Yesterday, we featured Marco Insam, graduate of the Niagara IceDogs and goal scoring phenom with Bolzano of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio. Today, we look at the guy everyone is chasing for the scoring lead in the LIHG Serie A1.

Ryan McDonough played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League. His first season was played with the Sudbury Wolves and his final three with the Saginaw Spirit. McDonough didn’t rip up the league but provided consistent offense throughout his career with 284 points in 258 games.

Ryan shared the captaincy of the Saginaw Spirit in his final OHL season with Patrick Asselin. His 45 goals that season stand as a team record.

McDonough took to Europe right after graduating from the OHL. He spent his first season, 2008-09, with EC Salzburg Red Bulls in Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. This past season, Ryan switched to Germany and played for the Landshut Cannibals of the 2. Bundesliga (tier 2 to the DEL).

Ryan is joined on the ‘Bulldogs’ by OHL grads, Ryan Martinelli and Luciano Aquino. Aquino sits two goals behind McDonough for the league’s goal scoring lead. McDonough also leads the LIHG in total points.

Ryan McDonough’s profile can be found at the Valpellice official website’s roster page (it’s an awesome picture!).

Ontario Hockey League grad Chris Bain returns to professional hockey this fall wearing an Aviators jersey. The London Knights, Mississauga IceDogs and Saginaw Spirit alumnus will be playing for the New York Aviators of the Federal Hockey League when they begin play on October 29, 2010.

Bain played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He played his first two seasons in the OHL with the London Knights then was traded to the Mississauga IceDogs afer four games in 2003-04. He started his final season with the Saginaw Spirit but remained with the club for only 12 games.

Mostly known for his talent with his fists, Chris played a role in the IceDogs getting to the Robertson Cup finals in 2003-04 before losing in four games to the Guelph Storm. Bain contributed 11 points in 24 playoff games. The 11 points matched his total over 54 regular season games with Mississauga. In all, his regular season penalty minute total in the Ontario Hockey League topped out at 610.

Chris has spent time in the Central Hockey League, Southern Professional Hockey League and Quebec’s LNAH. He last played at the pro level in 2007-08. He’ll be wearing his familiar number 96 for the Aviators and will most likely be dropping the gloves the odd time.

The Aviators previously played in the now-defunct North East Professional Hockey League. The team plays out of the Aviator Sports and Entertainment Centre in Brooklyn, New York.

Check out Chris Bain’s profile page on the New York Aviators official website.

Chris had a little history with Windsor’s Cam Jannsen back in the OHL days. Here’s just one of the tilts. Note the beautiful London Knights jerseys at a beautiful arena…

Tyler Haskins is another one of those five-year Ontario Hockey Leaguers. Haskins played his five seasons in the OHL from 2002-03 to 2006-07. He began his OHL career with the Guelph Storm and after nine games into his second season, he moved east to become a member of the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. He stayed with Toronto until his final season when he became a member of the Saginaw Spirit.

Tyler played an additional 18 games in the 2004 Robertson Cup playoffs as the Majors went deep but bowed out to the Mississauga IceDogs in the Eastern Conference Final, four games to two.

Haskins was picked by the Detroit Red Wings in the fifth round of the 2004 NHL draft, 162nd overall. After starting his pro hockey career with the Utah Grizzlies of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) in 2007-08, he finished the season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League (AHL). He had been with the Sound Tigers until the end of the 2009-10 season.

2010-11 brings a fresh change and a new continent for Haskins as he begins play with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). The team finished third in the fifteen team league last season.

Check out Tyler Haskins profile on the official DEL website.

Check out the Grizzly Adams Wolfburg roster page.

Tyler Haskins is on the OHL Alumni Central Big List. Find out who else is.

DEL Hockey Cards? Oh ya!

Michal Birner played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. His first season in the OHL was split between the Barrie Colts and the Saginaw Spirit. His final season in the Ontario Hockey League was played exclusively with Saginaw. While with Saginaw, he set the team’s mark for the fastest three goals scored.

Over the 2005-06 season, Birner was second on Saginaw Spirit scoring during the regular season, three points behind team leader Ryan McDonough. However, Michal played eight less games during the season. The missed games were in part due to Birner representing his native Czech Republic at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships (under-20) that were played in Canada. The Czechs left the tournament without a medal.

Birner also represented the Czech Republic on the international stage earlier on in his hockey career when he was on the roster for the 2004 IIHF World Under-18 Championships. Michal contributed five points in seven games as the Czech’s won bronze with a win over Canada in Belarus.

Birner was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round of the 2004 NHL draft, 116th overall. He spent his first full season after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League with the Blues’ AHL farm team, the Peoria Rivermen. The following season, he started with Peoria and ended with the Portland Pirates. In 2008-09, he played two games with the AHL’s Iowa Chops before being demoted to the ECHL. Birner chose not to report and instead signed with Pelicans of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

Michal’s season with Pelicans lasted only six games and he was sidelined for the rest of the season with a broken hand. This past season, he remained in the SM-Liiga but with TPS, a storied team that has been around since 1929 (as a sports club, TPS has been around since 1922). His 45 regular season points with TPS was good enough for third on the team in scoring, only four points from the leader. More importantly, TPS won the league championship.

Birner is signed on with TPS for the upcoming 2010-11 season.

Check out Michal Birner’s profile page on the TPS official website.

Check out this recent post on Michal’s teammate with the Spirit, Patrick Asselin.

The Kalamazoo Wings of the East Coast Hockey League have the good fortune to have retained the services of the two Ontario Hockey League grads for the upcoming 2010-11 season. Each of the grads comes from the two Ontario Hockey League teams located in the state of Michigan, the Plymouth Whalers and Saginaw Spirit.

Andrew Fournier played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08, all with the Plymouth Whalers, although his first season consisted of only three games. He was a part of the Robertson Cup winning Whalers in 2006-07. He came out offensively in his final season, scoring 35 goals and 40 assists for 75 points in 64 games which placed him second on the team in scoring. He captained the team in that final season.

Undrafted, Fournier played his first season of professional hockey in 2008-09. He split the campaign between the ECHL’s Florida Everblades and Dayton Bombers. This past season, his first with Kalamazoo, Andrew led the team in scoring with 27 goals and 44 assists for 71 points in 70 games.

Patrick Asselin played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His first four seasons were played with the Saginaw Spirit and during his final season, the Spirit traded him to the Oshawa Generals where he was to help a power-packed Generals team go deep into the playoffs. His 78 total points in his final season put him third on the Generals in scoring behind the dynamic duo of John Tavares and Brett MacLean.

In 2008-09, Asselin’s first year pro, he played in Germany’s Oberliga (third tier, behind DEL and Bundesliga) with Herne. He scored 39 goals and added 40 assists for 79 points in 50 games with Herne which placed him two points out of the top spot on the team in total points. He returned to North America and the East Coast Hockey League this past season, starting with the Idaho Steelheads and taking a turn with the Utah Grizzlies before ending up in Kalamazoo.

Check out Andrew Fournier’s and Patrick Asselin’s profile pages on the Kalamazoo Wings official website.