The Mimico Mountaineers defeated the Peterborough Lakers 18-7 on Wednesday night to even their second round series at one game each.
Meanwhile in St. Catharines, the Orangeville Northmen stayed undefeated in the playoffs with a 9-6 victory in their second game of the series.
For a recap of both games, check out the video below!
The games were a good continuation of several themes that I have been discussing throughout the summer. Let’s get into a few of them below.
Shots!
I wrote Tuesday about the shot volume from the Mimico Mountaineers. Whereas in round one they were often recording 60 shots or more, Peterborough held them to just 40 in game one.
In the second game, Mimico got back above 60 shots and recorded 18 goals. Loose ball numbers are not officially tracked in the OJLL, but shots and loose balls are often correlated. Being in the arena, it certainly seemed that Mimico was winning more of the loose ball battles, which led to more transition and more possessions. That is how they have worn teams down throughout the season, and is one reason why they have been so successful.
In such a route, it can often be tempting to point to a “sexier” reason for the massive advantage. As is so often the case, this was a story of Mimico winning more of the little plays. Combined with some good shooting luck, they managed to flip the script.
D-Fence!
Mimico’s non-offensive personnel scored an incredible nine goals in this game. Justin Tavares had 4 of his own, bringing his total to six for the series. He plays a lot of offence but is primarily a defensive / transition option. Then Jordan Vincent had 2 of his own (which were scored within nine seconds of each other), Angus Macdonnell had 2 more and his brother Aiden scored one of his own.
That was enough to beat the Lakers without a single full-time offensive player scoring. Obviously that’s a recipe for success for Mimico.
Left Side! Strong Side!
While Joey Spallina continues to pace the Orangeville Northmen on the right side, but I was impressed with the chemistry between Liam Matthews and Trey Deere on the left side.
First, they had this give and go that ended in a Matthews goal.
Then, Matthews fed Deere on a classic pick and roll for another goal.
And here is another clip of a slip-pick between the two.
Bad two-man pairings often suffer because one of the guys can’t set great picks. Good two-man pairings come with the combination of a good ball-carrier and a good picker. Great ones, like these two, come when both guys can play both roles.
They are certainly fun to watch.
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