ROUND 1 GAME 2 – Ottawa at Barrie (26-Mar) – Barrie Wins, Series Tied 1-1

67s lose 4-1 to the Colts. It was all Barrie right from the start. They obviously wanted this one more, and LaCosta had something to prove. The 67s didn’t have the same energy, drive, they weren’t first to the puck, or shooting on net. They took stupid penalties. They left Danny alone again, and he tried to keep them in the game as usual. Killer resorted to benching his forwards - in the playoffs! Benching. You know things are going badly . . . And then this is always a hint too: you have a 2-man advantage for ~2 minutes and can’t do anything with it, especially in the playoffs. But, this has been their MO all season – the inconsistency has been the way they’ve played the last couple of weeks of the regular season: winning everything, playing strong every game. Let’s hope that being back on home ice will rejuvenate them. See OHL game summary here.

IN THE NEWS
From the Ottawa Sun Barre Campbell writes, 67's lay untimely egg. From the Ottawa Citizen Andy Watson writes, Colts square series with 67's. this quote by Killer says it all I guess:

"This is probably the most upset I've been the entire year, and I've seen a lot of losses."

From SLAM! Sports, Colts defeat 67's.

PRE-GAME NOTES
The game was broadcast on radio (TEAM 1200/Dave Schreiber and AJ Jakubec) and television (Rogers Television Barrie/ John Bartlett and Greg Hotham).

*LaCosta will get the start tonight for Barrie, and it’s his 19th birthday.

PRE-GAME INTERVIEW WITH TALBOT (TEAM 1200/AJ):
We still want to come out hard and get game two. Do the same thing as last game.

(On the win) It was huge for us. We wanted to come out hard and take it to them and hopefully it put them back on their heels for game two.

(On his great game) I just wanted to keep it simple in game one. I had a couple of lucky chances to get around their D.

(On game two) There is definitely some key guys for their face-offs. We want to get as many draws as we can. We want to get as many pucks to the net and shooting from everywhere.

LINE UP
*Forwards: McGinn, Talbot, Hulit; Akeson, Bonello, Mancari; Bickell, Petruzalek, Kaspar; Lawrance, Ouellette, VanderVeeken.
*Defensive pairings: Colbert, Joslin; Staubitz, Reid; Van Herpt, Beard.
*Starting in net: Battochio. Guadagnolo on the bench.
*Scratches: Spezza (healthy), Jarram (healthy), Lawrance (healthy), Kiriakou (healthy), and Lahey (concussion).

SCORING
OTTAWA
1, Talbot, (3) (McGinn, Hulit), 14:10

BARRIE
1, Little, (2) (Tremblay, Speer), 10:02
1, Tremblay, (1) (Hisey, Hotham), 17:14 (PP)
3, Fuller, (3) (Hisey, Marshall), 02:30
3, Crombeen, (1) , 19:36 (EN)

THREE STARS
OHL three stars were: (1) Tremblay, (2) Little, and (3) LaCosta.

REFFING
O’Neill.

ATTENDANCE
4287. A sell-out.

NEXT UP
Back to Ottawa for game 3 – Wednesday night (3.30).