Ontario Hockey League

(E2)Barrie Colts 4 @ (W1)London Knights 2
Barrie leads best-of-7 OHL Finals, 1-0

D Jake Dotchin, BAR: Did not play
Playoff totals: 14 GP, 1-4-5, +6, 25 PIM
Season totals: 66 GP, 4-18-22, E, 81 PIM
With Barrie: 28 GP, 2-6-8, -1, 42 PIM
With Owen Sound: 38 GP, 2-12-14, +1, 39 PIM

Barrie stole home ice advantage in the OHL Finals by winning Game 1 in London, 4-2. Lightning prospect Jake Dotchin did not play. He was suspended five games following a check-from-behind penalty in Game 6 against Belleville. He is eligible to return in Game 5 of the Finals, if necessary. Game 2 is Sunday night in London.

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

(2)Baie-Comeau Drakkar 0 @ (1)Halifax Mooseheads 4
Halifax leads best-of-7 QMJHL Finals, 1-0

C Nathan MacKinnon, HAL: 0-0-0, E, 4 SOG, 2 PIM, 0 Hits
Playoff totals: 13 GP, 9-19-28, +15, 8 PIM
Season totals: 44 GP, 32-43-75, +40, 45 PIM

W Jonathan Drouin, HAL: 0-1-1, E, 5 SOG, 6 PIM, 1 Hit
Playoff totals: 13 GP, 10-20-30, +18, 10 PIM
Season totals: 49 GP, 41-64-105, +48, 32 PIM

Potential 2013 first rounder Zachary Fucale stopped all 28 shots he faced to lead the Mooseheads to a 4-0 victory over the Drakkar in Game 1 of the QMJHL Finals. Baie-Comeau succeeded in holding the duo of Nate MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin to one assist, but still came up four goals short. With his assist, Drouin tied Sven Andrighetto (2013) of Rouyn-Noranda for the playoff scoring lead. This was MacKinnon’s first scoreless game since Game 2 of Halifax’s first round series against Saint John. Game 2 of the Finals is Saturday night in Halifax.

Note: With the Lightning picking No. 3 in this summer’s draft, it is widely expected they will choose either MacKinnon or Drouin with their first round pick. We will follow both prospects for the duration of their playoff run as we did with Steven Stamkos after the Lightning won the 2008 draft lottery.

Palat on the spot.

SYR-4
POR-3 (OT)

Syracuse Wins the Best-of-Five Series 3-0

Cedrick Desjardins allowed 3 goals on just 18 shots for the victory. Once again, he allowed another wraparound goal that was on the soft side and once again the team bailed him out. Mind you, he made some incredible saves in Overtime to make up for it, but as the competition level rises in the next round Desjardins has got to get better.

First Period
POR Miele, (1) (Bolduc, Brown), 15:57 (PP)

Second Period
SYR Gudas, (1) (Taormina, Sexton), 6:57 (PP)

Third Period
POR Bolduc, (1) (Miele, Lessio), 0:19
POR Johnson, (2) (Stone, Conner), 10:47 (PP)
SYR Angelidis, (1) (Wyman, Barberio), 13:59
SYR Palat, (2) (Connolly, Sustr), 18:48

Overtime
SYR Palat, (3) (Taormina, Johnson), 19:43

Ondrej Palat was the game's first star. Oddly enough, I thought his first two games of the series were better than tonight, but he was in the right places at the right times for the two biggest goals of the series.

Let me tell you a little something about Brett Connolly, who turned 21 today and celebrated by knifing Portland in the heart late in regulation. Hopping on the ice as the sixth attacker to try to tie the game late in the Third Period, the puck came to Connolly who circled through the neutral zone and cut down the left wing boards into the offensive zone. For the life of me, I thought Portland's defenseman had the angle on Connolly at the blueline and would squeeze him off, or at least get enough of him to separate the puck. Nope. Connolly has deceptive speed a la Alex Killorn and he squirted by without being touched, went to circle behind the net, and just before he went behind dished a beautiful little backhand pass to Palat for the stuff. Tie game. What an individual play by Connolly. Truly cold blooded.

Let me also tell you a little something about faceoffs. Gudas' power play goal came directly from a bang-bang play off a faceoff win by Dan Sexton. And then, with just 17 seconds left in Overtime, Palat's second goal came off a faceoff win by Tyler Johnson that led to a Taormina shot that gave Palat the rebound he needed to send the Crunch to the first round pay window. Those quick plays off clean faceoff wins in the offensive zone are instant scoring chances, and almost as valuable as forcing turnovers out of your opponent.

It's not all good news, though. Although Syracuse outshot Portland 45-18, I suspect the scoring chances don't reflect the disparity. There was a distinct lack of GMT in this game for the Crunch. GMT = goal mouth thrills. Syracuse got a lot of traffic and a lot of greasy chances in the first two games of the series and they were absent tonight, with the exception of a few shifts by the Angelidis line. As the level of competition goes up in the next round, more GMT is required. If you don't muck it up in the high traffic areas, you invite a night like tonight where Portland's goaltender gobbled up a lot of clean, unscreened, undeflected shots.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference tonight, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished off their own sweep of Binghamton and Manchester won their first game of their series. Springfield still holds a 2-1 edge, but the series continues on. Top seed Providence is down 2-0 to Hershey. If either Providence or Springfield get upset (and Providence going down looks distinctly possible right now) Syracuse will get home ice for a second round series against the Penguins. Tough opponent. It'll be a great series.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

We continue our Prospect of the Week award, an honor (virtually) given to one Tampa Bay Lightning prospect for their recent contributions on and off the ice.

The Prospect of the Week for April 25 is … Tyler Johnson, C, Syracuse (AHL – USA).

Him again?

Him again.

Two weeks ago Tyler Johnson won the AHL Most Valuable Player award and subsequently our Prospect of the Week honor. We tried to keep him off the medal stand this week but he wouldn’t let us.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms with defenseman Nikita Nesterov on a three-year, entry-level contract today, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced.

Nesterov, 6-foot, 183 pounds, played in 35 games with Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL this season, recording 14 penalty minutes while averaging 12:21 in average ice time. He also appeared in 19 playoff games, recording four assists as Traktor lost to Dynamo Moscow in the Continental Cup Finals. Nesterov has played in 45 career KHL games, all with Traktor, recording one assist.

A native of Chelyabinsk, Russia, Nesterov has represented his country in each of the previous two seasons. He played for Russia at the 2011 IIHF World Under-18 Championships, recording two goals and four points in seven games. Nesterov then played in last year’s IIHF World Junior Championships, skating in seven games and registering two goals and five points.

Nesterov, 20, was selected by Tampa Bay in the fifth round, 158th overall, of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He participated in the 2012 Lightning Development Camp at the Brandon Ice Sports Forum. Nesterov’s team, also made up of Vladislav Namestnikov, Slater Koekkoek and Cedric Paquette, took home the annual 3-on-3 tournament championship.

BP Notes:

Nesterov is an undersized puck mover who plays a strong positional game. He has a high hockey IQ, which helped keep him in the KHL this year. In fact, Nesterov was used at both forward and a defense for Chelyabinsk late in the year and in the playoffs.