OHL Erie Otters

Otters begin four-game road trip

Published on February 18, 2009 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Erie Otters News Release


The Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League return to action with the first three of what will be a four-game road trip Thursday night when they travel to Windsor to face off against the Spitfires at 7:05 p.m. Friday the Otters are in Saginaw to take on the Spirit in a 7:11 p.m. start and Saturday Erie is in Plymouth to meet the Whalers at 7:05 p.m.

All three games can be heard live on FOX Sports Radio AM 1330 The FAN and on-line at www.ottershockey.com (presented by the James H. Cross Company) beginning with the pre-game show 15 minutes prior to the opening face-off.

The Otters enter the stretch of games coming off a week of action in which they collected five out of a possible six points with wins over Niagara and Kingston and a shootout loss again the London Knights. Erie improved to 29-24-2-1 to stand sixth in the Western Conference, two points behind the Whalers for fifth. The Otters are only three points behind the fourth-place Guelph Storm and five behind the Spirit for third. Conversely, the Otters are one point ahead of the Sarnia Sting (seventh) and five up on Owen Sound, who hold the eighth and final post-season spot in the Conference.

Luke Gazdic has been lighting the lamp with regularity lately for the Otters. The veteran forward enjoyed back-to-back two-goal games against London and Kingston and has scored eight goals in his last nine games. On the season, the 19 year-old Toronto, Ontario native has registered 17 goals (matching his career high established last season) and 10 assists for 27 points in 51 games. Anthony Luciani and Sean Jones also scored against the Frontenacs on Saturday bringing to an end goal-scoring slumps of 36 and 10 games, respectively.

On Thursday the Otters face a Windsor team that is in pursuit of the OHL record for wins in a season. With a record of 50-6-0-1 on the season, the Spitfires need to win 10 of their final 11 games to break the record of 59 established by the 2004-05 London Knights. In addition, Windsor is 26-2-0-0 on home ice and could finish with the second most home wins in League history (32) if they win their final six home games.

Individually speaking, the Spitfires feature four of the top 15 scorers in the League led by Taylor Hall. The second-year forward is tied for second in OHL scoring with 35 goals and 43 assists for 78 points in 54 games. Friday in Saginaw, the Otters meet the Spirit, a team that is within striking distance for Erie in the Conference standings. The Spirit are 30-20-2-4 on the season, but have recently hit a rough stretch in which they went 0-2-2-1 in their last five games, including a 7-5 loss to Oshawa in their last outing on Monday.

Overagers Chris Chappell and Jack Combs make the Spirit tick offensively. Chappell is tied for 15th in OHL scoring with 32 goals and 65 points in 56 games while Combs is tied for 19th in League scoring with 61 points in 50 games. The Otters three-game set ends Saturday in Plymouth against the red hot Whalers.

Plymouth (29-22-5-0) has won five straight and eight of their last 10 to climb in the Western Conference standings. Chris Terry has ignited the second-half surge with points in 18 of his last 19 games, totaling 17 goals and 22 assists for 39 points. On the season, the fourth-year veteran ranks tied for ninth in OHL scoring with a club-high 31 goals and 36 assists for 67 points in 41 games.

The next Otters home game takes place Saturday, February 28th when the Ottawa 67's visit the Tullio Arena for a 7 p.m. start presented by EMTA. The first 1,000 fans into the game will receive a Ryan O'Reilly lithograph penned by Kevin-John Jobczynski. Tickets for the game are available at the Civic Center Box Office, all Erie-area Ticketmaster locations, on-line at www.ottershockey.com or by calling 814-452-4857.

Check out the Erie Otters Statistics

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from February 18, 2009


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