Ottawa Overpowers a Weak Attack: 7 - 3

A solid win by the 67s today. They dominated play for most of the game, especially the third period, but found it hard to hold the lead for the first half of the game. Tyler Beskorowany, the Dallas Stars second round pick, made some big saves to keep his team in the game in the early going. It looked like another game where they might outplay the visitors but not get the win.

Forward Combos:
Cowick, Couture, Nesbitt
Martindale, Latta, Toffoli
Blunden, Kiriakou, Carnevale
Sonnenburg, Lindsay, Schinkelshoek

D-Paris:
Paryzek, Cuma
Hartwick, Ryan
Birkhoff, Zanetti

Goal: Perugini

Scratches: Demers (late scratch - lower body injury), Zamec (groin), Anderson, Hanes

Right from the first face-off, Ottawa served notice that they were going to get shots on the 6'5" Attack goalie with Thomas Nesbitt forcing the first save just 10 seconds into the game. And that was just the first of the 47 that Beskorowany would see in the game - many of them good scoring chances.

Owen Sound had some good control early in the game but the defensive play of the 67s kept them harmless. After 8 minutes of play, the shots on goal were 4 - 3 for Ottawa.

Then, just over the halfway mark, Thomas Kiriakou scored his 9th of the season on a scramble in the goal crease. Beskorowany thought he had the puck in his pads but it had squeaked out behind him and lay just in front of the goal line. Thomas-on-the-spot Kiriakou reached in and knocked it across for the first goal of the game. Corey Cowick got the lone assist.

That's Kiriakou's stick reaching in ...

But the lead didn't last long, a minute 10 to be exact when Owen Sound overager Andrew Wilkins intercepted a Zanetti pass and scored a short-handed goal to tie the game up. That was the 6th short-handed goal (I think) that Ottawa has given up already this year. Joey Hishon got the assist. I believe that Ottawa leads the league in giving up SHGs.

But this didn't turn the momentum. Ottawa was on the penalty kill late in the period and limited the Attack to only three shots despite not clearing the puck too often and Cuma playing with Nesbitt's stick, having broken his, for most of the kill.

At the end of the first, the game was tied with SOGs 16 - 8 for Ottawa.

Owen Sound found their second wind in the middle part of the second period, tying the game up once again after Logan Couture and Tyler Cuma teamed up on a great goal to put Ottawa ahead early on Ottawa's first power play goal of the game. Thomas-on-the-spot Kiriakou put the 67s ahead for good with ANOTHER goal from a goal mouth scramble. Stephen Blunde and Martin Paryzek assisted on Ottawa's second power play goal of the game.

Another goal in the scrum.

And then came the third period. I'm not sure whether Ottawa was just that dominant or the legs just collapsed under the Attack. It was Ottawa on the Attack for pretty much 20 minutes. Each of the 4 lines put a goal on the board, a power play goal from Corey Cowick (Latta and Toffoli), even strength goals from Tyler Toffoli and Riley Sonnenburg (Martindale, Latta and Lindsay, Zanetti respectively) and a short-handed goal by Corey Cowick(Couture) with just 5 seconds left in the game.

Owen Sound's Myles Doan scored his first OHL goal in the Attack's big loss.

So the game ended 7 - 3 for Ottawa with shots on goal 47 - 24 for Ottawa.

Random Thoughts:

• First, for you Minnesota Wild fans who were concerned about Tyler after the ambush on Friday. He dressed and had a good game. He was kept out of the third period on Friday simply as a precautionary measure.
  
• The TML line as reunited with Latta returning from his injury and they didn't miss a beat. They have awesome chemistry and as usual, they created chances and played well defensively. They were such fun to watch - especially in the third period.
  
• The 67s gave up a few odd-man rushes but Perugini was successful as the last defenseman.
  
• Talk about spreading the scoring around: 12 different players earned points in the game; 6 players had two points.
  
• No power play goals allowed and three scored on the opposition. Specialty teams are clicking again.
  
• Getting goals from working hard for the good scoring areas.
  
• The fourth line worked hard with the minutes they got.
  
• Today was the first time using a new camera. Lost a lot of would-have-been good pictures (include Riley Sonnenburg's goal, Latta's fight) if I was more familiar with the gear. It's like getting a new car - it takes a while to figure out what buttons do what.

Three Stars as selected by Team1200

Hardest Working 67s as selected by Team1200: Logan Couture





Ottawa is on the road next weekend playing Windsor on Thursday. They remain the number 1 ranked team in Canada. They meet the Saginaw Spirit on Friday (4th in the Western Conference) and then Plymouth on Saturday (10th in the Western Conference).