Ottawa 2 – London 5

This will be a pretty fast summary - it's been crazy busy at work all week and I'm pretty pooped. But never too tired to take in a couple of hockey games!

Game three on the road for London. They started with a 2 – 0 win over the Belleville Bulls on Wednesday followed by a feisty game in Peterborough last night where they won 4 – 2. Both coaches earned a two-game time-out for their teams’ antics. Here’s a link to an announcement on the CHL site (but nothing on the OHL site) http://www.chl.ca/OHLNews0506/0303.html

Well, what’s to say about London that hasn’t already been said. A powerhouse of a team that seems to be on an upward trend to another spectacular year. Some stats to consider going into tonight’s game:

The top three scorers in the OHL play for London: Rob Schremp with 131 points; David Bolland with 113 points and Dylan Hunter with 106 points.

Number 1 goalie Adam Dennis has seen the most rubber in the league and has the 4th best goals against average. He did not start tonight.

Best PP in the league.

4th best overall PK in the league

P10: 8-1-1-0 and currently on an 8 game winning streak.

Ranked 6th in Canada by the CHL (up from 8th last week).

The numbers tell a powerful story.

First Period: London took the first penalty of the game 22 seconds into the period. Ottawa quickly responded with a good scoring chance and a whole lotta banging away at the puck in front of the goalie. The puck went in but the play had already been whistled dead. Very good start but Ottawa was unable to inflict early first pain on the Knights. Adam Perry left the ice for what appeared to be equipment repairs. I didn’t notice if and when he came back. Then at about the halfway mark there was a strange kafuffle in the Ottawa end. London’s Sergei Kostitsyn was called for high sticking and then Joslin was mixing it up with someone. Then the end gate appeared to open and it looked to me like Perry was trying to get back on the ice. I’m not sure what happened but someone came in and the next thing Adam Perry and Elgin were both off for roughing.

The period ended 0 - 0 (for the good guys) with SOG 11 – 15 in London’s favour.

Second Period: Brodie Beard was tagged early in the second for interference. It was a questionable call but it was already Brodie’s third penalty of the night. Ottawa was doing a pretty good job of killing the penalty but just could not hang on. Just as the penalty was ending, Robbie Schremp scored his 50th goal of the season with assists from Dylan Hunter and the aforementioned Sergei Kostitsyn. London made it 2 – 0 at 12:15 into the game when Kris Belan got one past Danny with help from former 67s David Halasz and Jamie VanderVeeken. Danny made a number of really nice saves but couldn’t get them all.

The period ended 2 – 0 for London with SOG 20 – 33 for London.

Third Period: Ottawa got back into the game early with a nice goal by Jamie McGinn from a pass from Logan Couture at just 1:41 into the frame. The Crazy-8s were back at it! The euphoria didn’t last too long. Matt Lahey was off for an interference infraction when the London PP machine made good on its stats. Robbie Schremp scored his second goal of the night with help from Adam Perry (brother of Cory). Then London made it 4 – 1 when Jordan Foreman fired one over Danny’s shoulder. Chris Hulit responded with a good effort when he picked up the puck at his blue line, took it into the London zone and beat Steve Mason with a fast wrist shot. Julian Talbot got an assist on the play. But that would be it for Ottawa. London sealed it with their third PP goal at 15:49 when Bolland combined with Schremp and Hunter for the 5th London goal of the night.

Final score: 5 – 2 with shots on goal 28 – 48 – both numbers in London’s favour.

Thoughts: Well, I really didn’t expect the 67s to win tonight so the loss isn’t all that disappointing. I thought the boys played a pretty good first period and Danny played really well all game. He certainly had to work harder than London’s backup goalie. It seemed to me that many of the London shots were real scoring chances. At least two of the goals against Danny bounced in off the cross bar.

For some reason in the second and third periods Ottawa seemed to lose their confidence or get over anxious. They just seemed out of synch with each other. However, we were at the Scotia Bank Centre for the game last night and I can say with confidence that the 67s played much better against London than the Caps did against the Sens. Now that was brutal!

London went 3/7 on the PP while Ottawa went 0/8. If memory serves me, they also took a beating in Brampton on the PK. Looks like some work might be in order for the specialty teams.

But all in all, not the best we’ve seen from this team but certainly not the worst. Let’s hope they’re saving their best for the Petes on Sunday!

Three Stars of the Game:
A London sweep:
First Star: Robbie Schremp (2 goals and an assist)
Second Star: Trevor Kell
Third Star: David Bolland (goal and an assist)

Hardest Working 67: didn’t catch it.

Cheers!