Photo credit: Ottawa 67’s
The 67’s have continued their sweltering start to the season, finishing another week with a 2-1 record. Although their six-game win streak was snapped, Ottawa has won seven of their last eight games and now sits in first place in the Eastern Conference.
The hot streak for Ottawa forwards Tye Felhaber, Marco Rossi and Austen Keating continues as well and showed in a big way during Sunday afternoon’s 3-1 victory over the Mississauga Steelheads, the Eastern Conference’s number two ranked team.
The top line of Felhaber, Rossi and Keating combined for all three Ottawa goals and each finished with three points. Rossi scored his ninth goal in the last eight games, Felhaber scored twice, including the game’s opening goal, and Keating assisted on all three markers.
The 67’s lone hiccup in the last couple weeks came the night before in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Erie Otters. Ottawa jumped out to a 2-0 lead with goals once again from Felhaber (coming short-handed) and Rossi but the Otters scored twice in the third period to draw even.
Brendan Hoffman and Danial Singer each scored their first goals of the season. Singer’s equalizer came with less than three minutes to go in regulation. Kyle Maksimovich, Erie’s leading point-getter, clinched the comeback victory with his overtime winner. It was only the second win for the Otters since their season opener.
Thursday night’s matchup saw another strong start for the 67’s but, like the Erie game, they let their opponents back into the game.
Ottawa opened the game with another goal from Felhaber. He again capitalized short-handed, this time finishing with the forehand after an absurd deke between his legs to get around a Niagara defenseman. Graeme Clark scored his fifth of the season two minutes later to bring the Ottawa lead to two. IceDogs’ forwards Kirill Maksimov and Kyen Sopa scored the next two goals however to tie the game.
But this time, the 67’s recovered to finish the game in regulation. Sasha Chmelevski scored the game winner with less than five minutes remaining in the third period and Ottawa topped Niagara 3-2. IceDog goaltender Stephen Dhillon played fantastic in defeat, stopping 41 of the 44 shots he faced.
Speaking of strong goaltending, it was another ho-hum week for Ottawa netminder Cedrick Andree. He picked up wins in both his starts and is now 8-2 on the season.
The 67’s continue to rack up victories with strong offensive numbers, but the power play remains ineffective. Ottawa is fourth last in power play percentage and finished the week without a score on the man advantage. The team still has more short-handed goals against (seven) than power-play goals for (six).
Felhaber and Keating remain among the league leaders in points. Felhaber leads the OHL with 15 goals and is second in points with 24, while Keating is tied for fourth in points.
The 67’s will return home next weekend to take on the London Knights (Friday) and Sudbury Wolves (Sunday) at TD Place.