London Knights and the Saginaw Spirit were the OHL’s best in the regular season. With a win over Guelph on the final day of the schedule, London edged the Saginaw Spirit by two points for top spot in the overall standings and captured the Hamilton Spectator Trophy.
The two clubs split their regular season meetings with each team winning twice on home ice.
Historically this is the fourth meeting between the teams in the playoffs. All of them took place from 2009 to 2013 and London won all three.
Here is how the teams stack up in 2024:
Goaltending
Michael Simpson of the Knights has now won five consecutive series-clinching games by exactly one goal. He has risen to the big moment again and again and owns a 2.38 goals against average and a .907 save percentage, which both rank in the top five in the OHL post season.
Saginaw was cruising along with Andrew Oke in goal until he was hit by Bryce McConnell-Barker of the Soo Greyhounds in Game 2 of the Spirit’s second-round series. Oke missed the rest of the series but, according to Saginaw head coach Chris Lazary, is close to returning.
Nolan Lalonde had been acquired from Erie via Sarnia earlier in the year and he stepped in to help the Spirit defeat the Greyhounds in seven games.
Oke has the best goals-against average and the best save percentage so far in the post-season.
What the coaching staffs are saying
London Knights assistant coach Dylan Hunter: “They’re just a solid team. They are gunning for this year and the Memorial Cup. They are built the right way and they are well-coached. We’re going to have to stay out of the box and do the right things because there isn’t one weakness that you can point to.”
Saginaw Spirit head coach Chris Lazary: “It’s know secret that we wanted to play these guys at some point because you want to play best on best if you are going to try to win. We’re looking forward to the challenge. It’s going to be tough.”
Defence
Both of these teams know how to play good team defence. London has given up an average of 2.5 goals per game. The Spirit are surrendering 2.4 goals per game.
Each club has the willingness to block shots and make life hard on their opponents.
The play of the London D-corps of Isaiah George, Jackson Edward, Oliver Bonk, Sam Dickinson, Alec Leonard and Jared Woolley has been key to the Knights 8-0 run to this point.
They have been playing soundly in their own zone and have been chipping in offence as well.
Edward was London’s third-leading scorer in the Kitchener series and George and Dickinson each had three points in four games.
Saginaw also gets offence from their defence but their biggest question mark comes from that side of the ice as well.
Zayne Parekh has been setting records for offence since entering the OHL as a 16-year-old a year ago. He became the first 16-year-old blue liner to score 21 goals in a single season in 2022-23 and then followed that up with 31 this year.
He missed two games against the Greyhounds due to injury. One of them was Game 7 but Lazary admits he could return as well.
The Spirit have a great mix on the back end. They also get big-time offence from Rodwin Dionicio and Jorian Donovan is as well-rounded as they come. He can do it all. Braden Hache came from Barrie and brought leadership and grit. He was made Saginaw’s captain this season.
Offence
Both clubs topped the 300-goal mark in 2023-24. London has been led all year by Flyers prospect Denver Barkey and his 102 points in the regular season and Maple Leafs first-rounder Easton Cowan who went 42 consecutive games with at least one point.
In the playoffs, Jacob Julien and Kasper Halttunen have become hot. Julien is coming off back-to-back hat tricks and Halttunen is second on the Knights with six goals in eight games.
Max McCue, Landon Sim and Kaleb Lawrence have also come up clutch offensively. The Knights will be without Lawrence for the next four games as he completes a suspension from the series against the Rangers.
The hottest player on the Saginaw roster is Calem Mangone. He might only be five feet seven inches tall but Mangone led the Spirit with five goals and seven points in the series with Sault Ste. Marie.
Saginaw also added Owen Beck who won an OHL championship with Michael Simpson and Peterborough last year and former Spirit captain Josh Bloom started the year in the American Hockey League and then returned to the OHL.
Add in Vegas prospect Matyas Sapovaliv, Strathroy native and Minnesota prospect Hunter Haight, and former first overall pick Michael Misa, and Saginaw’s offence is deep and deadly.
Special teams
London had the best power-play percentage of the internet era in the regular season. Saginaw was 2.6 percentage ticks behind the Knights.
London tied an OHL record with 29 short-handed goals in the regular season and while they don’t have a single shortie through eight post-season games, they do have the second-best success rate on the penalty kill.
The Spirit power play has been fairly quiet so far in the playoffs, clicking at 13.6 per cent. They rank seventh in the post-season in penalty kill percentage.
Schedule
Game 1 – Friday, April 26, at London, 7 p.m.
Game 2 – Sunday, April 28, at London, 2 p.m.
Game 3 – Monday, April 29, at Saginaw, 7:05 p.m.
Game 4 – Wednesday, May 1, at Saginaw, 7:05 p.m.
Game 5 – Friday, May 3, at London, 7 p.m.*
Game 6 – Sunday, May 5, at Saginaw, 2 p.m.*
Game 7 – Monday, May 6, at London, 7 p.m.*
* game if necessary
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