Frontenacs crush 67’s 8-0

The Ottawa 67’s were unable to stop their losing skid, falling 8-0 to the Kingston Frontenacs on Sunday afternoon.  The Frontenacs lead the season series 3-0-0-0 and have outscored them 17-5.

Struggling as of late, with only two wins in their last 11 games, the Frontenacs were desperate for a win.  Building off momentum from their loss against the London Knights, they played a complete game, worked hard as a team and were rewarded for their efforts.

“Certainly when you’re in a slump like we have been lately, you’ve just got to put pucks on net and go to the net.  You’re going to need those dirty ones once and a while and we just kept building on that and it was great,” said Spencer Watson who had a 4 point night and named the first star.

A similar situation for the 67’s, but they were unable to battle back.  After forcing overtime against the top team in the league Friday night, the 67’s were unable to carry over any momentum from that game.  Allowing 17 shots on net, the 67’s found themselves down 2-0 in the opening frame.

“They played a good period. We got to get more pucks to the net and play the game style that we came into the rink wanting to play,” Ryan Van Stralen told TV Cogeco.

With only 5 shots in the first, more shots is exactly what they needed.  This has been a common theme in many of their past games.  But the team knows what they need to work on.

If there’s one thing not to question, it’s the comradery of the team.  Van Stralen showed leadership after taking exception to a knee on knee hit by Ryan Hutchinson on rookie standout Travis Konecny.  A suspendable play, but there was no penalty on the call and Konecny did not appear to suffer any negative effects from the collision.

It was a much better effort in the second period over, but not a result the 67’s were happy with.  After allowing 5 goals on 29 shots, the Frontenacs chased starting goaltender, Philippe Trudeau, from the net for the start of the third period.

The Frontenacs scored three more goals in the closing frame to round out their scoring at 8 goals.  Untested for the most of the game Matt Mahalak made the saves he needed to and earned his 8th shutout of his OHL career and first of the season.

A new face the 67’s will become more familiar with over the next couple seasons is Robert Polesello who just joined the Frontenacs after starting the season with the University of Vermont in NCAA.  He has had instant chemistry with linemate Ryan Kujawinski and his line combined for 8 points tonight.

In a second period interview Polesello had nothing but good things to say about his linemate, “I think he’s that power forward I need.  He’s that size on the wing.  I can get him the puck and he just drives hard to the net.  I kind of just find those quiet areas and he can get me the puck there so I think we both feed off of each other and it works perfectly.”

The Frontenacs have a big test next Friday when they face the red-hot Generals.  The 67’s are back at home against the Belleville Bulls in a Tuesday matinee school game promising to hold a great atmosphere.

You can find the game summary here.

Thoughts

• This Ottawa team has run into some misfortunes early in the season.  Monahan staying in Calgary was one that was assumed from the beginning but still leaves a huge void.  Combine that with an early long-term injury to top defenseman Mike Vlajkov and other impactful injuries to Adrian Sloboda and Tayor Davis.
• Before his injury, the combination of Sloboda and Lintuniemi was a bright spot.  After the Vlajkov and Sloboda injuries, the team really started to suffer.  Sloboda returned for his first game on Thursday night.  The defensive squad automatically looked better and taking a step in the right direction.  This afternoon, they appeared to take a step back.
• This team has stopped believing that they can win and are often showing a lack of confidence – that confidence is not easy to break with such a young squad.
• Allowing too many shots on net is adding to an already heavy workload for overager Philppe Trudeau who has had about 97% of Ottawa’s starts
• The team has shown flashes of brilliance, but has been unable to combine that for 60 minutes.  They struggle on knowing how to play with a lead.
• There has been questions on the coaching – whether the players have stopped playing for them.  I’m just going to leave it at that, it’s not easy to tell but worthy of a discussion.