The Sarnia Sting and Saginaw Spirit will square off in the second round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.
The action gets underway on Friday night at Progressive Auto Sales Arena, with game two set for Sunday afternoon at The Hive.
Sting Head Coach Alan Letang knows Saginaw will pose a tough test.
"I don't expect anything different than what we faced in Guelph," said Letang. "They've got some dangerous players up front, and they've got a goaltender that if we don't get traffic in front of him, and he sees pucks, he's going to make those saves. It's going to be a good series. It's going to be exciting, fast and physical and I think the guys are really looking forward to it."
Letang said home ice advantage will be key once again but they have to play strong on the road also.
"As much as you like to hold court and win your home games, you still have to learn to play on the road," he said. "You have to learn to block out the opposition's crowd and block out the little distractions that happen on the road. Like I said to our guys in round one, going into another team's building, everything around is just white noise. We're focused on what we have to do, focused on our game plan and focused on how we have to execute. We have to fight through adversity, which is what we did in round one, and we'll have to fight thorough it even more in round two."
The two clubs split the regular season series with three wins apiece, but the Sting won their games convincingly, with scores of 8-2, 6-1 and 6-3.
The Sting placed third in the OHL's Western Conference and defeated the Guelph Storm in six games in the opening round. The number four ranked Spirit are coming off a seven game series against Flint.
The series shifts to Saginaw for games three and four next Tuesday and Thursday.
You can hear every game live on 103.9 FM and 1070 AM - CHOK.
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Game 1 - Fri. April 14 at Sarnia, 7:05 p.m. Game 2 - Sun. April 16 at Sarnia, 2:05 p.m. Game 3 - Tues. April 18 at Saginaw, 7:05 p.m. Game 4 - Thurs. April 20 at Saginaw, 7:05 p.m. Game 5- Sat. April 22 at Sarnia, 7:05 p.m.* Game 6 - Sun. April 23 at Saginaw, 5:30 p.m.* Game 7- Tues. April 25 at Sarnia, 7:05 p.m.*
