners and veterans. Sad but true. Hometown boys Siddall and Blight took flight after last season for greener pastures. Now two London boys, both good kids and students at Western, tired of paying for...