»

January 11, 2009

Some days you're the pigeon...

...and some days you're the statue.



This was a statue day for Adam Courchaine. Two goals deflected in from this rookie defensemen and he had a self-inflicted short-handed goal against. Mercifully he was spared any more grief in the third period as Perugini was in at the start.

Forward Combos:
Cowick, Couture, Nesbitt,
Nigro, Martindale, Toffoli
Lindsay, Kiriakou, Carnevale
Sonnenburg, Anderson, Blunden

D-Pairs:
Demers, Gibbons,
Birkhoff, Paryzek
Hartwick, Zanetti

Goal: Courchaine

Scratches: Schinkelshoek (third straight healthy scratch), Hanes, Cuma

Plymouth certainly was the better team today. They won by two in Kingston on Friday, lost by two in Belleville yesterday and came on full steam today. They outworked Ottawa in just about every facet of the game: getting to the puck, battling on the boards, moving out crisply, collapsing in front of their goalie and without a doubt earning some serious puck luck along the way.

Ottawa's only saving grace was their power play which continued to click for them; all three goals came on the power play and they were 3/6 for the day.

I missed yesterday's game due to another obligation but managed to catch the last 6 minutes on the radio on the way home. From the sounds of things, Ottawa did not play with the same jump and intensity as on Friday night. So it didn't surprise me all that much that they were so flat today. Perhaps they have been reading their press lately (always a mistake).

Plymouth started strong and really never let up. Although Ottawa had more shots on goal, very few of them were scoring chances. Despite the rather uninspired play in the first, it was still a 1-goal game with Plymouth being on the right side of that stat.

The second period was Ottawa's undoing. 5 goals on 17 shots. The backbreaker was the 7th goal. With Ottawa on the powerplay, Plymouth's Vern Cooper got control of the puck from below his own icing line and it down the ice. It kinda rolled along the ice toward Courchaine and Adam didn't take it seriously. So the puck took a funny bounce and went between his skates and into the net. He didn't even want to turn around. At least when it happened to Toskala last year, Toskala was trying to play the puck. Major brain cramp for Courchaine that just topped off a really crappy afternoon.

Perugini was in the net for the third period stopping all 6 six shots he saw and the 67s played reasonably well but I think the Whalers were just playing good enough to protect their lead.

Ottawa goals were scored by Anthony Nigro (2) as he continues his better-than-a-point-a-game pace and Julien Demers. They all came on the power play. Assists went to Ryan Martindale (2), Tyler Toffoli, and Chris Perugini.

Scoring for Plymouth were Tyler J. Brown, Ryan Hayes, Joe Gaynor, Vern Cooper (2), Michal Jordan,and Brett Bellemore.

Hopefully this is just a minor set-back and they get back into form next weekend.

Three Stars as selected by the Team1200


Hardest Working 67s as selected by the Team1200: Tyler Toffoli


Random Thoughts:
  • The top line wasn't in top form today. The fourth line saw a lot of ice time.
  • The rookie defensemen, Birkhoff and Hartwick, did not have a good game. Two goals bounced off them into the net.
  • The anthem singer they had today has a wonderful voice.
  • The 67s need to change their advertising for their package that includes Killer's last home game. It's no longer John Tavares and the Oshawa Generals.
  • Hopefully they have this worked out of their system for a while.


Have a good week everyone. See you next Friday as the 67s take on Saginaw to start the weekend.

No comments: