Game 1 was an absolute boat race, certainly Oshawa’s best game in a few weeks. Jack Ivankovic was God-awful. No idea why they left him in so long when it was obvious after Danford’s goal that he just didn’t have anything tonight. Especially when Gillespie has played so well Oshawa throughout the season.
The only one worse than Ivankovic tonight was Konnor Smith. By far the biggest player on the ice but instead of using his size to hit people, Smith was only focused on taking embarrassing dives and flopping around on the ice in a pitiful attempt to draw penalties. I lost count of how many own zone turnovers he had tonight, and there’s no excuse for him to be bodied off the puck by much smaller players. Smith is a terrible skater with ZERO offensive ability, so if he’s not playing physical hockey he might as well be sitting in the press box.
Great to see Colby Barlow with the hat trick. Granted, one was a tap in and one bounced in off of him but maybe this can be the catalyst to turn around his disappointing season.
Speaking of hat tricks, the most cringeworthy moment of the game was when MacDonell scored his third of the night with a minute to go to make it 7-4. The goal was completely irrelevant and entirely insignificant, but some kook from Brampton decided he should throw his hat on the ice in jubilation. Which pretty much sums up the Steelheads.
