Playoff "Oh-Fer" Club, and Windsor's Comeback

After Montreal's Maxim Lapierre notched his first playoff goal today in his 22nd career game, the the list of active NHL forwards without a career playoff tally is down to six gentlemen. I chose the minimum amount of games at 15 to gain entry in this exclusive, and unwanted club.

Leading the way, and finished for another season is Buffalo's Paul Gaustad with 31 games played without a goal. He has scored 10, 12 and 12 goals in each of the last three seasons, yet is still searching for number one in the post season. Bruin Steve Begin at 29 games will have to score in the second round or risk passing Gaustad on the active list.
Chicago's Troy Brouwer will take his 23 games without scoring to the second round against Vancouver, and Petteri Nokelainen of Phoenix will enter game seven against Detroit with 21 scoreless playoff matches.
Jannik Hansen of the Canucks sits at 18 career scoreless games, while Fredrik Sjostrom at 17 games unfortunately (or unfortunately) didn't have a chance to add to his 17 game drought as he toiled for Toronto who has been taking time off form playoff competition for six years now.


The Windsor Spitfires just completed a comeback against the Kitchener Rangers after being down three games to none. They rallied to win the last four games and in the process outscored the Rangers by a total of 20 goals to 10. They are only the third team in OHL history to comeback from three games to none. Ottawa 67's did it in the first round in 1988 and Windsor did it in 2005 also in the first round against Sault Ste. Marie.
In the process of the comeback, Windsor was lead by Scott Timmins with 5 goals and 3 assists in the last four games. Taylor Hall had 4 goals 3 assists, Adam Henrique notched 6 goals 1 assist and Ryan Ellis added 6 assists in the four staright wins.
The Kitchener collapse can in no way be attributed to OHL playoff scoring leader Jeff Skinner who had 4 goals and 2 helpers in the four losses. However, the bubble did seem to burst for Don Cherry favourite, 17 year old defenseman Ryan Murphy. After collecting 3 goals and 2 assists in the first three games he had a mere 2 assists in the final four games while posting a minus eight rating.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Denman Arena, Vancouver - "The Pile"