Oshawa and Ottawa each earned a win on Sunday night as both teams will move on to the second round.
The Oshawa Generals and the Ottawa 67's have each booked their ticket to the second round of the OHL playoffs — and they will now face each other.
Oshawa took a 3-0 win over the Barrie Colts in Game 6, as Jacob Oster earns the shutout, and the Generals were able to get two goals from their blue line. Oster made 32 saves in the effort, as he continues his dominant postseason performance in the crease.
Jacob Oster was one of the best goaltenders "numbers-wise" in the OHL regular season, and he has absolutely shut the door in the playoffs for Oshawa. He has been their "X factor" in the postseason so far.
Barrie was able to squeak two games out of this series, as they certainly gave Oshawa a good fight as the eighth seed coming in. Colts netminder Sam Hillebrandt was also sensational throughout this series. It really came down to a goaltending battle in a lot of the games.
For the Ottawa 67's, they were able to take down the third-seeded Brantford Bulldogs as the "underdog" heading into the series.
In game one, it really looked like the Bulldogs were ready to make another championship run. They got Nick Lardis back from injury, and the young guns — Marek Vanacker & Jake O'Brien — were on their games as well.
That being said, everything started to shift in the way of Ottawa after game two. The 67's were able to steal home ice advantage by winning game two in Brantford, and they won both games back at home to take a 3-1 series lead.
Several players stepped up for the 67's in this series, and an unlikely candidate in Jack Dever leads the team in postseason scoring. Luca Pinelli was his usual self, scoring four goals in the series and scoring big time goals in game two and three.
Now, the Oshawa Generals and Ottawa 67's will face one another in the second round of the OHL playoffs. North Bay and Sudbury will face each other in the other bracket of the Eastern Conference.
On paper, the Generals area much deeper team. But if Ottawa is able to get their entire lineup to step up as they did against Brantford, this will be a tight series.
Calum Ritchie vs. Luca Pinelli & Jacob Oster vs. Collin MacKenzie.