Toronto, ON – The Ontario Hockey League today announced that forward John Tavares of the London Knights is the Boston Pizza OHL Player of the Week for the week ending March 8. Tavares scored six goals and four assists for 10 points in three games with a plus-minus rating of plus-2.
Tavares opened his week Thursday night in London against the Kitchener Rangers scoring two power play goals and adding one assist in the 7-1 win. The Rangers and Knights squared off again Friday in the rematch in Kitchener and Tavares had another three-point night with one goal and two assists in the 5-3 win. Tavares saved his best game for Sunday afternoon in Windsor against the Spitfires. He opened the scoring early in the first period with his 56th goal of the season and 213th of this career. He added an assist in the first period before scoring record breaking career goal number 214 to become the OHL’s new all-time goal scoring leader passing Peter Lee who scored 213 with the Ottawa 67’s from 1971-1976. Tavares completed his third hat-trick of the season with his 58th goal of the year and 215th of his career late in the third period to give the Knights the 4-3 win as first star of the game.
Tavares, an 18-year-old from Oakville, ON is in his fourth OHL season and currently leads the league in scoring with 58 goals and 46 assists for 104 points in 55 games. The Knights have now won seven games in a row and are second place in the Western Conference with 97 points. Tavares is eligible for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
Honourable mention this week goes to Thomas Kiriakou of the Ottawa 67’s who scored two goals and six assists for eight points in three games and was named first star of the game twice helping the 67’s win all three of their games. Brett Parnham of the Oshawa Generals was also considered after scoring five goals and two assists for seven points in three games highlighted by a five-point game as first star in a 6-2 win over the Barrie Colts Thursday where he scored his third hat-trick of the season. In goal, Jaroslav Janus of the Erie Otters went 2-1 with a shutout win and a goals-against-average of 1.32 and a save percentage of .960.
2008-09 Boston Pizza OHL Players of the Week
