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December 18, 2010

Hard Work Beats Talent: Petes win 3 - 2 in OT

Apparently the above heading (or something approximating it) is posted somewhere in the Ottawa 67's dressing room. It would appear that the Peterborough Petes took it to heart.

Hard work and determination by the Peterborough Petes fueled their comeback from a 2-goal deficit to force overtime and take a great road-game win to end the Ottawa 67's 7-game winning streak.

Click here for the game sheet.

After being thoroughly dominated in the first period, where the Ottawa 67's played a fast, physical game and where the Petes couldn't make two passes, the Petes found their legs and their game and took it to the 67's.

Ottawa's two goals came in the first period off the sticks Tyler Toffoli and Shane Prince. But then Ottawa took the rest of the game off, getting only 14 shots on goal in the remaining 41 minutes while Peterborough bombarded Mrazek with 41 shots. 41! That's a shot for every minute of play in the rest of the game. Except that they didn't come at a nice even pace - they came in bunches.

The real back-breaker for Ottawa was controlling the puck in the Pete's zone with less than 25 seconds, the Pete's goalie pulled for the extra attacker and Ottawa missing the net not once but at least twice. The Petes came away with the puck on the transition and Ottawa native Alan Quine beat Mrazek to tie the game with 20 seconds left.

As the OT period started, the tension of the 67's was palpable and the Petes were loose and confident. And Austin Watson finished it off just 1:24 into OT.

Both teams play again tonight in Peterborough. It will be the third game in a row for Peterborough but you can bet they will be buoyed by their win in Ottawa and playing in front of their fans for their last game before the Christmas break.

We should get a good picture of what the 67's are made of coming off this loss.

Three Stars as selected by the Team1200 (third star Austin Watson did not take a turn)


Hardest Working 67's
Hardest Working 67's as selected by the Team1200: Cody Ceci


Random Thoughts:
  • Some may argue that, with 4 players out of the line-up, the 67's were depleted. And indeed, once again, they were not able to ice four complete lines (neither did Peterborough for the record). But Carnevale, Hanes and Fontana have all been out for a while now and the only new missing player is/was Adam Sedlak. The team should be able to compensate better than that. They will be without Sean Monahan from the end of December until possibly January 4th when he competes with Team-Ontario in the U17 Hockey Challenge in Winnipeg. During this run the 67's will play Kingston, Barrie and Owen Sound (who current sit 3rd in the Western Conference).
  • If this team has ambitions of challenging Mississauga for the Conference Championship they are going to have to tighten up on their defense. Based on the OHL stat this morning (not sure if last night's numbers are there) Petr is facing an average of over 36 shots per game. That's the second highest in the league by a very slim margin over divisional rival Philip Grubauer.
  • This team is much better than it played. /rant
  • Former 67's Thomas Kiriakou is one of the 22 CIS players who will represent Canada in men's hockey at the 24th Winter Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey. Thomas leads the Guelph Gryphons with 7 goals and 13 assists through 14 games this year. Thomas was also part of the CIS team that played the Team Canada hopefuls in their game before the last cuts.
  • When the 67's finish their game in Oshawa on Sunday, most players will head home right from there. I am told that the schedule is planned that way to get as many boys back to their families as fast as possible for the holiday break. That's a nice, thoughtful touch.
  • Happy Holidays everyone - see you again when the Kingston Frontenacs visit the Rona Centre on December 29th. Have fun - be safe.
More Pictures: Click here to see more pictures from the game.

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