Photo credit: Ottawa 67's
Those expecting the emergent 67’s to fall off will have to wait. Ottawa picked up another five points with a 2-1 week. The team leads the league in scoring and their OHL-best win percentage of 0.818 is astounding.
The 67’s began their week with the ‘School Day Game’. It was an 11:00 a.m. start time on Wednesday with a crowd full of kids who got the morning out of school to take in the game. Children from the Ottawa community got to see the 67’s come away with a 6-4 victory.
Tye Felhaber found the net twice in the first period to put the 67’s up early. Both goals came from roughly the same area of the offensive zone: the low slot.
“It was good to see all the kids out so we wanted to get a win for them and make sure they have a good time at the game,” said Felhaber, after the game.
Then the Kingston power play got to work. Their second-ranked power play unit overmatched the 67’s penalty kill. All four Kingston goals came on the power play and they finished 4/5 on the man advantage.
Following the Felhaber goals, the Frontenacs scored three on the power play to take the lead midway through the second period. Entering the week, the 67’s had only allowed two power play goals at home.
Jason Robertson, the OHL’s leading goal-scorer, finished with a hat trick and recorded an assist on the one Frontenac goal he was not responsible for.
Ottawa Defenseman Kevin Bahl tied the game in the second period and it kicked off four unanswered Ottawa goals. That included rookie Marco Rossi notching his 11th of the season, coming on a power play goal where he tipped the puck from in front of the net.
Goals from Quinn Yule and Graeme Clark, his 10th of the season, secured the victory. Even though Robertson scored his third of the game with six minutes to go, the Frontenacs were unable to mount a comeback. The loss dropped Kingston’s road record this season to 2-10.
The 67’s then left Ottawa for two road games to closeout the weekend. First, to Oshawa for a matchup with the Generals. Ottawa’s seven-game win streak was snapped as they fell 4-3 in overtime.
Oshawa’s Kyle MacLean got the game started with a power play goal in the first period to put the Generals up one. Following that opening marker, the game was defined by two huge swings in momentum, one in each team’s favour.
Ottawa scored the next three goals, two courtesy of Marco Rossi. In between the pair of Rossi goals, Jack Quinn submitted a play worthy of a highlight reel. He went from forehand to backhand to get around the Oshawa D-man and finished with the backhand top shelf.
The Generals then scored the next two to tie the game up in regulation and won it in overtime with a goal from Serron Noel. Each team had a string of three unanswered goals in the game.
The game was a matchup between two of the OHL’s top goaltenders: Kyle Keyser and Cedrick Andree. Keyser leads the league in both save percentage and goals against average and Andree paces the province in wins.
The next night, Andree again stood out as the 67’s handed the Colts only their third home loss of the season. Andree totaled 34 saves in Ottawa’s 4-2 victory.
The 67’s broke through in the first and second periods with goals from Kody Clark and Austen Keating. Barrie’s Jason Willms scored on the power play with less than a second to go in the second period, but Sam Bitten scored in the third to reestablish Ottawa’s two-goal lead.
Barrie scored with under two minutes to play and their net empty with a Lucas Chiodo goal to bring them within one but Keating notched his second of the game with an empty-netter.
The 67’s will take to the road this week to battle the Sudbury Wolves (Thursday), Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (Friday) and North Bay Battalion (Sunday).
