Hockey / FOUR OPENING-ROUND OJHL PLAYOFF SERIES SET

FOUR OPENING-ROUND OJHL PLAYOFF SERIES SET

Date:  Source: Ontario Junior A Hockey League

With less than a week remaining on the Ontario Junior Hockey League schedule, here’s what we know:

- the Cobourg Cougars and Wellington Dukes will play the final game of the regular season, Feb. 27, in a possible first-round playoff preview.

- first-round playoff series will be completed between Feb. 27 and March 12.

-the Pickering Panthers, the fourth-place team in the North Division, will play a cross-over game against the West Division’s Georgetown Raiders or Brampton Admirals Sunday or Monday. (See next paragraph.) The cross-over will be played because the Raiders and Admirals have more points than the Panthers. The winner will become the fourth seed in the North and face the top-seeded Markham Royals

-should Georgetown and Brampton finish in a tie, they’d play a qualifying game Sunday with the winner travelling to Pickering Monday. Otherwise the cross-over game goes Sunday in Pickering.

-the Newmarket Hurricanes and Aurora Tigers will meet in the other North semifinal and revive the always dramatic Battle of Yonge Street. Their home rinks are 5.8 km apart in York Region.

-the South Division will feature a pair of all-Toronto series: North York Rangers(1) vs Toronto Jr. Canadiens(4) and St. Michael’s Buzzers vs Toronto Patriots.

-the Buffalo Jr. Sabres(2) and Burlington Cougars(3) will tangle in one West Division semifinal.

-Alessio Luciani of Markham leads the league points race with 70, one more than North York’s Brandon Yeamans and two up on Royals’ teammate Braedyn Aubin. Markham has three games to play and North York one.

- Joseph Mizzi left the Aurora Tigers for Utah Grizzlies in the ECHL but he still leads the OJHL scoring race with 32 goals, one more than Yeamans and Colton Trumbla of St. Michael’s.

- North York’s Jett Alexander (photo / OJHL Images) leads all OJHL goaltenders in wins (29), save percentage (.944) and goals against average (1.71).

Click here for more information on the playoffs, including completion dates for series:

2019 OJHL playoffs