By Aaron Bell
It’s easy to see that Thomas McCollum is enjoying his time in Brampton so far. What’s not to like?
The all-star netminder came to the Battalion from the Guelph Storm at the OHL trade deadline last month and is 9-1 with a stellar 1.68 goals against average and .939 save percentage since joining the Battalion. He trails Belleville Bulls’ netminder Mike Murphy by a slim margin for the best GAA in the OHL this season. McCollum has posted three shutouts during the 11-game streak.
After dropping their first game with McCollum in the lineup, the Troops have reeled off 12 straight wins and moved into a tie with the Belleville Bulls for first place in the Eastern Conference standings.
“It’s unreal,” said veteran defenceman Ken Peroff. “It’s a very tight-knit group and everybody is friends with everybody. It makes coming to the rink every day enjoyable and that’s when you are going to have success is when you are having fun doing it.
The Battalion set a team record with a 16-game winning streak earlier this season and sophomore forward Matt Duchene said that the key has been to focus on the task at hand.
“I think you just have to take one game at a time and not look too far ahead,” said Duchene, who is rated second among North American prospects for the NHL Draft this summer. “We’re just trying to play well every shift we’re out there.”
The Bulls host Brampton in a first place showdown at the Yardmen Arena on Wednesday night.
John Tavares of the London Knights holds a slim lead over Taylor Hall of the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL scoring race. Tavares has 78 points to Hall’s 75 but was forced to miss some time last weekend after taking a heavy hit from Hall and suffering a shoulder injury in last Friday’s game against the Spitfires.
“You never want to see anyone get hurt but I saw an opportunity to throw a hit,” Hall told the London Free Press after the game, which the Spitfires won 4-3 on a late third-period goal by Andrei Loktionov. “That's what happens in a game like this. I got hit. Their guys got hit.”
That game was billed as a match-up between two of the CHL’s best and it lived up to the expectations.
London held the lead in the game on two occasions but the Spitfires battled back for their fourth straight win over the Knights.
“We just have to pick ourselves us here and move on,” Knights forward Daniel Erlich said. “We were right there. They hit us and we hit them.”
The two teams meet again next Friday in London.
The Spitfires are the top ranked team in the country and with their 5-3 win over the Guelph Storm on Tuesday, they locked up the OHL’s West Division regular season title – their first since the 1987-88 season.
“It’s nice to hang a banner for the first time in over 20 years,” Spitfires head coach Bob Boughner told The Windsor Star. “It’s nice for us, for the fans and for the community, but this year is all about the playoffs.”
