Take Fernando Pisani of the 2005-06 Edmonton Oilers, for example, recording 14 goals including five game-winners in 24 post-season outings after just 18 goals in 80 regular-season games.
Or Chris Kontos of the 1988-89 Los Angeles Kings, who tallied nine times in nine playoff games.
You can also throw in current Victoria Royals head coach Dave Lowry, whose silky-smooth hands came to the fore with the Stanley Cup finalist Florida Panthers in 1995-96. That year he matched his seasonal output of 10 goals and finished with 17 points, one more than he had accumulated in six previous playoff campaigns.
The Victoria Grizzlies are likely hoping Shawn O鈥橫alley can be that type of player.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan, native 鈥� who had just one goal and three points in 13 games as he joined the team just before the sa国际传媒 Hockey League trade deadline 鈥� scored the only goal required as the locals won the opening game of the best-of-seven series, 1-0 over the Nanaimo Clippers on Friday night at The Q Centre.
Game 2 goes tonight at 7 in Colwood.
鈥淚t would be nice to be that type of guy,鈥� said O鈥橫alley, who admittedly never heard of Kontos or Pisani, until the topic was brought up. 鈥淚 scored in my first game here and hadn鈥檛 scored since. That one felt good, to get the game-winner in Game 1 of the playoffs, that鈥檚 a great way to start it off.
鈥淎 1-0 game in a tight series, I guess we should be expecting that in the next few games as well. We have a lot of playoff rookies here so it鈥檚 good to get that first win under the belt and get situated for the rest of the series,鈥� added O鈥橫alley, who is more of an energy guy.
He beat Nanaimo goalie Evan DeBrouwer under the glove, short side at 4:09 of the middle period. It remained that way until the end as Matthew Galajda stopped all 27 shots he faced on a relatively easy night for him.
鈥淲e have some depth and those guys can score on any given night,鈥� said Grizzlies GM and head coach Craig Didmon. 鈥淥鈥橫alley had an injury when he got here and we weathered him through the last part of the season. He knew he was brought in for the playoffs and, wow, it was nice for him to pop that goal for us.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a good depth player for us and he gets the goal,鈥� added Didmon. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think we were great tonight. I thought we got a good taste of how they鈥檙e going to play.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to be hard and it鈥檚 going to be gruelling, but I think we got away with one tonight. I hope we come back with a better one [today] and take a strong hold in the series.鈥�
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