And then there were two. Only two teams remain in the fight for the J. Ross Robertson Cup — which is awarded to the champion of the Ontario Hockey League.
The London Knights and the Oshawa Generals are the final teams standing in the OHL, and they will compete in one more best-of-seven game series to determine the champion. Both teams have overcome ups and downs to get here, but they have made it to the OHL Finals.
The London Knights finished as the top team in the entire OHL after the regular season, but they weren’t always at the top. London didn’t have the best start to the season, and they flipped between third and fourth in the Western Conference for the first few months of the season. Saginaw, Kitchener, and the Soo were all more dominant in the West early on.
Then, the Knights got Easton Cowan back from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Cowan began a run that he never looked back from this season, and he was consistently the best player on the ice at all times. He had a 42 game point streak that ran into the playoffs, and he won the Red Tilson Trophy. Without Cowan, who knows where the Knights would be.
The Knights lost in last year’s OHL Finals to the Peterborough Petes, and they have come back looking for revenge. Once they gained hold of the top spot in the OHL standings, they never looked back.
When they lost to Peterborough last year, Michael Simpson was in net against the Knights. This time around, he is suiting up for the green and gold. The Knights goaltending is another big reason why they have been able to find so much success deep into the postseason.
In the playoffs thus far, the Knights swept the Flint Firebirds and the Kitchener Rangers, and defeated the Saginaw Spirit in six games. The Spirit were their first real challenge, but they were still able to get it done in six.
Their final task will be the Oshawa Generals.
The Generals finished in first place in the Eastern Conference standings, but it wasn’t always the Gens. The battle for first place in the East came right down to the end of the regular season, and Oshawa only clinched in their very last game. North Bay, Brantford, Sudbury, Mississauga, and Ottawa all had chances to clinch first place — but now all of these teams have been knocked out of the playoffs.
Oshawa has established themselves as the best team in the Eastern Conference in the playoffs, but it hasn’t all been easy. In the first round, the Barrie Colts took the Generals to six games — in a matchup between the first and the eighth seed. In the second round, the Generals were easily able to sweep the Ottawa 67’s in four games.
In the third round, Oshawa began to face some adversity. Through the first three games, the Generals took an early stranglehold on the series going up three games to none. Then, North Bay began to push back.
The Battalion took Game 4, 5, and 6, to push a 3-0 series lead to Game 7. Oshawa was able to take back control in Game 7 by winning 6-1, but this comeback attempt by the Battalion certainly shook the core of the Generals.
The Generals do have one thing in common with the London Knights — excellent goaltending. Goaltender of the Year Jacob Oster has been outstanding throughout Oshawa’s playoff run.
Through 17 starts, he has 12 wins and 5 losses through these playoffs, maintaining a 2.29 GAA and a .923% save percentage. Jacob Oster versus Michael Simpson will be a goaltending battle for the ages, and it all begins on Thursday night.
On paper, the London Knights may look like the better team, but the Oshawa Generals have overcome more adversity than the Knights have. The Generals know what it’s like to have the momentum swing the other way, and have to defend with their backs against the wall. London hasn’t faced this sort of challenge, but they will against the Generals.
The best-of-seven series begins in London on Thursday night, in front of a — likely — sold out crowd at Budweiser Gardens.
The London Knights take on the Oshawa Generals, a battle between two of the most historic franchises in the Ontario Hockey League.
