The final playoff match-up in the Pollock Division is set, after a wild week where the game to determine first place was rescheduled twice because of a Mother Nature mood swing.
The Wingham Ironmen, after pacing the division most of the year, fall into second after an epic battle down the stretch with defending champs Mount Forest, who won the decider and will take the bye. Wingham will face off against a plucky underdog in the Goderich Flyers, who had a string of better games under new head coach Paulie O'Byrne. However, to be fair, this is a match-up of haves and have nots, and Wingham will be looking to exert dominance and make this a quick one, but they can't take this Flyers team lightly, as they will feel they have nothing to lose and play a tight checking style that keeps them in most games.
Offensively, this isn't much of a contest. The Ironmen boast the division's best attack by far, as they were the only team to notch 200 goals, finishing with 202. That was well ahead of Mount Forest's 186. The Ironmen are led by their captain, Jamie Huber, who led the team in goals (34) and points (77), and he's just the tip of the arrow. Rhys Vollmer (62 points) and Shane Vollmer (61) both had gaudy totals, and Kyle Stanbury (50 points), Matt Toltan (40 points) and Logan Toltan (36 points) round out the most potent top six group in the Pollock. Wingham had 5 players top 40 points. Goderich had none. The fact that Wingham also boasts the most dangerous offensive defenseman at this level in Carter Collinson lends to this possibly being a short series. Collinson exploded this year for 64 points, scoring 37 of those on the PP. He is the Erik Karlsson of this division, and that isn't an understatement.
The Flyers did, however, see some major offensive improvement, as the team had 5 players notch 30 or more points, which bodes well for the future. The Flyers were led by Matt Bean's 37 points, as he put forth another solid season for Goderich. Riley Connors had 35 points, and Trent Michie put up 34 in just 32 games, and he also led the Flyers in goal scoring with 18. Eric Vander Eyk (33 points), Cody Treble (31) and Jeff Fritzley (28) offer a solid top six for the Flyers, and though they may be shorter on talent than Wingham, they never quit and forecheck extremely well. They'll have an immense challenge in front of them to keep pace with Wingham's scoring though. Goderich did finish 4th overall in goals, though, as their 144 was one of their highest totals in awhile, and that should continue to climb with the solid young core they have going forward.
On the back end, as mentioned earlier, Carter Collinson runs the show for Wingham. He's bar none the best offensive defender in the league, and he has rounded out his defensive game to a very high degree. He gets great support when he goes on marauding rushes from Kyle Langlois, who is a steady stay at home defender that can chip in with occasional offense as well. Jacob Bishop, Chris Adlys, and Ryan Litt all prefer a more stout defensive approach to Collinson's rushing style, and they form a solid unit that defends well and quickly gets pucks up to their high skilled forwards. Wingham finished with the best defensive record in the division with just 119 goals against, just ahead of Mount Forest's 120. Goderich will have a tough time cracking this unit with any measure of consistency.
The Flyers have a young D-core that is still getting their feet under them in some ways, but they are starting to show signs of improvement. You won;t find anyone here that has the offensive explosiveness that a Collinson has, but there are plenty of good pieces here. Brennan Long had a respectable 12 points, and got better in his own end as the year went on, defending smartly and efficiently as he only logged 16 PIMs. Cameron Schram and Braeden Duncan form a solid second pairing that are beginning to round out their games, particularly in their own zone. This group, while improving, is still going to be vulnerable to the best offensive group in the game, and while anything can happen in sports, it will take a minor miracle for this team to completely shut down the Ironmen. Goderich allowed by far the most goals in the Pollock at 235. This will be a challenge.
In goal, Wingham have the benefit of a two-headed monster in Jamie Brock and Devon Carson. These two essentially split the season evenly, with Carson getting 22 appearances and Brock 21. Brock went 16-3-1 with a 3.04 GAA and .898 save percentage. Carson was equally excellent, going 15-6-1 with 2 shutouts, a 2.55 GAA and a stellar .905 save percentage. Essentially, pick your poison. Wingham may even just rotate the goalies in this opening series to keep them both fresh.
Goderich leaned heavily early in the season on Kyle Dunlap, who had 20 starts but is no longer with the team. So duties in the crease will fall to Kevin Linker, who went 3-9-2 with a tough 5.32 GAA and .874 save percentage. He was left out to dry a lot this year, but valiantly battled through all of it. His backup will be Jarron Thompson, who posted a 1-6-0 record, a 5.82 GAA and .832 save percentage. It might be a long, yet short, series for the Flyers netminders.
On special teams, Wingham were brilliant, finishing tops in PP efficiency at 29.06 percent, sniping 68 goals on the man advantage. The Flyers, meanwhile, were a respectable fourth on the PP, going at a 16.29 percent clip and notching 36 goals when they were a man up. On the PK, the Ironmen were equally dominant, finishing second in PK efficiency at 83.41 percent, allowing 36 goals. Goderich were dead last at 75.27 percent, allowing 46 goals. Wingham do have a penchant for penalties, as they took the third most in the Pollock with 1,015 PIMs, while Goderich were more responsible in 5th, logging just 813 PIM's.
This series is a David vs. Goliath, but Goderich is a sneaky team that could snatch one away from Wingham on an off night. However, I can't see it being more than that. The series get underway today in Wingham at 1 p.m. Enjoy the action.
