Hey OHL fans, it's time for another round of
news, stats and interesting items from around the league.
Monstrous defenceman Nicholas Tuzzolino has
the Olympic vibe running through his veins as his older
brother, Tony, is playing for Team Italy.
"I think it's great he's an Olympian," said
Tuzzolino. "He's actually done quite a bit in his career. He
has two Calder Cup rings (the American Hockey League
championship) and a few games in the NHL and now the Olympic
experience. It's pretty amazing. I am sure he's having a great
time."
Tony had played in the AHL for a while, but
accepted an offer to play in Italy the season before the
2004-05 NHL lockout. Tony has dual citizenship(United States
and Italy) and was allowed to represent Italy in the biggest
sporting event on the planet.
With his efforts over the weekend, Ben
Pouliot has taken over the team scoring lead from Nick Foligno.
Pouliot scored five goals and six points in two
losses, which pushed his season totals to 33
goals and 60 points in 40 games. Foligno has 22 goals and 58
points in 54 games.
Speaking of Pouliot and Foligno, they not
only rack up points, but penalty minutes as well.
Foligno has 126, good for 25th in the OHL,
while Pouliot has 108, good for 47th in the league.
No other team has their two top scorers with
over 100 penalty minutes. Both players have more minutes than a
lot of enforcers and tough guys.
The latest OHL online poll reveals a
resounding number of fans believe Kitchener's Dan Turple is the
best goalie in the league this season. Turple has received 59
percent of the votes (well over 440,000 votes). London's Adam
Dennis received the second most votes (218,577), while
Windsor's
Anthony Guadagnolo finished third in the
voting with 64,208.
It's hard to argue with the voters as Turple
has the OHL's best goals-against-average (2.31) and save
percentage (.923) and has helped Kitchener obtain the league's
best goals against mark by allowing just 137 goals against in
56 games.
Turple is also second in wins with 33.
Wolves puck stopper, Kevin Beech, took 2,744
votes.
You can feel the desperation in Erie all the
way up here in Sudbury. They sit ninth in the Western
Conference with 48 points, three behind Sault Ste. Marie for
the eighth and final position.
Erie had high hopes this season, especially
with two players who made Team Canada for the World Junior
Championship and a strong supporting cast.
Erie even bolstered their chances further
earlier in the season when they acquired power forward Adam
Berti and defender Bret Nasby from Oshawa for a slew of young
players and draft picks.
Sudbury boy J.F. Houle, 18, has hung up the
blades for now. The slick forward played 45 this season with
Brampton and Kingston, recording nine goals and 25 points. He
says he's done and wants to concentrate on school.
Hats off to Guelph's Ryan Callahan, who
became the all-time goal-scoring leader for the Storm this past
weekend. Callahan ripped his 121st career goal against Plymouth
on Saturday, which put him one ahead of former leader and
current NHLer Jeff O'Neill. In his quest, Callahan also passed
Sudbury's Todd Bertuzzi, who had 116 career goals with the
Storm.
