No. 2 – Michael DiPietro (G) (Ottawa 67’s, OHL)
Feels like it’s been a while since I got to talk about Michael DiPietro. Maybe it’s just the short attention span. On the surface, Mikey had a great week. He won both of his games and stopped 39 of 42 total shots.
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And there it is. How could two games only result in 42 shots? Well, the Ottawa 67’s were crushing the competition, so that helps. DiPietro had a 15-save shutout against the Peterborough Petes. Sure, they didn’t test him with a shooting gallery, but there is something special about that shutout.
That was shutout number 17 of his OHL career. Thanks to Peterborough and some squeaky clean goaltending from Mikey, he just set an OHL record. Beating out Tom McCollum, no other goalie in OHL history has more shutouts than DiPietro.
He was already crushing it for Windsor, dominating franchise records for wins and shutouts (both all time and in one season). It’s just icing on the cake and although things didn’t work out at the World Juniors, he has another chance to add a prestigious achievement with the Memorial Cup.
DiPietro is a bonafide OHL legend and you can use that if you ever see Leaf fans give him grief over the World Juniors. I can’t say if he will be better than Thatcher Demko, but he sure is one exciting goaltender to watch.