Otters counting on stars to shine
Erie coach says ‘top guys’ have to perform for team to advance to championship game
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 partly because their best players, starting with Strome and DeBrincat, weren’t productive in a 4-2 loss to 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, who 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 a slashing penalty 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 frame.
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 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 know Troy can play a lot better. We have seen it,” Knoblauch said.
“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.
In the Western Conference final, the Otters lost two in a row against Owen Sound to trail in the best-ofseven 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.