The series: (2) Parry Sound (52-18-12) vs. (3) El Dorado (48-24-10)

Scoring leaders:
Parry Sound: Pastrnak (82, 38-65-103), McDavid (82, 42-54-96), Dadonov (74, 35-51-86), Kuznetsov (79, 30-44-74), Rakell (77, 30-34-64)
El Dorado: O’Reilly (81, 28-62-90), Granlund (76, 30-57-87), Ovechkin (82, 43-35-78), Petry (82, 16-54-70), Keller (82, 23-37-60)

Goalies:
Parry Sound: Rinne (57gp, 39-12-6, 2.38, .928, 6so)
El Dorado: Rask (49gp, 32-10-6, 2.39, .923, 7so)

Players to watch:
Parry Sound: Overshadowed somewhat by the team’s star centres, David Pastrnak put up a marvelous season, breaking the 100-point barrier and leading the entire league in assists with 65.
El Dorado: Jeff Petry finished second among defensemen with 70 points, an offensive explosion the team hopes will continue into the postseason.

The Parry Sound Orrsmen finished second overall with two fewer wins than it managed in ’17-’18. But a stunning loss in five games to Salem in the conference finals should have the Orrsmen hungry for a decisive opening round this year. Unlike the previous season, Parry Sound relied heavily on a single goaltender, offseason acquisition Pekka Rinne, and he was magnificent during the regular season. Some consistency in goal may be just what the doctor ordered this time around.

But it won’t be easy. After three seasons of missing the playoffs, the El Dorado Lynx are back and should make for a very tough opponent for the Orrsmen. The team didn’t make as many splashy acquisitions as its counterpart, but the biggest — centre Ryan O’Reilly — paid off in spades, as he skated to an eye-opening 90 points, with good defensive play to boot. Nobody in the league can match Parry Sound’s McDavid-Matthews-Kuznetsov trio down the middle, but O’Reilly gives the Lynx a chance of shutting one or two of them down. And the Lynx have a red-hot Finnish goalie of their own in Tuukka Rask. It’s going to be a hell of a series.

Head-to-head regular season record:
Tied 3-3-2. This should dispel any notion that this isn’t a closely matched series, as these teams fought each other to a .500 head-to-head record on both El Dorado and Parry Sound ice.