Brandon Saad, Josh Shalla, Vincent Trocheck, Jake Patterson, Brandon Archibald, Garrett Ross, Steven Strong... Those names are the major reason that the Saginaw Spirit were able to force the Sarnia Sting out of the post season in six games.
Notice how many names are on that list. The Saginaw Spirit showed up with possibly a more complete team and played more of a team game in the 1st round of the playoffs then the Sarnia Sting. The big bodies of the Saginaw Spirit seemed to be too much for the Sting to handle. Brandon Saad showed why he doesn't belong in the OHL. Saad was a man against boys in this series, out muscling and out scoring anyone on either team. Saad had 6 goals and 6 assists for the Saginaw in the 6 game series. Saad just out muscled the Sarnia Sting and showed why he should have been a 1st round draft pick instead of a second round draft pick in last years NHL draft. Saginaw was one of the better teams in the 2nd half of the season and was the better team in this series and that is the bottom line.
It seemed fitting that while the Sting were only trailing by 1 goal and had been applying a constant pressure on the Saginaw Spirit in Game #6 that they would lose 2 of their top players to injury. Ryan Spooner may have possibly finished his OHL career when he went hard into the boards mid way through the 1st period. Spooner would return to the bench but never took a shift on the ice and would again leave the bench this time not to return. Spooner only had 1 goal and 2 assists in the 6 game series for the Sting, which starts to beg the question was he playing all ready injured? Then late in the 2nd period JP Anderson would take a rocket of a shot off the mask that would eventually see him leave the game with a probable concussion. Enter into the game Brandon Hope who has seen limited game time all year and hasn't seen any in a few weeks.
Keys to Saginaw's Win
Jake Patterson: Don't get me wrong when I saw this but Jake Patterson was the better goaltender in this series. The 17 year old draft eligible goaltender made key saves at points in games that allowed the Spirit to get wins (This is no slam on JP Anderson by the way who stood on his head for the Sarnia Sting). Patterson made 163 saves over the 6 game series and would boast a .902 save percentage and a record of 4-0-2.
Brandon Saad: I pretty much talked about this completely above. Saad was a men amongst boys and I said it early on in the season that Saad should have been in the NHL and if not for being a Chicago Blackhawk draft pick I still believe he would have been. Saad averaged 2 points per game at the end of everything (held off the score sheet in game 6) with 6 goals and 6 assists in 6 games.
Josh Shalla: The rumour came out during the series that Shalla was almost made a member of the Sarnia Sting in the last season that Matt Martin captained the Sting, if that rumour is true (which I completely believe it is) Alan Millar screwed the Sarnia organisation worse then people thought, this years team could have been much more successful if Millar was a seller that year instead of holding onto his players for his own personal reasons. Shalla was a pivotal member in the Spirit success boasting 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points in the 6 game series.
Plus/Minus: A lot of people will say that it is a useless stat category that doesn't tell the full story but when you look at the two teams after this series I believe that it does tell a story. Saginaw had 3 players that were +7 (Saad, Shalla, Walsh) and only two players in the minus category that were -1 (Archibald, Trafford). Mean while when you take a look at the Sarnia Sting they only had 2 players above even, Ludvig Rensfeldt (+2) and Jack Kuzmyuk (+1). The Sting also had 9 players that were -2 or worse on their roster.
Saginaw's Defense: Saginaw limited Sarnia who came into the series able to say that they had 8 twenty goal scorers in the regular season (Hottot, Sarault, Yakupov, Thompson, Spooner, Boucher, Brown, Rensfeldt). Saginaw limited Sarnia's shots on net and pretty much eliminated the scoring threats of the Sarnia Sting. Steven Strong and Brandon Archibald lead the Spirit defence being probably the 2 strongest blue liners on the ice the entire series. Walsh and Young were also very pivotal pieces and while Ringuette and Lopez didn't see a ton of ice when they were on the ice they weren't a detriment to their team.
Sarnia Sting Notes
Where was Yakupov?: Yakupov I believe you will hear in the coming days was playing through injuries but the potential 1st overall pick in this years NHL entry draft was not very noticeable in this series. Yakupov had 2 goals and 3 assists and was a -7. While he still had a tied for team lead 5 points in the 6 games he wasn't really noticeable. Also when it came down to do or die for the Sarnia Sting in the 3rd period his ice time was extremely limited.
Galchenyuk Returns: While Nail was seemingly invisible Galchenyuk was all over the ice making sure he was noticed. Galchenyuk missed almost the entire season recovering from knee surgery but still managed to make himself appear as Sarnia's best player in the series. While Alex battled to shake off the cob webs it was evident that his knee is just as good as ever. Galchenyuk was strong on the puck, winning face offs, and making things happen by driving to the net and creating a good chunk of Sarnia's scoring chances.
JP Anderson: JP stood on his head keeping the Sting in games. Other than a rather big mistake made in game 6 when he challenged Kea while on a SH break JP didn't really make any big mistakes in the series. Anderson boasted a .900 save percentage while making 197 saves and allowing 22 goals in the series.
Coaching: It is in my opinion that Jacques Beaulieu was out coached in this series by Greg Gilbert. At times it appeared JB didn't play the right players in key situations. An example is Alex Galchenyuk and Nail Yakupov seeing limited ice time late in the 3rd period in game 3.
Chemistry: With the Sarnia Sting not icing their full line up until the 1st game of Round 1 of the 2012 OHL playoffs they obviously aren't going to have the chemistry that other teams have. I have not seen a team go through so many injuries in one season.
Not enough heart, too much skill?: Yes I will say it. The Sarnia Sting had a ton of skilled players. Unfortunately when you see teams when championships you see a team that has more then 2 heart and soul players. Nathan Chairlitti and Craig Hottot are the 2 players on the Sarnia Sting that play the gritty heart and soul type game. Justice Dundas is another however he only received 3 games and saw maybe 5 shifts in those games. Jack Nevins and Garrett Hooey would have been another one of those players but that will be in a later post looking back at the full season of the Sarnia Sting. Sometimes too much skill isn't a good thing and I believe that is partly a case for the Sarnia Sting who may have had too many offensive minded players.
Injuries: JP Anderson and Ryan Spooner going down in game 6 definitely did not help the Sting push for a game 7. That being said I believe you will see the Sarnia Sting announce a few players who were playing through injuries that may be minor or major. I believe Nail Yakupov was still not even close to 100% after the Halmo hit.
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