»

February 15, 2015

67's Shut Down Kingston for a 3-0 Win

Sunday marked the tenth time Liam Herbst pitched a third-period shutout this season, although it was undoubtedly the easiest final frame of his career, not facing a single shot in the final 23 minutes en-route to a 2-0 win over Kingston.

Save for two dribblers from center ice, the Ottawa netminder wasn’t tested at all by a Kingston team with no legs in the third period.

“You grind it down when you get the lead,” said Jeff Brown on his team’s dominant third period cycle game.  “There’s nothing wrong with playing that way the whole game.  You wear them and get chances off the cycle.”

“(Kingston) played with eight forwards for most of the game,” noted Brown on a Frontenacs team missing Zack Dorval and Chad Duchesne to suspension and Corey Pawley for 10 minutes after a second period misconduct.

The 67’s have put up some impressive defensive stands this season, but this was Herbst’ easiest closing performance in a while.

“We had the puck in their zone almost the whole period, I didn’t have to do too much,” said Herbst.

“I’ve had lots of experience in the past in minor hockey playing on top teams, I think that’s really helped me.

It wasn’t so easy in the first.

Despite a 1-0 lead on Nathan Todd’s breakaway marker, the 67’s were outshot 13-3, Jeremiah Addison’s goalline stand the only thing keeping the game uneven.

Kingston only mustered three shots on goal the rest of the afternoon.

In the third, with Travis Barron taking his first even strength shift of the game away from Travis Konecny’s top line, Barron put it on a tee for Ben Fanjoy to tap it in.

The teams head to Kingston to finish the home-and-home tomorrow afternoon.

Game sheet here.

Brown’s slowly growing optimism

As the 67’s close in on a guaranteed spot in the postseason, Jeff Brown’s confidence in his group grows.

But equally so, his concern rises about the style of play and how it isn’t conducive to winning in the playoffs.

“It’s so frustrating, we were just so pathetic in the first period.  You celebrate the victories, come playoff time it’s going to catch up to us,” said Brown.  “We easily could have been down by four in the first period.”

To put it into context, Brown was much more pleased with his team’s physically engaging effort in a recent loss to Oshawa.

A late too many men call put a bad mark on an otherwise perfect third period for the bench boss.

“We’ve got a powerplay with two minutes to go and a two-goal lead, the game should be over, it’s frustrating.”

The 67’s would have to play sub-.500 hockey the rest of the way to not have home-ice advantage in the playoffs, but the coach has made it clear that the effort is more important than the result for the next 15 games.

“It’s not something we have to work on, it’s a choice and decisions.  Those are the things that we are going to point out in video and just blatantly show them how many times the decision is not the correct one.

Three Stars as selected by TSN1200:



Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Hardest Working 67's: Trent Mallette 

 Some pictures from the game: 

 






Click here to see more pictures.

No comments: