Steelheads on fire in OHL playoff pressure-cooker
First trip to second round after ugly start to season validates coach’s game plan
With every win they gain in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs, the Mississauga Steelheads will be making history.
That’s because the Steelheads, who hold a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference final over the Peterborough Petes — Game 3 is Monday at the Hershey Centre — had never advanced farther than the first round. And four months ago, they had the worst record in the OHL.
“You don’t see this very often,” Steelheads coach James Richmond said Sunday. “That movie, Major League (the 1989 baseball film with Charlie Sheen), comes to mind. But really, when we lost nine in a row back in November there, we were close, we outshot teams, but we weren’t getting the breaks.”
Those breaks came, beginning in early December. After opening with a 6-14-3-3 record, they stormed to the playoffs by going 28-7-3-4 over the remainder of the season.
That early, losing record wasn’t expected of a team that had five players selected in the 2016 NHL draft, including Alex Nylander.
In fact, the Steelheads had what was regarded as a potential powerhouse team with captain Michael McLeod, a New Jersey first-rounder last June, and Owen Tippett and Ni- colas Hague, two projected firstrounders this June.
“When I came in, it was to help create a new culture around the team,” said Richmond, who took over the coaching reins last May, after the team lost in the first round of the playoffs for the third time since becoming the Steelheads in 2012.
“I was OK with that. That’s what I’m about, getting everyone to play the right way and just being happy to be here. But the kids deserve all the credit. They bought into it and now they’re having fun with it.”
Richmond has strengths all over the ice. Six players have at least 12 points in 13 playoff games — Michael McLeod, Spencer Watson (averaging a goal a game), Owen Tippett, Ryan McLeod, Nathan Bastian and defenceman Vili Saarijarvi.
“The one thing people might not notice is our speed . . . Michael (McLeod) might flat-out be one of the three fastest guys in the league,” Richmond said.
Their depth allowed the Steelheads to weather a goalie issue entering the playoffs: Matt Mancina was hurt with two games remaining in the regular season, prompting a move to 16-year-old Jacob Ingham, who excelled in the first round against Ottawa. But Ingham was also hurt and came down with the flu bug, so Mancina returned to the crease and got Mississauga through the second round against Oshawa. He started the first two games against Peterborough, who had been on an eightgame winning streak until meeting the Steelheads.
It could have been easy for Mississauga to blame the breaks when things weren’t going well early in the season, but Richmond said the Steelheads believe “in making our own breaks.”