New Ice Advantage; Ottawa Stays Undefeated At Home

Albeit with the help of a long road trip and last week’s ice malfunction, the Ottawa 67’s are stretching their run of being undefeated at home as long as possible.

The 8-8-1 Barberpoles improve to 5-0-0 with a dominant 4-1 win over the dangerous division rival Bulls, a game that didn’t look so convincing through the first 20 minutes.

“Our first 20 minutes might have been our worst 20 minutes we've played all year,” said a brutally honest Jeff Brown.  “We saw how bad we could be, I was disgusted to be honest.”

“We played better in the second and grinded it out in the third after a horrible start.”

A 1-1 game going into the third, Liam Herbst did what he does best; shutting the door in the third to give his team a chance to win.

Herbst’s eight saves in the third, a couple from point-blank range, marked the fifth time this season he’s shut out the opposition in the third period.

Jeremiah Addison got a sluggish-looking Ottawa squad on the board in the second converting on a powerplay one-timer to tie the game.

Shortly after Herbst robbed Brett Lewychka, Travis Barron converted on a perfectly-executed cycle play in the offensive zone.

Travis Konecny added his first goal in seven games on the powerplay while Evan deHaan notched his first with his hometown team to put the game out of reach.

Ottawa passes the idle Barrie Colts for fifth in the conference.  They continue their homestand Sunday against Guelph.

Assorted Notes:

• For a player coming back to face his former team, Brett Gustavsen didn’t have as much jump as one may have expected.  He was visibly enjoying skating in his old stomping grounds, however
• Make no mistake, Ottawa was very fortunate to still be in this contest going into the second period.  Nothing was clicking in the first and their first powerplay was a mess
• This was a big game for Nathan Todd who set up the game-winner.  Todd was penalized for a perfectly clean hit on Welychka in the second period but channeled any frustration into a great third period.

Three Stars as Selected by TSN1200

Hardest Working 67's as Selected by TSN1200

 

 Some pictures from the game:

Evan de Haan scoring his first goal as a 67's

 

Liam Herbst with one of his 21 saves

Jacob Middleton taking Bellevilles Cramarossa off the puck

Click here to see more pictures from the game.