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January 29, 2008

Update on the Mark Mancari Update


Mark Marncari breaks "Hardest Shot" record at AHL All-Star Skills Competition

Binghamton, N.Y. - Canadian forward Mark Mancari of the Rochester Americans shattered the American Hockey League record in the "Hardest Shot" event Sunday at the AHL All-Star Skills Competition.

The London, Ont., native - added as a replacement for Clarke MacArthur, who is on recall with the Buffalo Sabres - received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd with a blistering shot that registered 102.8 miles per hour on the radar gun.
"I had no idea I could get one that hard," Mancari said. "I'm in shock right now. I'm pretty excited." Mancari's stick is on its way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Rest of the Hockey News article.

A write up from an Amerks fan site.

Wayda go Mark!! Woo Hoo!

Summary of the All Star Game.

January 27, 2008

Fading Fast: Kingston 5 - Ottawa 3

This was the 6th game of 8 scheduled meetings of these teams this year. Ottawa has won 4 of the 5 previous matches.

About Kingston:Kingston was in 9th place in the Eastern Conference coming into this game with a record of 12-30-0-1 for 25 points, GF 125, GA 217. Their P10 is 2-8-0-0 and they were on a 3-game losing streak. Kingston lost last night at home against Niagara 6 – 3. Last weekend, a depleted Ottawa team pulled off a gutsy come-from-behind win in Kingston

Big guns: Nathan Moon with 39 points (17 goals), Matthew Kang with 37 points (19 goals) and Robert Mignardi, Big Justin Wallingford (as Schreibs always calls him), and Josh Britain all with 27 points (11, 4, and 15 goals respectively). Big Justin Wallingford also has the honour of having the most PIMs on the team with 82 in 36 games).

Player notes: This was Kevin Christmas’ first game back after a 2 game suspension. Anthony Peters (broken leg), Bobby Nyholm (arm), Kevin Mole (wrist), John Murray, Corbin Crawford and Robert Mignardi were all out of Kingston’s lineup. Mavric Parks was between the pipes.

About Ottawa:Ottawa lost some ground with last night’s loss to Windsor and slipped into 6th place with 22-21-2-2, GF of 149 and GA of 172. Mississauga gets the 5th spot by virtue of posting one more win than the 67s (both teams have 49 points). The team now has a 4-game losing streak after their loss last night.

Big guns: Not much has changed since I last reported on this (the Windsor game the night before); Logan Couture is still the team’s top scorer with 45 points (17 goals), Jamie McGinn has 43 points 20 goals) after last night’s two assists, and Thomas Kiriakou notched his 12th goal of the season bringing him to 31 points (12 goals).

Player notes: Matt MacDougall was called up. Couture (concussion), Lahey (shoulder), Latta (mono) and Jason Bailey (broken nose and orbital bone) were out. Adam Courchaine got the call in nets.

Game Summary

My heart’s not really into writing much of a game summary for this one. It started promising enough when Jamie McGinn scored just 52 seconds into the game.Thomas Kiriakou got the assist.




And it was quickly followed up by a solid penalty kill that didn’t allow any shots to get through to Courchaine. In fact, it took Kingston almost 5 minutes to register their first scoring chance.

However, Ottawa was unable to do anything with their PP chances, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:50 in the first period.

Cross-check on McGinn that lead to the 5-on-3.


Watching the game pretty much through the viewfinder of my camera limits how much I actually see so it’s hard to tell whether Parks was that good or Ottawa was not so good. In the last two minutes of the period, the Kingston big guns Matthew Kang, Josh Brittain and Andris Dzerins tied it up on a power play.

The second period started strong again with Ottawa getting two quick early goals to go up by two (the worst lead in hockey according to some). First it was Jon Carnevale and Matthieu Methot teaming up to break the tie and then just over a minute later, Thomas Kiriakou, Jamie McGinn and Julien Demers joining for a really nice short handed goal.

But they could not keep Kingston penned (penned – Kingston Pen – get it….never mind). Julien Demers fell down at the Kingston blue line during a PP and Kyle Paige jumped on the puck for a break away. As he was streaking down the ice I kept thinking “it’s just a shoot out, it’s just a shoot out” hoping that Adam would stop it like a shoot out shot. Nope. 5-hole. Kingston back in the game. Kingston with momentum. Ottawa losing some air.

Kingston then got two more unanswered goals in the second to get the lead, one from Andris Dzerins (Kang and Fenwick helping) and one from Josh Brittain (Christmas and Dzerins).

Ottawa was unable to generate any real offense in the third and the game was sealed with the empty net goal in the last second of the game.


So the final damage was a come-from-behind win by Kingston: 5 – 3 with final shots tied at 32

Three stars

1st Star: Andris Dzerins

2nd Star: Thomas Kiriakou

3rd Star: Matthew Kang

Team 1200 hardest working 67s: Jon Carnevale

Random Thoughts:
  • Is it just my old eyes or does our team always look smaller on the ice that most other teams we meet? Maybe the uniforms make them look smaller.
  • Jamie McGinn was benched for the last bit of the third period. It was clear from his post-game interview that the team is frustrated and unhappy with the 5-game losing streak. Going from 5 games over .500 to .500 is more than disappointing. They’re fading while their competition in the conference is building momentum.
  • They can’t ride the injury excuse anymore. Yes key guys are out and most players have been battling one thing or another but they now have to commit to working with what they have instead of fretting about what they don’t have. That doesn’t mean I expect them to win necessarily. Just play more solidly. For the whole game.
  • Maybe their only objective for the next game should be to keep all shots on the goalie to a minimum and to the outside. Forget about scoring goals, just don’t let any get scored on them. Wonder if we can create some sort of incentive around that….hmmm…perhaps some sort of reward system based on the SOG count: free game stations of choice to every player if the total SOG at the end of the game is 10 or less; software for 2 games if the final SOG is 11 – 20; nothing if the count is between 21 and 30; permanently burn Anne Murray music into their i-pods for anything else.
  • during the broadcast Schreibs mentioned that this game and the game on Friday were supposed to have two refs but for each game one ref couldn’t make it (the excuse for the guy on Friday was that his wife went into labour – we’ll accept that).
  • Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli was in the house taking a look at Adam Courchaine who was signed last summer.
  • Had a seat down by the glass today and was close up and personal for some of those hits. I kept my notes on the dasherboard and they were knocked off a few times from the force of the hit on the other side



Go 67s Go!

Bad hit

Good hit

Another hit

Save on Methot

Unhappy Campers

January 26, 2008

Spitfires Strafe Perugini…

…ground-to-air defense missing in action. It was a bloody affair. Many casualties.

This was the first of 2 scheduled meetings of these teams this year. The next game goes next weekend in Windsor.

About Windsor: Coming into the game, Windsor sat in 3rd place in the Western Conference with 59 points with a record of 25-12-5-4, GF 188 and GA 141. Their P10 is 3-5-1-1. Their game last Sunday was a resounding 10-2 win over the Plymouth Whalers.

Big guns: Bradley Snetsinger with 65 points (28 goals), Joshua Bailey with 62 points (20 goals) and rookie Taylor Hall with 44 points (23 goals). These three also have impressive +/- numbers at +14, +13 and +25 respectively. Joshua Bailey was the OHL Player of the Week for the week ending Sunday January 20 after scoring five goals and adding three assists for eight points in three games and has been added to the OHL All-Star game to replace injured Matt Halischuk. Certainly a trio that need to be watched.

Player notes: Jordan Nolan and Conor O'Donnell were serving suspensions of 2 and 8 games respectively and whining former co-captain Elgin Reid was out with an injury. Also missing the game were James Woodcroft and Tom Kane. Jakub Kovar got the start in nets.

About Ottawa:Ottawa came into the game still hanging on to 5th place in the conference on a record of 22-20-2-2, P10 of 3-6-1-0, GF of 147 and GA of 165. The team was riding a 3-game losing streak after a really tough 3-in-3 road trip with many key players out of the game. They managed a come-from-behind win in Kingston on Friday and then went to two shut out losses: 2-0 to Mississauga and 4-0 in Niagara. They also lost last night in Peterborough 4 – 2. Only 7 points separate 4th and 8th place in the conference.

Big guns: Despite missing 12 games, Logan Couture remains the team’s top scorer with 45 points (17 goals). Jamie McGinn is the team’s second highest scorer with 41 points (20 goals) in 36 games (having missed 10) and moving into third place is Thomas Kiriakou with 30 points (11 goals).

Player notes: Apparently Logan has been headache-free since last Wednesday and has been skating with the team but it looks like he won’t be back in the line-up much before the end of February. Jamie McGinn played on Saturday but didn’t play the rest of the road trip but was back in the line-up last night in Peterborough. Looks like he’s in for good now (knock on wood). Michael Latta is skating again and might be ready for action next weekend but it looks like Matt Lahey’s season is done. Jason Bailey tweaked his groin last weekend, was back in the line-up last night but was a late scratch for this game. So, slowly but surely the team is recovering from injuries and bugs. Chris Perugini was in nets.

Ottawa Lines
JMcGinn, Kiriakou, Zamec
Valiquette, Methot, Nesbitt
Cowie, Lindsay, Carnevale
TMcGinn, Martindale, cameo

Defensive pairings:
Paryzek/Cuma
McCullough/Ostrcil
Demers/Ryan

Game Summary

Gonna be a brief one out of mercy and due to lack of time.

I thought the game started ominously enough when, just two minutes into it, Rob Kwiet Windsor rung a shot off the iron. But when the team played very penalty kill, including a great short-handed scoring chance by Jamie McGinn, I thought that it might not be so bad. Windsor did not get any shots through to Perugini with the man advantage.

Big save on McGinn - check the right armpit area of the goalie.

For reasons unknown to this blogger, at about the halfway mark of the period, Julien Demers and Windsor leading bad-boy Richard Greenop dropped the gloves. The stupid official got in the way so I couldn’t get any really good shots of the tilt. But if we compare the numbers according to the official rosters, Greenop has two inches and 5 pounds on Demers. Both players managed a couple of good shots, Julien shirted Greenop and got a couple of good ones in before both players hit the ice. We’re homers – we’re calling it for Demers just because. Both earned 5-for-fighting for their efforts.

This didn’t manage to inspire the 67s as the wheels pretty much started falling off in the back half of the period. Windsor’s hard work and strong forecheck kept Ottawa pretty much pinned in their own zone for the period and put three on the scoreboard in the process. Chris Perugini made some solid saves on the big line but it wasn’t enough. It started with Ryan Ellis beating Chris Perugini blocker side to get the first goal of the game. Greg Nemisz and Mickey Renaud got the assists. This was followed 90 seconds later with a turnover at the blueline that led to Taylor Hall beating Perugini 5-hole. The assist went to Rob Kwiet. The final insult happened with just 58 seconds left in the period when Brett Snetsinger redirected a Rob Kwiet’s point shot to score his 29th of the year.

The first period ended with the score 0 – 3 for Windsor with shots on goal 7 – 17 for Windsor.

The beginning of the second period started with some promise when Matthieu Methot opened the scoring just 1:25 into the game when the puck just seemed to squirt under the goalie. Jamie McGinn and Thomas Nesbitt assisted and Ottawa was back in the game. Which lasted all of 45 seconds when Eric Wellwood (brother of Kyle Wellwood which was repeated so often by Schreibs I began to think it was his name: Eric-Wellwood-Brother- of-Kyle Wellwood) scored his 7th goal of the year with the help of Greg Nemisz and Mickey Renaud.

Then, to put emphasis on it, Hall, Snetsinger and Kwiet teamed up for Windsor’s 5th goal of the night and restored the 3-goal lead.

Thomas Kiriakou got one back 3 minutes later with a backhand shot that beat Kovar. Jamie McGinn and Thomas Nesbitt got the assists on that one too.

But Ottawa was unable to get much more going. Right after the Kiriakou goal Ottawa went back on the PP but were unable to breach the blue line much less get anything remotely threatening close to Kovar. While they managed a bit more of time in the Windsor zone, they couldn’t make anything of it.

And that was the scoring for the second period. Despite keeping Windsor to 8 shots on net, they were up 5 – 2 after 40 minutes. I was surprised that Perugini was still in the net.

They started the third period with 53 seconds on the penalty kill. During the PK, Tyler Cuma took a nasty hit from Josh Bailey behind his own net and went down hard. Patafie went out to deal with it and Cuma skated to the bench with a towel held to his face but I was unable to see what the damage might have been. Meanwhile, Martin Paryzek immediately sprung to Cuma’s defense (who knew he was so scrappy?) and tangled with Josh. I couldn’t see any of it but will give it to Martin as this is not part of the game in Europe. The down side is that he managed to get himself relegated to the sin-bin for pretty much all of the period as he earned 2-5-and-10 for his loyalty. Josh didn’t get anything for the hit that drew blood on Cuma; he got 5-for-fighting Paryzek.

The game was starting to get a tad out of control due to the remarkably awful refereeing by Scott Ferguson. It was a one-ref night and our guy was pretty junior to be on his own; this is only his second season. For example, Jon Carnevale rocked Ryan Ellis with a huge open-ice hit. It may have been a tad late. Ellis was seriously wobbly from the hit (Patafie came out and assisted the Windsor trainer in helping Ellis to the bench on very rubbery legs). Rob Kwiet immediately tackled Carnevale before Jon could set up to defend himself and somehow the ref determined that, in addition to the 5:00M charging penalty, Jon should be nailed with 5-for-fighting. 5-for-fighting? Shouldn’t he have had a chance to actually fight to get hit with that? Just an example of a looong list of baaad refereeing. I expect that the league will have a long chat with this rookie ref once they review the tapes.

Ottawa played the last half of the third period pretty much on the PK and Windsor took advantage to notch two PP goals: one from Mickey Renaud and the other from Brad Snetsinger.

The game finished with Windsor winning handily 7 – 2 and shots 27 – 40 for the Spits.

Three stars


1st Star: Taylor Hall

2nd Star: Rob Kwiet

no show

3rd Star: Jamie McGinn

Team 1200 hardest working 67s: Thomas Nesbitt

Random Thoughts:

  • belated happy birthdays to Radim Ostrcil (January 15th), Tyler Cuma (January 19th) Thomas Kiriakou (January 24th)
  • give aways, turn-overs, and passes to no-where. The 67s were just plain discombobulated. They couldn’t skate or compete with this strong Windsor team.
  • That notwithstanding, the refereeing was particularly brutal tonight. I thought that Schreibs was going to stroke out with indignation. Apparently this is the ref’s second season and I have to agree with The Voice in that he is way too green to be working on his own. Not that the outcome would have been different but it sure was awful. I don’t think this guy’s is aware of the “new” era of hockey
  • the defensive play of everyone on the 67s was pretty much indifferent. Not sure if they have forgotten what it means or don’t care. I think a refresher session with the goalies would be in order. In visiting the Austrian ancestral home with my dad, we were wandering the property while he explained the various stones that marked the border with the neighboring properties. He said that it was tradition to whack the heir over the head at each stone to reinforce the memory of just which stone marked the boundary (guess they didn’t know much about concussions back then). Fortunately my dad did not whack me over the head (we now have reliable maps) but I think the technique might have some merit to less attentive folks or lower tech situations. Perhaps the goalies should be allowed to assist in the refresher sessions for the rest of the team aided by their goalie sticks.
  • I kept expecting someone, anyone, from the 67s to get seriously PO’d and start playing on the edge. What is it with Ottawa teams anyway? You certainly wouldn’t accuse either of them of being remotely close to what one would call “tough”. Nice guys finish last guys.
  • I have to admit that that I was unable to overcome the uninspired play of the team which is why I really don’t have any really great pictures. Sorry.
  • thought it was a bit unsportsmanlike for Windsor to keep their big guns on the ice so late in the third period when it was clear where this game was going.



Go 67s Go!

If he actually paid attention, he would not have been so bored!!

Trying to explain how Carnevale got 5-minutes for being tackled

January 15, 2008

Where Are They Now: Mark Mancari

Thought I would do follow-ups on some of the guys that have graduated in the time that I have become a 67s fan. I’ll start with Mark Mancari. He was one of my favorites when he played with the team. I still miss seeing him break out from behind his own net and streak up ice with the puck. So, what’s up with him since he left the fold?

Well he was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the 7th round, 207th overall in the 2004 Entry Draft and he was signed in 2005. He has been playing with the Rochester Americans in the AHL pretty much since then with a few call-ups to the big game, including a game against the Ottawa Senators (even saw him take a couple of shifts). His numbers for this year can be found here.


Last year I had noticed that he had not dressed for a few games and went on the fan board to find out what was up. Seems he blew out one of his knees and had surgery. He still finished third in scoring for his team.

The Amerks aren’t doing so well this year as they find themselves at the bottom of their division and second from the bottom in the league with just 28 points in 42 games. Last year was the first time in a long time that they had missed the playoffs entirely. Not what Mark had aspired to I expect.

The uncertain future association between the Buffalo Sabres and the Rochester Americans can't help. The Amerks are the farm team of both the Sabres and the Panthers right now and but it looks like the Buffalo Sabres are pulling out. Don’t know what will happen with the Buffalo players. And really not sure how this would affect Mark in particular as he will become an RFA this summer.

Some fan information on him: http://www.sabresfans.com/player.asp?ID=118 and http://letsgoamerks.com/2008/01/06/mark_mancari/#more-253

I hope that Mark gets the big break he was hoping for.

Side note: in checking out the Amerks roster I noticed that Joe Grimaldi was there on a PTO for two games in October.

If anyone out there wants to do an update of a former 67s player, just write it up and send it to us to post. One of the great things about junior hockey is seeing these young men grow up. It's always interesting to find out where life took them after their stay in Ottawa.

Cheers!

Interview with the Coach

As they do every week on Monday morning, the hosts from Over the Edge start their program with Brian Kilrea to discuss the weekend that was:

  • discussing the game on Thursday, he said that this is a funny game where the a team can be in it with a score of 5 – 3 and a couple of bad breakdowns leading to a couple of goals and soon the team feels like it’s over
  • he said that the team played really well on Friday and Sunday. he seemed pleased with the effort
  • in discussing new kid Brett Valiquette, Brian mentioned that he had made his needs known in discussions with coaches and the Plymouth coach said that he has someone if one of his other deals worked out. Brian then checked with some other coaches in the western conference who had had more of a chance to see him and the reference checks indicated that Brett’s a good, honest, hard working player. Once the trade was made, Brett drove 8 ½ hours to get here so that he could play in Friday’s game. Brian believes he has helped the roster immensely, he has been strong on the PK and does a lot of the little things well. With the depleted roster, he’s good to have.
  • on the subject of the depleted roster, it is tough on the guys who remain and he is concerned that some guys are getting too much time and that that can lead to injuries
  • on the subject of his OAs, they have stepped up and are keeping the team together; leading both in the room and on the ice to keep moving forward and not looking back
  • Jason Bailey is logging over 30 minutes and still had the jump to get to the puck quickly and notch the game sealer on Sunday
  • goal tenders are the last line of defense and when they go through a rough time (as all players do) it’s more visible. Adam was extremely sharp both Friday and Sunday.
  • long road trip coming up: 3 games in less than 3 days but that’s how it goes when you want to keep school disruptions to a minimum. Everyone gets somewhat used to it. Conditioning and depth are keys to survival. (As a side note: at the Sens game on Sunday, the Gatineau Olympique team was sitting in the corporate box right behind our seats. They were there because Claude Giroux was doing the ceremonial puck drop. We chatted with one of the players and he mentioned that there is one road trip that has them on the road for two weeks!!)
  • in discussing the new Kingston arena Killer said he was confident that it’ll open soon and he said that Mavety has made some really good moves and that Kingston should be a more competitive club next year.

January 13, 2008

No Luck for the Majors: Ottawa 5 – Mississauga 3

This was the second of 4 scheduled meetings of these teams this year. Ottawa won the first game 5 - 0 on a very snowy Sunday afternoon here in Ottawa on December 16th.

About Mississauga:Coming into the game, Missy was in 6th place in the conference with 41 points on a record of 20-20-1-0, P10 of 3-7-0-0, GF of 120 and GA of 147. With their loss in Belleville last night, Mississauga came in on a 2-game losing streak. The 3-1 loss to Belleville included an EN. They are the 11th most penalized team in the league with 806 PIMs (not sure that includes the 7 penalties from last night’s game).

Big guns: Kaspers Daugavins with 46 points (23 goals) (also the best +/- with +14), Casey Cizikas with 30 points (13 goals) and Jessie Messier with 29 points (14 goals). Zac Rinaldo is their leading bad boy with 122 PIMs.

Player notes: During the lead-up to the trade deadline, Missy acquired Blake Parlett from Windsor and rookie Jordan Mayer from the Soo (apparently this guy didn’t want to play in the Soo so far from home. Carrozzi got the start in nets.

About Ottawa:Ottawa comes to the game in 5th place in the conference on a record of 20-17-2-2, P10 of 5-4-1-0, GF of 120 and GA of 147. Ottawa is the 16th most penalized team in the league with 702 PIMs.

Big guns: Logan Couture with 45 points (17 goals), Jamie McGinn with 40 points (20 goals) and Tyler Cuma with 27 points (4 goals). It should be noted that both Logan and Jamie have missed 7 of the 41 games played this year. Closing in on the top three are Matthieu Methot and Thomas Kiriakou both with 26 points. Logan, Jamie and Tyler also have the best +/- numbers on the team.

Player notes: Ottawa was still without some key players: Jamie McGinn (back), Matt Lahey (shoulder), Logan Couture (concussion), Michael Latta (mono) and Jon Carnevale (concussion-like symptoms). Julien Demers has the most PIMs for Ottawa with 60, followed closely by Jason Bailey with 59 minutes in just 24 games. Adam Courchaine was back in net again.

Ottawa Lines
Zamec, Kiriakou, Bailey
Valiquette, Cowie, Nesbitt
Methot,Lindsay, TMcGinn/Martindale

Defensive pairings:
Paryzek/Cuma
McCullough/Ostrcil
Ryan/Demers

Game Summary - Sorry for the late update – was busy yesterday – this will be real quick.

The game started with St. Mike’s keeping Ottawa in their own end for quite a while but Adam Courchaine was able to keep the Majors off the scoreboard with some early big saves. After successfully killing its first penalty of the game, and on Ottawa’s second shot on goal, Matthieu Methot picked up Scott Cowie’s pass and beat Carrozzi down low glove side for his 12th goal of the year and first for the game. Before this, St. Mike’s had out-shot Ottawa 8 – 1.




With St. Mikes’ Tim Billingsley in the penalty box for slashing, Ottawa went up by two. The 67s were having a tough time getting organized and it looked like St. Mikes were on their way to killing their third penalty of the game when Jason Bailey banged in a rebound from Martin Paryzek’s shot from the point.

Then it was Ottawa’s turn for the PK when McCullough was called for hooking with just over 2 minutes left in the period. Not only did the 67s do a dandy job of killing the penalty, Matthieu Methot scored a beautiful short-handed goal with the backhand near the end of the penalty and with just 20 seconds left in the period. Thomas Kiriakou and Julien Demers got the assists. So by now Ottawa had scored a 5-on-5 goal, a PP goal and a short-handed goal. Stay tuned – they just might have run the table by the time the game ended.



The 67s started the second period with jump as well with Thomas Kiriakou breaking in on Carrozzi for a great scoring chance to put Ottawa up by 4….but Carrozzi stoned him! After some non-descript playing by both teams, Cody Lindsay cut through the middle and got a shot off and then it was Matthieu Methot following up with a shot off the rebound for his hat trick. And that was it for Chris Carrozzi; he got the hook for Anthony Greico.

It looked like Ottawa might be on another rout like the last time St. Mikes was here but after successfully defending a long string of penalties (almost 6 minutes?) that included a couple of 5-on-3s, St. Mike’s got some new life. I didn’t keep track of the shots but is seemed to me that Ottawa didn’t get too many shots through – if any. I have no idea what started it but Thomas Nesbitt and Zac Rinaldo went at it right off the face off and traded punches in front of the Mississauga bench. I’ll give the call to Nesbitt as he got the take down. Re-energized from the great PK, and perhaps the scrap, Matt Piva spoiled the shut out when he beat Courchaine 5-hole. Senators prospect Kaspers Daugavins and Justin Larson got the assist.

As I watched the start of the third period, I though to myself, these guys have backed off. They certainly did not start with the same intensity that we saw in the first two periods. Mississauga on the other hand was still energized from the second half of the second period and they took the game to Ottawa. Under the pressure, Ottawa started taking penalties. With Radim Ostrcil off for high sticking, it took only 11 seconds for Kaspars Daugavins to get Mississauga within two with under10 minutes left in the game. Tim Billingsley and Matt Piva got the assists.

Then, with Ottawa serving yet another penalty for a questionable delay of game call against Courchaine (for allegedly playing the puck behind the goal line and outside the trapezoid), it was Tim Billingsley getting the Majors within one with just under 4 minutes left in the game. Casey Cizikas and Kaspars Daugavins assisted.

Now we had a game! I was some nervous. I think Patafie was too!

I didn’t catch the exact time but at some point the Majors got control of the puck in the Ottawa zone and Greico came out for the extra attacker. The puck jumped over the stick of Kaspars Daugavins and Jason Bailey won the race to pick up the puck and dump it into the empty net to seal the deal.

The game ended 5 – 3 with final shots 35 – 41 in Mississauga’s favour.

Three stars


1st Star: Matthieu Methot


2nd Star: Adam Courchaine


3rd Star: Tim Billingsley

Team 1200 hardest working 67s: Jason Bailey

Random Thoughts:


  • Cody Lindsay may have lost up to 3 teeth from the high stick on Friday. That’s gotta hurt!
  • Adam had a pretty good game with some really big saves.
  • What happened to the team in the 3rd period? They played so well in the first half of the game but then just about blew it. Give St. Mike’s credit for working hard right to the end.
  • There was only one hat thrown on the ice for Methot’s hat trick (mine). What’s up with that folks??! Have ye lost ALL faith?
  • Clearly there is no standard for refereeing. This game was called entirely differently than Friday night’s game.
  • After the final buzzer, Parlette tripped up Nesbitt. Bailey wanted a quiet word and Killer was screaming at him to get back to the bench. And then he screamed at the team for all of them to get back to the bench to allow the Majors to leave the ice. Bailey was not easily convinced and still managed to say a few words to one of the Majors players as they left. That’s all we needed at this point – a huge, multi-player, multi-games-suspension-causing ruckus.
  • Managed to catch 5 hockey games in 4 days (3 Sens games and 2 67s games). The spousal unit was not too keen. I consider it training for the WJHC next year. May have to get another hockey buddy to fill in for some of the games next year.


Road trip for the 67s next weekend as they take on Kingston, Mississauga and Niagara. Could be a rough weekend. Keep your heads up and play hard!

Go 67s Go!

One of Courchaine's saves.

One of Jason Bailey's drives for the net.



Celebrating the win.


Clearing in front of the net.


Clearing in front of the net.


One seriously unhappy Missy Coach.

January 11, 2008

A Solid Effort….But Not Enough: Ottawa 3 – Oshawa 4 in OT

This was the back end of a home and home series with these two teams and the 5th time they met this season. So far the series was tied with 2 wins each but Ottawa was coming of a terrible game the previous night where they had lost 10 – 4 in Oshawa.

About Oshawa: Well, they were running on a very full tank for this game. John Tavares was fresh off his gold medal winning Team Canada stint in the Czech Republic and the team had three new players on board with recent trades, including Michal Neuvirth who was the goalie for the Czech national team in the WJHC.

Numbers coming into the game: 3rd place in the conference but only 1 point back of Belleville that held 1st place (Brampton hangs on to second by virtue of being first in their division), record of 26-10-1-3, GF 179 (best in conference), GF 133, on a 3-game winning streak, P10 of 8-2-0-0 and the 4th most penalized team in the conference.

Big guns: League leading Brett MacLean with 84 points (44 goals), John Tavares (3rd in the league) with 71 points (26 goals), and Brett Parnham with 46 points (22 goals).

Scratches for the game: John Quarrie, Ande Andreoff, Chris Leeming, Murry Free, and Daryl Borden. Michel Neuvirth started in net.

About Ottawa: Ottawa was still without some key players: Jamie McGinn (back), Matt Lahey (shoulder), Logan Couture (concussion), and Michael Latta (mono). Marc Zanetti was returned to his team as Martin Paryzek was back from his Czech national team for the WJHC and Ryan Martindale was back from the gold medal winning Team Ontario in the U-17 tournament. Julien Demers and Chris Perugini were back from their brief experiences with the flu. New guy Brett Valiquette joined the team for his first game. Adam Courchaine was back in the net.

The numbers: in 5th place with a record of 20-17-1-2, GF 131, GA 143, P10 of 6-4-0-).

Ottawa Lines (sorta – there was some juggling once Carnevale was knocked out of the game in the first period):
Zamec, Kiriakou, Bailey
Valiquette, Cowie, Nesbitt
TMcGinn, Lindsay, Methot

Defensive pairings:
I lost track

Game Summary - This will be a quick one as I don’t have much time.

The game started rather ominously as Ottawa was on the PK barely 45 seconds into the game. Apparently this is how it all started in the game the previous night. But the best that the best PP in the league could manage in the two minutes was to ring one off the post. And we also got an insight into the caliber of refereeing for the night as Julien Demers was drilled from behind during the PK but the call was not made.

Oshawa really dominated for the first 5 minutes of the period but then the 67s found their legs and started moving out of their zone more. At the 13:24 mark, Ryan Martindale put Ottawa on the scoreboard first with his his fourth goal of the year. Mathieu Methot and Jon Carnevale got the assists.



Then, just over two minutes later and on the front half of a 4-minute PP (Jeff Hayes off for a high stick), it was the new top line that made it 2 – 0 when Adam Zamec beat Neuvirth. Thomas Kiriakou and Jason Bailey got the assists.



With 48 seconds remaining in the game, former Ottawa 67s Shea Kewin (and off-ice bad boy), took a cheap shot at Jon Carnevale. He was going for the head, and whether or not he made contact is a question but it appears he may not have. Take a look and draw your own conclusions. Note the official’s position. Jon did not return to the game. Note Del Zotto's total indifference to the injured player lying on the ice.







Julien Demers took an extreme exception to this hit and took Kewin on. The stoopid officials got in the way so I could not get any decent pictures but suffice it to say that Demers got the better of Kewin. As Kewin was escorted off the ice, he shared his thoughts with the Ottawa bench. I don’t know why he didn’t get an unsportsmanlike penalty for that one.

The penalties handed out: Demers 2 for instigating, 5 for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct. Kewin: 5 for fighting. Hmmm.

Ottawa started the second period with 44 seconds remaining in the Demers penalty that Ottawa defended quite well. Up to now, Oshawa had not managed a single shot on goal in their 4 PPs.

Ottawa was having a difficult time with the very aggressive forecheck of the Generals including during another 4-minute powerplay when Jonathan Sciacca tried to rearrange Cody Lindsay’s face (teeth?) with his stick. Cody had to leave for repairs. Ottawa managed only 3 shots on goal during the 4-minute man advantage and so did Oshawa. At times it was hard to recognize that Ottawa was on the PP.

This PK gave the Generals quite the boost and pretty much right after the penalty was over, Brett Parnham put Oshawa back in the game with the assistance of Brett MacLean and Dale Mitchell. And then, with 1:17 left in the period, John Tavares tied it up when he beat Courchaine glove side. Kevin Baker and Eric Regan got the assists.

Oshawa started the third period strong and put all the pressure on Ottawa. But it was Ottawa that scored first when, after making two great saves, Cody Lindsay finally banged the puck past Neuvirth. Matthieu Methot and Tye McGinn got the assists.

But it seemed like the 67s were running out of some gas. They were down to 3 lines and Oshawa still had lots of legs and continued taking the game to Ottawa. Before the half-way mark, Patrick Asselin tied it up with his 22nd goal of the year. Michael Del Zotto got the assist.

Regulation ended in a tie with shots favouring Ottawa: 37 – 35

Ottawa started the OT period on the PP for 44 seconds as Brett MacLean finished his roughing penalty late the third. Courchaine made some great saves but the best PP in the league finally kicked in. Valiquette got called for with 2:21 left in the OT period and half way through the PK, Dale Mitchell finally beat Courchaine to end the game. John DeLory got the assist.

So, a valiant effort by the depleted 67s ended with Oshawa winning 4 – 3. Final shots were 37 – 38 for Oshawa.

Three stars


1st Star: Dale Mitchell

2nd Star: Tyler Cuma

3rd Star: Matthieu Methot


Team 1200 hardest working 67s: Adam Zamec

Random Thoughts:


  • There was a pre-game ceremony to recognize the players that had recently been in international competition: Ryan Martindale as a member of the gold medal winning Team Ontario in the international U-17 tournament, Martin Paryzek and Michel Neuvirth from the Czech Republic national team and host country for the WJHC, and John Tavares as a member of the Canadian gold medal winning team at the WJHC. They were presented a gift from Jeff Hunt and some other guy. Someone needs to teach John Tavares some manners. He didn’t even stand with Jeff and the other guy for a picture after the presentation. I also understand that he didn’t shake hands with the Swedish players after the gold medal round (too caught up in other stuff). He’s young but he needs to learn how to better handle these situation.
  • Ottawa 67s played the first period with pink hockey sticks that will be auctioned to raise funds for a breast cancer charity.
  • This game really exceeded my expectations after the game the previous night. It was great to see the team bounce back so strongly after that loss. There were some very strong performances from these guys both offensively and defensively.
  • The new guy, Brett Valiquette seemed to play with some jump.
  • I never thought of the Oshawa Generals as a dirty team but they sure played a mean game. There certainly is some bad blood between these two teams now. I expected Bailey and Kewin to have a serious tilt at some point.
  • Glad to see Adam Courchaine have a good game. He made some spectacular saves to keep the team in the game. He also had some serious help from the posts – maybe 3 saves by the posts, and one that just slid through the crease without going in.
  • Hope Jon Carnevale is not seriously injured. He has been playing so strongly lately. There’s not going to be enough room in the press box for all the injured guys.
  • The reffing wasn’t all that good.
  • Cuma had a great game although he also made some scary passes.
  • Despite the effort of the depleted 67s team, you could just see that the overall skill level of the Generals was much stronger. Which is what you would expect from a fully loaded and healthy team.


Busy hockey weekend for the spousal unit and me: went to the Sens game on Thursday, this 67s game on Friday, going to the Sens – Detroit game tonight, then another 67s game tomorrow afternoon and the Sens game that evening (that’s how the packages worked out). So the update from tomorrow’s game won’t make it until late on Monday some time.

Go 67s Go!

Kirakou and Tavares square off


New Member of the Team: Brett Valiquette


He actually makes this save.

January 04, 2008

Even Goalies Can Have Really Rotten Days

But it sucks when it happens to be our goalie. sigh!

Tonight sees the third of four scheduled meetings between these two clubs with each team having taken on win.

About Brampton: They are second in the conference by virtue of leading the central division even though they are two points behind Belleville. They bring a two-game winning streak to the party and an 8-2-0-0 P10 with GF 141 and GA 102. The Battalion are missing a couple of key players due to international tournaments: D Bobby Sanguinetti, 3rd top scorer and +/- of +10 is licking his wounds in the Czech Republic after this afternoon’s 4 – 1 loss in the semi-final to Canada (Go Team Canada!!) and rookie Matt Duchene is in London this evening playing for gold in the U-17 Tournament (Go Team Ontario!!). Also missing: Brad Albert, Alexander Eriksson, Josh Shalla, Adam Martin, Cory Emmerton and Luke Vanoerkerke. Carp native Patrick Killeen got the start in net.

Cody Hodgsen and John Hughes are their other big guns with 54 and 49 points respectively.

About Ottawa: A rather depleted Ottawa team is coming off a shut-out win last Sunday against the Erie Otters. They currently sit in 4th place in the conference with two games in hand over the next place team, the Niagara Ice Dogs. Ottawa has a 1-game winning streak, a P10 of 6-3-1-0, GF of 123 and GA of 124.

The 67s played without some key players: Defenseman Martin Paryzek (WJHC), Ryan Martindale (Team Ontario at the Under-17 Hockey Challenge), Jamie McGinn and Matt Lahey (injuries), Michael Latta (mono), and Julien Demers (flu-like symptoms). Adam Courchaine was in net again which is how the weekend was planned.

Ottawa Lines:
Zamec, Couture, Bailey
Methot, Kiriakou, Nesbitt
TMcGinn, Lindsay, Carnevale

Defensive pairings:
Ostrcil/Cuma
Ryan/McCullough
Zanetti/Cowie

Game Summary

Things that make you go hmmmmm….. Not really sure what to say about this one.

It started badly for Ottawa when, just over 2 minutes into the game, on their first shot on goal, Scott Tanski scored his second of the year. Jason Dale and Luke Lynes got the assists. It seemed like it took a funny rebound off the side of the net and then it was in the net. Two minutes and change after that, Brampton was up by two when a Luke Lynes shot deflected off someone and went over Courchaine’s shoulder. Jason Dale and Chris Beauchamp got the assists and Ottawa was in a big hole early having allowed two goals on just 3 shots. Looked like it was gonna be a loooong evening.

I spoke too soon as Ottawa got the two goals back in quick order on a couple of power plays. The first penalty found Kody Musselman sitting in the hoosegow cooling his jets for a slashing infraction. Adam Zamec notched his 8th of the year (doesn’t that already exceed his total output for last year) when he fired one through the screen and beat Killeen to get the team on the board and back in the game. Logan Couture and Radim Ostrcil assisted on the goal.

And then, just 5 seconds into the Thomas Stajan penalty for checking from behind, Logan Couture worked hard in the corner and fed the puck to Adam Zamec who was firmly planted in Killen’s kitchen and badda-bing-badda-bang he had it behind Killen before he knew what happened. Again, Logan Couture and Radim Ostrcil assisted.

But that would be it for the game.

With just 3:41 left in the period, Brampton went ahead for good when John Hughes was left unattended and he found the back of the net. Graham McNabb and Thomas Stajan got the assists.

At this point, Adam Courchaine was pulled (3 goals on 9 shots) and Chris Perugini came into the game. The period ended with Ottawa down by a goal.

At the start of the second period, Courchaine was back in net. Of the 10 shots that got through to him, the one that scored was again, a stinker. He got turned around and didn’t realize that the puck was right behind him and it was poked or nudged into the net. Not sure whether he inadvertently did it or another 67s but no matter – it was the 4th goal for Brampton. John Hughes got credit for the goal with supporting roles going to Thomas Stajan and Graham McNabb.

During their only PK for the period, Ottawa did a great job; didn’t allow Brampton to get organized at all and actually had the only scoring opportunity thanks to some hard work by Logan. But it didn’t help the score at all: 4 – 2 for Brampton after two.

Adam really didn’t have a good night at all (hope he has that all out of his system now). Nothing it seemed was going right. On a play that had absolutely no pressure, it looked like he was going to dump the puck but then maybe changed his mind and pulled it back and maybe scored on himself (?). That was it for Adam, again.


A scoring chance thwarted by Killeen.

Ottawa tried to get something going but they really couldn’t generate a lot of scoring chances despite getting some shots through. During the PP midway through the frame, you could hear Killer screaming from the bench.

The nasty business happened with just over 6 minutes left in the game. Logan Couture was brining the puck up the left wing and was being moved to the outside by John de Gray (?) . After Logan had passed the puck, John felt it necessary to “finish his check” and rub Logan out. Logan’s head hit the stanchion post right by the Ottawa bench where the glass starts. He hit the ice hard and it didn’t look good. While Patafie quickly attended to Logan, Adam Zamec paid his respects to John de Gray. It wasn’t much of a tilt but I’m giving the call to Adam. Good on ya kid! Meanwhile, it did not look good for Logan; he needed assistance getting off the ice. Zamec got 2 for instigating, 5 for fighting and a10 minute misconduct. de Gray only got for fighting.




This seemed to light a fire under the team with Jason Bailey starting with a thundering hit on Jaroslav Hertl. The rest of the 67s also took advantage of every opportunity to hit a Brampton player (McCollough and Lindsay).

Bailey looking for more to hit.

Shipley took exception to a hard hit by Lindsay and decided the best reaction was to run Jon Carnevale into the glass. He got 2 for a check to the head. But Ottawa couldn’t do anything with the man-advantage.

The game ended with Brampton winning 5 – 2 with final shots on goal 26 – 27 for Brampton.

Three stars
1. John Hughes (2 goals, including the game winning goal, and an assist)
2. Luke Lynes (goal and an assist)
3. Adam Zamec (2 goals)

Team 1200 hardest working 67s: Jon Carnevale

Random Thoughts:


  • Well, this sucked. Big time. What in sam heck happened out there tonight?
  • 5 goals between the two teams on 20 shots in the first period. Sounds like the Senators – Washington game last week.
  • Adam Zamec didn’t come out to acknowledge his selection as the third star. Most likely ‘cause he didn’t feel in a starry mood and he was concerned about team mate Couture. And I didn’t feel like taking the high road either and that’s why there aren’t any pictures of the 3 stars. My blog, my pout. Two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, feel shame, go free.
  • The third line took the brunt of the +/-; they were on the ice for 3 of the goals.
  • The bus ride to Belleville is not likely to be relaxed and fun-filled. I would guess a tension-filled ride with what is not said being as pointed as what is said.
  • The hockey forecast for the weekend does not look good. I really hope that Jamie McGinn does not try the heroic thing and try to play. I have suffered from back problems (eventually ending up under the knife for a microdiscectomy at L4-L5) and, at his age, he shouldn’t play fast and loose with his back ‘cause it has to last a lifetime. He has a bigger career picture to consider; he has signed with the San Jose Sharks. The 67s are not going anywhere near the Memorial Cup this year and he should not risk his future over some misguided notion of leadership. I hope that the powers that be in the franchise have cooler heads and consider the bigger picture.
  • With the bench so depleted and trade deadline looming (next Thursday), will this force Killer’s hand to make a trade?
  • The Brampton uniforms are still ugly. blech, blech, blech! No wonder no one goes to their home games – it’s hard to keep food down. (I know - another 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct - I'm such a problem!).
  • Who ever was running the shot clock took a nap during the first period. There were quite a few shots that were not counted.
  • Adam in, Adam out, Adam back in, Adam back out. So, what does this do for the confidence of either goalie. WWHD (what would Hartsburg do)? What a crappy way to start the weekend.
  • Speaking of Hartsburg, Go Canada Go!!! If you love junior hockey and you had the chance, you were watching Team Canada defeat Team USA in today’s semi-final game. 4-1 win for Canada in what is clearly their best game of the tourney. Finally! Here’s hoping they now have found their collective mojos for the gold medal round tomorrow. Guess there are few folks eating their words regarding Hartsburg’s goalie decision.
  • And also speaking of Canada/US rivalries, Team Ontario defeated Team USA tonight 3-0 in the U-17 tournament in London Ontario tonight. The OHL rocks!!

Best wishes to the team for the rest of this weekend and see you next Friday.

Go 67s Go!

More pictures:

Isn't this a penalty?


Good effort from Kiriakou

See - some shots were stopped (check the glove)!

I think there's a chance to go 5-hole!

Sometimes you just need to get in the way of the puck (check the shoulder).
Take a good look - this may be the last time we see him for a while.

Airborne

Nesbitt the scholar for the month of December.