67's lose second straight on the road, 5-2 to the Greyhounds

The Ottawa 67’s squandered 3 goals in the final 10 minutes losing 5-2 to the Greyhounds in Sault Ste Marie tonight.

Last night’s game in North Bay proved to be more costly than just a tough overtime loss for the 67’s. According to the team, captain and leading scorer Travis Konecny “tweeked something” late in the game which cause him to sit out tonight in Sault Ste Marie.

The loss of Konecny, Austen Keating (U17 challenge) and Sam Studnicka (OA rotation) definitely took a toll on the chemistry and offensive production from the team. The 67’s struggled out of the gate and were unable to get anything going offensively only firing 12 shots on net through the first 40 minutes.

While the 67’s didn’t see much support offensively, goaltender Leo Lazarev stood on his head most of the night and kept his team in the game. Unfortunately for the 67’s, the same could be said for Greyhounds’ goaltender Brandon Halverson at the opposite end of the ice.

It wasn’t until the 16:03 mark of the first period that either team was able to get on the board. Jack Korpacka, who is expected to be drafted to the NHL this spring, skated past defenseman Stephan Falkovsky and wired a shot top shelf behind Lazarev in the 67’s net for a late 1-0 lead.

The Greyhounds took a 2-0 lead early in the second after a turnover behind the Ottawa net found the stick of Makar Tokarev right in the slot.

The 67’s would finally respond midway through the third period. Jeremiah Addison scored from the bottom of the faceoff circle and beat Halverson on his glove side to cut the lead in half. Just 43 seconds later Ben Fanjoy forced a turnover leading to an odd man rush with Artur Tyanulin. Tyanulin deked Halverson and shot the puck into an open net to tie the game at 2.

But that’s where Ottawa’s luck would run out, the Greyhounds scored 3 unanswered goals (including an empty netter) in the final 10 minutes to take a 5-2 win.

The 67’s failed to convert on any of the 4 power play opportunities, a common issue for the team over the last couple of seasons. But tonight, 3 of the 4 times the 67’s got a power play opportunity, they would take a penalty themselves. Out of those 3 power plays, the 67’s only saw 1:46 of a possible 6 minutes with the man advantage.

The 67’s are idle tomorrow and complete their 3-game roadtrip Sunday in Sudbury against the struggling Wolves.

Game summary here.