By Dan McCaffery
Experience will square off
against youthful enthusiasm
when the Sarnia Legionnaires
meet the St. Thomas Stars in
the first round of the Jr.
'B' hockey playoffs.
Action begins tonight
(Thursday, Feb. 26) with the
puck drop set for 7:10 p.m.
at the Brock Street barn.
Here's how the teams
compare:
Regular season:
Sarnia finished in third
place with a 33-15-1 record,
while St. Thomas was sixth,
with a 22-20-7 mark. The
Legionnaires won the season
series between the two clubs
4-2 in games.
Coaching: There's little to
choose between Sarnia's Dan
Rose and St. Thomas's Ron
Horvat.
Rose has coached more than
500 Jr. 'B' games, making
him the dean of the league's
bench bosses. In 2005, he
took his club to the finals.
Horvat, who has a reputation
for pulling off upsets in
the playoffs, has been
behind the bench for about
400 games. In 2011, he
guided the fourth place
Stars to a Weir Cup
championship.
Special teams:
Sarnia's power-play clicked
at a 21.79 per cent success
rate. St. Thomas scored with
the extra man only 14.62 per
cent of the time. And fully
10 of the Stars 37
power-play goals were scored
by two players (Zach
Grzelewski and John Warren)
who are no longer with the
team.
The Legionnaires were able
to kill off shorthanded
situations 78.13 per cent of
the time. St. Thomas
survived an average of 81.23
per cent of penalty kill
situations.
So statistically at least,
Sarnia has the better
powerplay while St. Thomas
has the more skilled penalty
killers.
Firepower:
Sarnia appears to have a big
edge here. The Legionnaires
scored 230 regular season
goals, compared to just 166
for the Stars.
Four Legionnaires scored 20
or more goals, including two
(Cody Trowell and Ryan
Vendramin) who had 30 or
more.
St. Thomas does not have a
single player who reached
the 20-goal mark. Their top
sniper, Dane Johnstone, had
13. But they do have Ryan
Valentini, who was sent to
them by the OHL's London
Knights last month.
Valentini scored seven goals
and added 12 assists for an
impressive 19 points in just
13 games.
Defence:
Sarnia once again has the
edge. The Legionnaires have
a highly experienced back
end that includes
award-winning defencemen
Kyler Keating (conference
player of the month for
September) and Tyler Prong
(first team all-star). They
also have such highly
skilled blueliners as
Cameron Clarke, Mitch Read,
Connor Andersen and Jake
O'Donnell.
Unfortunately, P. J.
Vandervaart is sidelined
with an injury, but Sarnia
has good depth with Sam
McCormack and Hayden Allen,
giving them a total of eight
healthy defencemen.
St. Thomas's best D-man is
probably Carson Moniz, who
was the conference's
defenceman of the month for
February.
Goaltending:
There's not much to choose
from here. Sarnia's Andrew
Masters won the conference
award as top goaltender for
February and Cornel Felder
registered a very
respectable 11 victories as
a backup.
St. Thomas has three
seasoned netminders,
including Dan Black, Nik
Dampier and Brendan Polasek.
Experience:
Sarnia has a bigger, older
team. Indeed, they have ten
20-year-olds in their lineup,
compared to just four for
the Stars.No less than 11 of
the Stars are under six
feet, compared to just seven
Legionnaires.
Intangibles:
St. Thomas has youthful
enthusiasm on its side. The
Stars work hard and they
don't take a lot of
penalties. In all, they
spent only 682 minutes in
the sin bin, compared to 900
for the Legionnaires.
Sarnia has several extremely
talented players who, for
various reasons, did not
compile big stats in the
regular season. They include
Captain Nathan Mater, Hunter
Tyczynski, Ryan Trottier,
Jordan Fogarty and Bobby
King. Don't be surprised if
a few of them break through
in the playoffs.
Prediction: Sarnia should
win the series but, if they
take success for granted,
they'll do so at their
peril.
Legionnaires Playoff Preview
