Memorial Cup Game 2 – Zone Entries

Game two of the Memorial Cup featured the OHL champion Guelph Storm taking on the WHL champs the Edmonton Oil Kings. Edmonton entered the game as the best possession team in the WHL with 59.09%. Guelph was fourth in the OHL at 54.6%. (h/t to @joshweissbock). In knowing those numbers you would expect Edmonton to control the play in this game and have a chance to get a win. Edmonton did win the shot battle 39-32 (55%), but lost the game 5-2.  

In tracking the zone entries for the game it was very easy to see why Edmonton is such a good possession 

team.

	Game Two Zone Entries
	Guelph	Edmonton
Dump-ins	23	15
Success Rate	22%	27%
Carry-ins	25	44
Success Rate	64%	70%
Tip-ins	6	4
Success Rate	50%	0%
Other	16	9
Success Rate	38%	44%

    

The Oil Kings do an excellent job of hanging onto the puck. They almost doubled the carry-ins of Guelph and had a better success rate. They dumped the puck in fewer times and again had the higher success rate. Edmonton played well despite the loss, sometimes the bounces just don’t go your way.

I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow between the best two possession teams: London and Edmonton. Will be interesting to see how London goes about defending all the carry-ins Edmonton generates.