A late first period collision with Joseph Blandisi and Belleville’s Charlie Graham ended up being a game-changer, as the 67’s shelled backup Jason Da Silva for seven goals en route to a 9-4 win on Tuesday morning in their annual School Day Game.
Blandisi was ejected for charging on the play, while Graham was forced to leave the game after staying down for several moments.
“I was on one foot, I don’t know what else I was supposed to do to avoid him,” said Blandisi after the game.
Chris Byrne defended his player after the incident.
“I think it’s a tough play to stay away from the goalie,” said Byrne. “We hope that their guy’s not injured. For us, it meant we had some penalty kill work to do.”
The game was tied at two, with Ottawa getting goals from Brett Gustavsen and Tyler Hill while surrendering a pair of powerplay goals against at the time of the incident.
Ryan Van Stralen and Garrett Hooey, who scored his second powerplay marker of the game, traded goals to start the second.
From there, the duo of Dante Salituro and Brendan Bell took over.
Salituro beat Da Silva from the slot to give Ottawa their fourth lead of the afternoon.
On his next shift, Salituro narrowly missed converting a cross-crease pass from Andrew Abou-Assaly, before setting up Bell with a between-the-legs pass for Bell’s seventh goal of the season.
By the time the period was out, Salituro had set up Bell a second time to help the home side take a 6-4 advantage.
Hill and Nevin Guy, who had five points on the day, scored in the third before Bell completed the hattrick in the final minutes.
“We came out flying for the second, got a few goals, and we just kept playing our game the whole time right until the buzzer,” said Bell.
Byrne, who has put Gustavsen with Salituro and Bell for the better part of the last four games, kept going with the line throughout the game.
“That line has clicked and played well,” added Byrne. "
Philippe Trudeau made 34 saves to earn his first win in seven starts.
Ottawa registers their first win during the annual morning contest, having lost all five previous contests.
After beating last place Belleville, Ottawa takes on two more of the conference’s bottom-five teams when they face off with Niagara on Sunday and North Bay next Thursday.
Game sheet can be found here. (Take Belleville's goaltending stats with a grain of salt)
Three Stars as Selected by TSN1200
Hardest Working 67's: Brett Gustavsen
Some Pictures from the Game:
Sequence of photos showing Blandisi's collision with.
Looks like he was sent off balance by the Belleville player
Tyler Hill's first goal of the game.
Alex Lintumiemi getting some flex into the shot.
Click here to see more pictures from the game.
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