Friday Night Hockey Scoring Chances

I was able to catch the nationally televised game between the Oshawa Generals and Kingston Frontenacs. To my disappointment I found out in the pre-game that Sam Bennett currently projected to go first overall in this summer’s draft had been suspended from a cross-check in the previous game.  This game started out as I expected. Oshawa being the best team in the Eastern Conference came out and was controlling the possession game early. Kingston looked like they missed Bennett in the first period especially on the power play. It was terrible registering no chances on their first attempt and barely even getting set up. Their second power play of the period was so bad my friend who was watching the game with my thought Oshawa was on the power play. The highlight of this period was Scott Laughton showing his absolute bomb of a shot, scoring a great power play goal from the high slot.

The second period started much like the first with the game favouring Oshawa. They came out and scored a quick goal to make 2-0. The turning point in this game was when Oshawa had a 5 on 3 power play and Laughton was getting a penalty shot. If Laughton scored the game would have been 3-0 and likely been over.  Laughton however was stopped on his shot and Kingston killed off the penalties. From that point on Kingston took over and dominated. They scored 5 goals in the period highlighted by Corey Pawly going backhand bar down!

The third period had major scoring effects taking place. Kingston scored 30 seconds into the period and cruised the rest of the way. Oshawa having already clinched the top spot in the conference knew the game was over and essentially coasted the rest of the way as well.

One final note the Oshawa power was very poor in this game I felt. They scored on their first attempt with Laughton scoring from the point/high slot. From there they never seemed to make an adjustment as Kingston covered Laughton and Laughton repeatedly took point shots that were easily blocked. I'm not sure if they have run this power play style all season but if they have its worked as they have the second best power play in the OHL (behind Erie), converting at a 26.8% clip. It will be interesting to see how teams approach defending this power play in the playoffs, and see if they follow the same strategy Kingston did.  

Here are the scoring chances.

Team	First Period	Second Period	Third Period	Total
Oshawa	4(2)	8(3)	5(3)	17(8)
Kingston	5(4)	10(6)	3(1)	18(11)