National Post (National Edition)
Otters count on their stars to twinkle
MEMORIAL CUP
WINDSOR, ONT. • Kris Knoblauch has put out the call.
It’s on the shoulders of the marquee players of the Erie Otters to respond to their coach on Friday in the semifinal of the 2017 Memorial Cup.
“You win when your best players are your best players,” Knoblauch said on Thursday, a day before his club meets the Saint John Sea Dogs at the WFCU Centre with a berth in the Cup final on the line.
“So that goes from (goaltender) Troy Timpano to (defenceman) Darren Raddysh to (forwards) Dylan Strome and Alex DeBrincat. It’s good contributions when we can get our fourth line playing well, but rarely do you win hockey games when your fourth line is your best line or your best players.
“It’s our top guys who are going to have to come and perform. For the most part, we win and lose with those guys.”
The Otters, the Ontario Hockey League champions, find themselves in the semi partially because their best players, starting with Strome and DeBrincat, were not productive in a 4-2 loss against the host Windsor Spitfires on Wednesday, a setback that derailed Erie’s plan to advance directly to the final.
Thanks to the loss, it’s another match against Saint John, which the Otters clobbered 12-5 on Monday, setting a Cup record for most goals in one game.
Not only did Strome, the Erie captain who mostly has excelled since being returned to Erie by the Arizona Coyotes, and DeBrincat, who had 65 goals during the regular season, not record a point against Windsor, one incident served as a painful reminder the bad things that can happen when discipline is forgotten.
Frustration on the part of Strome led to an easy call for a slashing minor toward the end of the first period and when teammate T.J. Fergus took a holding penalty seconds later, it put Erie two men down to start the second.
With Strome and Fergus watching from the box, the Spits scored what would be the winning goal on a shot from the point by Mikhail Sergachev.
A better handle on emotions has to be part of the Otters’ approach on Friday. We assume Strome would agree, but only Knoblauch and overage forward Kyle Pettit were made available to media for interviews on Thursday.
“There possibly could have been a call right before that and maybe there is retaliation,” Knoblauch said. “Absolutely, there can’t be that. But I think whether that’s retaliating or just our execution or work ethic in the first period, everything was not very good.”
Timpano has to be more of a wall in net. His save percentage of .823 in the tournament won’t scare anybody, least of all an offensively lethal Sea Dogs team.
“I don’t think the save percentage is very good, but you look at the goals we have allowed, there have been empty-net, back-door,” Knoblauch said.
“I know Troy can play a lot better. We have seen it. For us to win the last two games, I am confident that he will.”
A positive that sits firmly in the Otters’ corner is that this group has brushed aside adversity previously. Glance at Erie’s 16-4-2 playoff record on the way to winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup and perhaps it’s not evident immediately.
In the Western Conference final, the Otters lost two in a row against Owen Sound to trail in the best-of-seven series 2-1, but recovered to win the next three games; in the previous series, the Otters ousted the London Knights in seven games after losing Game 6 in overtime.
The difference now is magnified. Lose on Friday and the Otters organization, coming off four consecutive 50-win seasons, will be hitting the rebuild button.
Knoblauch is expected to move on. Strome, DeBrincat, Anthony Cirelli and defenceman Erik Cernak are headed for graduation to the pro ranks. Overages Darren Raddysh, Warren Foegele and Pettit are closing their junior careers.
“You think about the times you have won and you have always been building up for this championship and you want to finish on top,” Knoblauch said. “Every team has that (desire). But for me and those guys I have been around, I would definitely like to finish it that way.”