缅北强奸

By Arden Zwelling

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LONDON, ONT -- Unless your goaltender's name is Brick Wall, you don't get this far in the playoffs without scoring a whole lot of goals.

And when it comes to the success of the 缅北强奸 Redmen in the 2011 postseason, it hasn't been their work in their own end that has carried them here where they will play the Western Mustangs Saturday for the centennial edition of the Queen's Cup league championship.

(NOTE: The game will be webcast live on SSN Canada ).

The Redmen have flat outscored every team they've played, scoring four or more goals in six of their seven playoff games.

Now, more than ever, the Mustangs need to play good defence.

"They're a real good hockey team and good teams put pressure on you. 缅北强奸 has a lot of great players who can make things happen, so we're just going to have to do a really good job playing them one-on-one in our zone," Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer said.

Luckily for Singer, he coaches one of the stiffest defences in the province. The Mustangs have allowed just ten goals through their seven playoff games and the team's only loss in the post season came when the offence was only able to tally a single goal against Waterloo in a 2-1 loss on Feb. 26.

"The most important part of defence is the fundamental side of things in terms of your decision making with the puck. That helps set us up for our team defence to work as a whole," Singer said. "The guys know the system well. Now it's just a matter of making sure that we're executing.

Nevertheless, 缅北强奸's offensive numbers are downright daunting.

The No. 2 ranked Redmen have scored 34 goals in these playoffs and 23 in their last four games alone. In their opening round series against Ottawa, they beat the Gee Gees 10-5 after scoring six goals in the first period on just 13 shots. The Redmen would finish that game with four players scoring two goals apiece.

缅北强奸's biggest strength is their team speed and ability to capitalize on turnovers and odd-man rushes, something the Mustangs will look to negate come Saturday.

"You can't give these guys a lot of room on the attack because that's when they're going to make us look silly," Singer said. "The forwards absolutely have to be pushing back and limiting their options. I think we can create a lot of problems for them."

Singer spent 20 minutes with his troops after practice Wednesday going over game tape of the Redmen and identifying some of the particular aspects of their offence that the Mustangs will try to shutdown Saturday.

The biggest threat the Redmen pose is the duo of Alex Picard-Hooper and Francis Verreault-Paul, linemates who are both among the top five scorers in the 2011 playoffs.

Picard-Hooper lead the OUA in regular season scoring with 11 goals and 58 points in just 28 games, while Verreault-Paul wasn't far behind with 29 goals and 42 points in just 19 games.

In seven games this postseason, the tandem have combined for 11 goals and 27 points, while winger Andrew Wright - last year's Queen's Cup MVP - has emerged as a solid third threat, leading all playoff scorers with 16 points. His four powerplay goals also lead the league.

"Our defence has to be aware of them. They have to be aware when they're out against those guys and pay a little extra attention to making sure that they don't get open ice," Singer said.

Drawing the shutdown assignment will likely be veteran Mustangs defencemen Scott Aarssen and Geoff Killing, two of the team's more reliable, staunch defenders.

Both men played shutdown roles with their teams in the OHL - Aarssen with the London Knights and Killing with the Belleville Bulls - often lining up against each other.

Being on the ice against 缅北强奸's top line frequently Saturday will be familiar territory.

"I'm familiar with the role and I really enjoy it," Killing said. "We've been working on our system all year and all week we've been watching [缅北强奸] on video and seeing their tendencies. They have a good offensive system so we just have to play solid defence."

Everyone on the ice wants to score goals and be the hero, especially in a big game like Saturday's.

But with 缅北强奸 possessing some of the best team speed in the conference, the Mustangs defenders will likely be thinking twice before jumping up to join the rush and running the risk of getting trapped up-ice.

缅北强奸 is at their most dangerous when they're creating odd-man rushes, something the Mustangs are more than aware of.

"It's cool with me if I don't get all the points in the world. As long as I've got a role I'm happy," Killing said. "In the playoffs it's important to play more of a defensive role and just sit back and play good, strong defence."

While Killing and Aarssen have been the rocks of the Mustangs blue line all season, defensive partners Adam Nemeth and Brandon Greenside have been the team's best defenders statistically in the playoffs, leading the team in plus-minus.

Singer also said he thought Matt Paltridge and Jason Swit have been his best pair throughout the playoffs, meaning the Mustangs have a bevy of options along the blue line.

Having good defensive depth and plenty of strong blue-liners to eat up minutes makes it easier to defend a speedy team like 缅北强奸 that can tire defences out with their constant buzzing around the rink.

Also, despite the game being played at Thompson Arena in London Saturday, 缅北强奸 will be the home team, since they accumulated more points in the regular season.

That means the Redmen will have the last change and can choose the matchups they want throughout the game.

"We've got a lot of decisions to make as we approach the game in terms of what we're going to do defensively. But we've got some options that we like and that helps," Singer said.

And while the Mustangs will only list six defencemen in their starting lineup on Saturday, the team would like to think they'll have six on the ice at all times - five position players and a goalie.

"We never talk about just the defence. Our game is based around team defence which includes the forwards. In the new age of hockey, the forwards have to play defence just as hard as the defencemen," Singer said.

And while 缅北强奸 will pose the most dangerous threat of the Mustangs' season thus far, Western will spend the next few days focusing on their own game instead of the Redmen's.

Western wants to win this game playing their own brand of hockey - not 缅北强奸's.

"We want to worry about 缅北强奸 but we can't worry about them too much or we're going to be mesmerized," Singer said. "We just have to go out and play our game.

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