67's Out Tough the Whalers for a 4-1 Win

By Kathry Jean

Shorthanded, Ben Dubois scored at the 12:23 mark in the second period afer beating Matt Mahalak up high for the game winner.

The Plymouth Whalers came out of the game buzzing with a strong first shift.  The Whalers continued to out play Ottawa until the final minutes, but were unable to solve Petr Mrazek.


Rickard Rackell got the Whalers on the board 43 seconds into the second period after a nice setup by Sens draft pick Stefan Noesen.  Less than 30 seconds later, Tyler Toffoli evened things up after getting a hold of his own rebound.

With Mike Vlajkov in the box for hooking, Nicholas Foglia cut off a breakout pass from the Whalers.  He fed the puck to Ben Dubois in the slot and fired a high shot past Mahalak.

The second period turned a little rough after that.  Sean Monahan was hit into the boards from behind by Mitchell Heard.  With no call on the play, Monahan got up and squared off with Heard in a spirited affair.

Moments later, Marc Zanetti crushed Noesen into the boards away from the play.  The hit created an angry crowd ending up with Ryan Van Stralen man-handling Rackell and Tyler Graovac dropping the mitts with Beau Schmitz.

The Whalers nearly tied it up in the 3rd period when Stefan Noesen picked up a loose puck with several bodies around the net, but the goal was called off with referee Dave Gauthier losing sight of the puck and calling it dead.

Steven Janes and Foglia rounded out the scoring with empty net goals after the Whalers pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker.

The win gave Ottawa their 4th straight win at home and improved their record to 5-1-1-0.  After a long roadtrip, the Whalers fall to a record of 3-4-0-0.

The Brampton Battalion roll into Ottawa Friday night for the first meeting of the season.

Plymouth faces off against the Windsor Spitfires on Thursday and will host the Niagara Ice Dogs on Friday.

Click here for the game sheet.




Three Stars as selected by the Team1200





Hardest Working 67's: Jake Cardwell


Random Thoughts from Behind the Lens:

• The 67's are definitely a more physical team this year. They are getting used to it (fewer penalties) but are also getting better at defending the penalties they are taking. I think they only allowed 6 shots on goal during the 6 penalties they served.
  
• Nicholas Foglia is the go-to guy for face-offs and penalty killing. He's aggressive and fast, which leads to chances like Ben Dubois' short-handed goal.
  
• Plymouth Whaler Beau Schmitz has probably heard it before but he really is a little Schmitz-disturber. Lots of little post-whistle antics like jostling Monahan around during shift changes.
  
• The players are wearing "Do It For Daron" stickers on their helmets all month to help raise awareness of youth mental health issues.
  
• Not only were the 67's competing against the Plymouth Whalers, they were competing against an absolutely beautiful Thanksgiving Sunday. But the truly faithful were at the game.
  
• It's official. Ryan Martindale has been signed by the Edmonton Oilers and assigned to their top affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons. He did not dress for their season opening 7 - 0 loss to Dallas.
  
• Shane Prince hopes to return to action next weekend. It will be interesting to see how Byrnes adjusts his lines. All three lines have been doing really well together.
  
• Wayne Smith, the Director of Amateur Scouting for the Boston Bruins was at the rink with his Stanley Cup ring and was gracious and patient enough to let me photograph it. It is one huge and heavy piece of bling! I have posted one picture here but go to my gallery to see other pictures of it.
  

Pictures from the game:
 Luke Richardson and youth volunteers drop the puck for Do It For Daron   Sean Monahan gets into his first OHL fight and holds his own  Plymouth Whalers Alex Aleardi tries to jump through Ryan Shipley   Nicolas Foglia bearing down for a face-off.   2011 Stanley Cup ring of Bruins Director of Amateur Scouting Wayne Smith  Click here for more pictures from the game.