67's 6-3 Win Over Kingston in Pre-Season Play

Both teams were missing a lot of players for the game. The 67's were missing 10 players who were off to NHL prospect camps (Mrazek - Detroit, Campbell - Philadelphia, Zanetti and Janes - Vancouver, Toffoli and Cajkovsky - LA, Prince - Ottawa, Graovac - Minessota, Smith - Columbus and Martindale - Edmonton). First round OHL Priority Draft pick David Perklin was also a scratch as he broke his finger.

For their part, Kingston was also missing a lot of players: Igor Bobkov, Eric Gudbranson, Alex Adams, Nathan Cull, Jason Shaw, Ryan Hutchinson, Ryan Spooner, Connor Stokes and Mitchell Fitzmorris.

Ottawa added Steven Fullan, Ryan MacLean, Kyle Leduc, Mitch McIntosh, Derek Dallman and goalie Karsten Pankhurst. Kingston did not add any players for the game.

It was pretty much what one might expect for a pre-season game that featured a few returning players and a bunch of rookies. Returning players demonstrated their ease and skills; new players had their moments trying to keep up with the pace and the skill of play.

Ottawa dominated most of the game, never losing the lead nor losing on the shot-clock. The line of rookie Van Stealen, Monahan and Gustavsen dominated the scoring for Ottawa, including a hat trick by Van Stralen, 4 (?) assists from Monahan and Gustavsen adding a goal and some assists (it's hard writing down all this stuff and taking pictures at the same time).

Ryan MacLean also scored his first goal in a 67's uniform. And Giftopolis had a sweet goal from the slot after some great stick handling.

Kingston managed to close the gap to one goal at one point but they were never seriously in contention. In 5 PPs (according to my notes) Kingston managed 3 shots on goal - converting one to a PPG.

It wasn't full-on, exciting, end-to-end hockey but it was interesting to watch given the rosters and time of year. By the time the game ended, the new players had fully engaged in the rivalry that these two teams share. Chirping, man-handling, and generally getting their competitive hate-on has started for the season. The game next Wednesday in Kingston should be interesting.

Final shots on goal were 32 - 26 for Ottawa.

Random Thoughts:

• Ryan Van Stralen is no shrinking violet. He's ready to score and not likely to back down when push comes to shove. And there was the requisite pushing and shoving. He's got some size to him too.
  
• Remy Giftopolis is much stronger on his feet.
  
• Sean Monahan and Cody Ceci appear to have benefited from their international experience on their Team Canada teams. Very confident and dangerous on the ice.
  
• Ben Dubois had three great break-aways. He didn't bury any of them but on one of them he was tackled.
  
• Karsten Pankhurst likes to handle the puck a lot. He wasn't challenged too much at first but then made some great saves and also had some very lucky bounces.
  
• Jake Cardwell also looks bigger and stronger. And ready to engage.
  
• In the 3rd period, Ottawa had long stretches where they maintained puck possession in the Kingston zone - keeping the Fronts running around and scrambling. You could hear the bench calling for someone to ice the puck - they problem was that no one could get a hold of it.
  

Some pictures from the game (focusing on the new guys):

 Steven Fullam   Ben Dubois getting tackled on one of his break aways   Kyle Leduc   Derek Dallman   Ryan MacLean celebrating his first goal in a 67's jersey.   Ryan MacLean  Mike Vlajkov   Mike Vlajkov   First star: Ryan Van Stralen   Second Star: Sean Monahan   Third Star: Brett Gustavsen