"Ugly with a capital 'U'", Spirit Blow Out 67's 10-3

Despite the 67's getting out to a quick start, scoring twice on their first two shots of the game, and receiving a stellar performance through the first two periods from Clint Windsor, the Saginaw Spirit were able to pull away and blow out Ottawa for the second time this year, this time a final score of 10-3.

Windsor, facing one of his former teams, did his best to hold Ottawa in the game, stopping 16 of 17 shots in the opening frame.  Saginaw outshot the visitors 17-7 in each of the first two periods, running away with the game in the second frame.  He was pulled five minutes into the third after allowing seven goals on 37 shots.

Jacob Blair stopped 8 of 11 in relief, while Nikita Serebryakov only had to make 18 saves for just his second win of the year.

Dante Salituro, for the third time in five games, had Ottawa’s first goal of the night, opening the scoring just over a minute into the game.  He also had the final goal of the game.  Brendan Bell added his first goal as a 67 three minutes after Salituro’s original goal to give the Barberpoles a 2-0 lead. 

Eric Locke cut the lead in half late in the first period.  Terry Trafford, Justin Kea and Dalton Young tallied for Saginaw in the middle frame.

Early in the third period, the Spirit put the game out of reach.  Nick Moutrey scored 13 second in, and Garrett Ross scored 44 seconds later.  Jimmy Lodge, Vincent Trocheck, Trafford and Ross gave the home side a 10-2 advantage.

With the score 7-2, frustrations boiled over after ex-67 David Perklin threw a hit from behind on Taylor Davis, who was just recovering from a head injury.  Perklin was ejected from the game, as was Jonathan Duchesne, who pounded an unwilling combatant in Andrey Alexeev during the ensuing scrum.

The 67’s, now having lost five in a row, head to Windsor tomorrow afternoon to finish their second three-in-three weekend.  Blair is expected to get the start.

The game sheet can be found here.

Assorted Notes:

• As Gord Wilson said on the Team 1200 broadcast, "this is ugly with a capital 'U'."
• Plenty of credit to Salituro, Bell and Andrew Abou-Assaly.  Those three had an even +/- rating; not easy to do when your team gives up 10 goals.
• Perklin doesn't appear to like his former team.  He has been tossed from both games this season against Ottawa.  He also picked up 17 minutes in penalties, starting a fight with Connor Brown in the second period after Brown had laid out Gregg Sutch.  The fight doesn't count towards Brown's fight suspension total, since Perklin received the instigator.
• Remy Giftopoulos also had a fight, going at it with Garrett Ross.
• While a comment was made on this blog last year about young 67's fans being disrespectful during an injury, that seems minor compared to this particular game.  While Davis was down on the ice, the in-game audio crew continued blaring music while fans didn't let up on their air horns.  Huge lack of respect in Saginaw tonight.