OHL Saginaw Spirit

Spirit Weekly Preview

Published on February 13, 2006 under Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Saginaw Spirit News Release


Eagles' Nest Notes: The Weekly Spirit Preview Week of February 13th, 2006

Spirit Week: The Spirit enter the week at 27-25-1-0, with 55 points, after last week's 0-3-0-0 record, with Thursday's 6-1 loss in Peterborough, Friday's 4-1 loss in Ottawa and Sunday's 7-3 loss in Kingston. The Spirit play three games this week (see details below).

Playoff Watch: Saginaw is in third place in the OHL West Division, seventh in the OHL Western Conference. The Spirit are 3 points behind first place Plymouth, and 1 point behind second place Windsor in the division. Saginaw has played one fewer game than either Plymouth or Windsor.

Schedule Looking Ahead: The OHL West division looks like a tight race down to the wire. The Spirit have the best opportunity to make their own chances with 12 of their final 15 games against divisional opponents. Plymouth has 9 of its final 14 games in the division; Windsor has 7 of its final 14 games in the division.

Hello, Brother: The Spirit's Ryan McDonough faced his brother, Jason McDonough, Thursday night against Peterborough. Jason McDonough is a 16 year old forward in his underage season in the OHL. The brother connection happened once before, when former Spirit forward Adam Chapman faced off against his younger brother Travis Chapman during the 2002-03 season, The younger Chapman played for the Sudbury Wolves.

Top Scoring D: Spirit defenseman Patrick McNeill leads defensemen in scoring with 64 points. He's also tied for eighth in the OHL in +/- at +21. Suspensions: Spirit Head Coach and General Manager Bob Mancini is serving a two game suspension for an incident at the end of the Spirit-67's game Friday night and is eligible to return on Saturday, February 18th. Spirit defenseman Scott Fletcher is serving a minimum four game suspension from the same incident, pending a review by the league.

Saginaw @ Sarnia, Friday @ 7:30 PM 2/17/06 The Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre

The Spirit are 1-1 against the Sting, with October 14th's 5-4 loss in Sarnia and a 6-5 shootout win January 6th in Saginaw. Sarnia is 15-35-2-2, with 34 points, in fifth place in the OHL West and tenth in the Western Conference. Nineteen year old forward Chad Painchaud leads the Sting offense, with 64 points. Forward Harrison Reed is having a notable season in his NHL draft year, with 37 points in 54 games.

Overage goalie Ryan Nie has put up better numbers in net, with a 3.39 goals against and an .898 goals against average than his 4-13-0-2 record would indicate.

The Sting are voting on a third jersey look for the 2006-07 season. See details at www.sarniasting.com

NHL Alumni: Doug Gilmour, Owen Nolan, Mathieu Schneider, Dino Ciccarelli (Co-Owner)

Windsor @ Saginaw, Friday @ 7:11 PM 2/18/06 The Dow Event Center

Saginaw is 2-2 against the Spitfires, with a 7-4 win on September 24th, an 8-2 loss on November 6th and a 6-4 loss on February 2nd and a 7-6 OT win on February 3rd. Windsor enters the week at 25-23-3-3, with 56 points, in second place in the OHL West and sixth in the OHL Western Conference. The Spits have piled up 16 points in their last ten games, tied for second most in the OHL.

Goalie Anthony Guadagnolo earned the OHL Player of the Week honors last week, allowing just two goals in three wins. He posted a 0.67 goals against average and .977 save percentage and a shutout to help the Spitfires to a perfect 3-0-0-0 week

The Spits come to town following the major announcement of a pending ownership change. President and Owner Steve Riolo's18 years of ownership will end when he transfers the team to a Windsor-area group including NHL veteran Bob Boughner, NHL alumni and former Saginaw Hawk Warren Rychel and Peter Dobrich. The Riolo's were longest serving single family owner in the Ontario Hockey League.

NHL Alumni: Adam Graves, Ed Jovanovski, Steve Ott

London @ Saginaw, Sunday @ 2:00 PM 2/19/06 The Dow Event Center

Saginaw is 1-2 against the Knights, with a 10-7 win in London on September 23rd, a 4-1 loss in Saginaw on November 23rd, and a 4-2 loss in London on December 9th. London is 37-13-1-2, with 77 points, in first place in the Midwest Division and first in the Western Conference. The Knights, along with Peterborough, have already clinched playoff spots.

Edmonton Oilers drafted forward Rob Schremp is threatening to top 150 points this season, with a 2.64 points-per-game average. Forwards David Bolland and Dylan Hunter are locks for 100 point seasons each. Adam Perry's 60 points is just 18 off the mark of 78 set by his brother, Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Corey Perry in his sophomore year in the OHL.

Dylan Hunter moved passed Dino Ciccarelli into 6th place on the all-time London Knights scoring list. Hunter has 101 Goals and 246 Assists in his 302 game career.

NHL Alumni: Rick Nash, Rico Fata, Brendan Shanahan

Check out the Saginaw Spirit Statistics

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from February 13, 2006


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