The most wonderful time of the year

Gotta love hockey this time of year, NHL playoff races heating up and playoffs in the junior ranks. I don't think I've ever really seen a playoff race this tight for as long as I have watched the NHL. Toronto will fall short again for the third straight year, time for the rebuild to begin there is only a handfull of players I would keep on the Leafs roster, Toskola, Kaberle, Tucker, Stajan and Steen. As for the rest of the teams chasing the 8th spot in the east, If Buffalo can't get the eighth then I'm hoping the Capitals can get in cause it would be fun to watch Ovechkin in the playoffs. In the West I'd love to see Edmonton get in, they have a ton of young guys that can play.

One Win away!!!!!!!!!

The Norwich Merchants are a win away from winning the Niagara West Division for the second straight year after last night comefrom behind 4-3 overtime win in Aylmer to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the best of seven division final. Things looked good early on for Aylmer as they roared out to a 3-0 lead midway through the first period, Justin Aylea's night was done as Cody Vinnai was brought in to help stop the bleeding. Vinnai stopped all 20 shots he saw the rest of the way. Norwich would score before the end of the period to make it 3-1 after one period. Ryan Baetz scored a shorthanded goal in the second to make it 3-2 after two. With thirteen seocnds left in the third Aylmers resident dumbass and goon gets a roughing penalty and with 7 seconds left in the third Justin Bremner would tie the game at three and send it to OT. The overtime was a short one as Patrick Fergus would pot the winner 2:56 into the extra frame.
Big props go to Norwich backup goalie Cody Vinnai who spent majority of the playoffs as a afterthought having only seen action in mopup duty in game 2, bieng pressed into action early into last nights game and answering the bell. Honurable mention to Norwich Bench boss Dave Smith who has completely out coached Aylmer head coach Steve Thompson also known as Butterball who for the second year in a row.

Jr C Hockey playoffs

So far in the Niagara West Finals there have been one close game and 2 games that well weren't so close. Norwich won game 3 last night with a 5-2 win over Aylmer which made up for thier 8-4 shellacking they suffered last week in game 2. Last night Norwich did exactly what they needed to do they came out and hit anything in sight in the first while roaring out to a 4-0 lead at the end of the first period sending Aylmer goalie Brandon Rohrer to the bench for the rest of the night. The second and third periods Norwich sat back and played dump and chase while frustratting the Aylmer forwards. Justin Aylea returned to form for the Merchants after having his worst outing of the year in game 2. Game 4 goes tonight in Aylmer. A Norwich win would give them a chance to finish out the series Sunday night.

Norwich-Aylmer Series preview

As the Niagara West Division final starts up Wednesday night in Aylmer it's time for this blogger to preview this matchup which will be the fifth straight year that these two meet in the playoffs with Aylmer never having won.

Offence: Aylmer gets the edge in this category having scored 197 goals compared to Norwich's 158, Aylmer has had great out put from Rob Vanwyseberg, Graham Spriel, Jeff Gardner along with strong offenseve contributions from super pests Rob Gavey and Adam Vandepoele. Norwich's offence seemed to struggle at times and picked up in the playoffs as they were led by Bryan Phillips, Ryan Baetz and Ryan Devos as they averaged 5 goals a game in thier win over Simcoe.

Defence: Norwich gets the edge as a group over Aylmer. In my opinion the best group of Dmen that Norwich has had in a long time, Aylmer's D is prone to a lot of odd man rushes and tend to let thier opponents get alot of shots on net and a ton of scoring chances.

Goal: Norwich's rookie goalie Justin Alyea gets the edge over Aylmer's Brandon Rohrer. Alyea won every statistical category in the division except wins. Rohrer has always been considered Aylmers weak link and will continue to if Norwich wins again .

Aylmer finished first in the division by 2 points over Norwich and as was mentioned earlier Norwich has won the previous four playoff meetings and with Dave Smith behind the Norwich bench a fifth playoff win and a second straight division title should be within reach and a possible rematch with Grimsby in the Niagara final, Norwich takes this series in 6 hard fought games and wins the crown in front of the hometown fans.