The Erie Otters denied the Saginaw Spirit a three-game comeback to win the teams' Ontario Hockey League playoff series.
They did so with another kind of rally during Saturday's fifth game at Michigan's Dow Event Center.
Erie, after its worst 20-minute performance of the series, trailed 2-0 at the first intermission. The Otters were whistled for eight penalties that included Malcolm Spence's 10-minute game misconduct.
What words, terse or otherwise, coach Kris Mallette said to the players during that break apparently worked.
The Otters, highlighted by Martin Misiak's hat trick, outscored the Spirit 6-1 over the last 40 minutes. Their 6-3 win also clinched the franchise's first playoff series victory since its Robertson Cup championship season of 2016-17.
Erie next faces the London Knights, the OHL's reigning champions, in the Western Conference semifinals. The league should release that series schedule early next week.
Fantastic finish after slow start
Saginaw didn't begin Saturday's game like it missed Michael Misa. The forward, whose 134 points were the most of any Canadian Hockey League player over the regular season, was scratched from the hosts' lineup for an undisclosed reason.
The Spirit, though, took advantage of Erie's undisciplined play for its first two-goal advantage of the series. Igor Chernyshov and Carson Harmer scored in a 65-second span at the expense of Erie goaltender Noah Erliden.
However, the Otters regained a kind of scoring touch that saw them total 17 goals over their game one and two victories at Dow. They pulled within 3-2 at the second intermission, and then outscored the hosts 4-0 over the rest of regulation.
Misiak, a Chicago Blackhawks draft pick, completed his hat trick with his sixth and seventh goals of the series against Spirit goalie Kaleb Papineau. Alex Messier and Sam Alfano added insurance offense that extended Erie's season at least two more weeks.
Conference semifinals set
The conference semifinals were officially determined with Saturday's result. The fifth-seeded Otters joined No. 1 London, No. 2 Windsor and No. 3 Kitchener in that round.
Erie was the only one of those four which advanced minus home-ice advantage for the first round.
Like London against Erie, Windsor has dibs for home-ice vs. Kitchener.
Kingston, going into Saturday, was the league's lone Eastern Conference franchise which advanced on thatside of the league's ...
