Ottawa 67s Fan Report: 67's Stay On Par With 7-2 Landslide Victory

For the sixth year in a row, the Sarnia Sting annual trip to the Nation’s Capital ends without a win, as the 67’s coasted to a 7-2 win on Friday night.

Ottawa scored three times in the first five and a half minutes, making it a 4-0 game by the end of the opening frame.

“They had a good jump and that’s what we wanted,” said Chris Byrne on their early outburst.

“We played a pretty good game against Peterborough without a great start, and if we'd had a better start we could've got some points out of it.”

Dante Salituro deflected a pass from Nevin Guy to open the scoring on the powerplay. Travis Konecny and Jonathan Duchesne quickly piled on.

Sarnia got on the board twice in the middle frame before Ryan Van Stralen answered with two goals of his own in the third on the powerplay.

“We did a good job staying disciplined in the third and finishing the game,” added Byrne.

Erik Bradford and Brendan Bell also tallied, while Philippe Trudeau made 35 stops for the Barberpoles who improved to 18-29-4.

Unfortunately for Ottawa, the out-of-town scoreboard didn’t do them any favours.

Mississauga defeated Windsor, while Niagara beat Saginaw, meaning that Ottawa stayed par with the teams just above them.

Tonight’s results may change the landscape in the standings, but they don’t change the approach for the 67’s in the rest of their 3-in-3.

“Every game is important for us,” said Byrne.

“We can only control our effort and our games. There's points on the table, if we work hard, we can be in the playoffs.”

Game sheet here.

Assorted Notes:

Duchesne has been a lot more offensive-minded in the past two weeks playing mostly with Jake Middleton. Tonight one of his many pinches paid off by way of a goal.
This game was very similar to the one against Windsor last year. A short-staffed, undisciplined team from the other conference came in and seemed to have no concept of a team game. This was as easy a win as the 67's are going to get.
As much as this game was never in doubt, there's still credit due for Trudeau. He stopped 31 shots in the first 38 minutes, many of them fairly good scoring chances as the game opened up.
Bradford's goal was on one of the prettier passes of the season from Travis Konecny. Bradford spent the rest of the game trying to pass it off on prime scoring chances, almost as though he wanted to pay back his teammates. He set up Van Stralen's first goal on a cross-crease pass.

Three Stars as Selected by TSN1200