For the third time in as many games, the Ottawa 67’s had to launch
a comeback to make up for a sloppy start, this time finally pulling out a win
in a near-must win game over Niagara.
Brendan Bell, who didn’t finish Friday’s game after getting
into a late third-period fight, scored the winning goal on Saturday with less
than two minutes to go.
As a result, Ottawa keeps themselves in a respectable
position in the playoff race, only four points back of Niagara and Mississauga
with games in hand.
For a while, it looked as though the Barberpoles would
finish their most important road trip of the season without any points.
Aaron Haydon opened the scoring with a minute to play in the
first period, as the 67’s ability to close out periods cost them for the second
night in a row.
Niagara added another early in the second as Ottawa fell to
their third consecutive two-goal deficit.
Ottawa finally got on the board when Dante Salituro won an
offensive-zone faceoff forward to himself before jamming in his own
rebound.
Erik Bradford tied the game on the powerplay midway through
the third period.
With overtime looming, Brett Gustavsen’s harmless-looking
centering pass banked off Bell and through the legs of Niagara netminder Blake
Richard.
At the final buzzer, Bradford came up with a potential
game-saving shot block on Vince Dunn to seal the victory.
Philippe Trudeau, who looked exhausted in Friday's loss, came back with a big 40-save performance to lock up first star honours.
While the Eastern Conference’s top-six is starting to
separate from the pack, Ottawa is 10 points back of sixth-place Peterborough,
playing the Petes twice in the next two weeks.
Game sheet here.
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