"Worst game of the year" sees three goal lead evaporate

Just when it looked like the Barberpoles were going to stroll to a convincing win over a lesser opponent, pad the stats and suffocate the opposition out of the game, they allowed a 3-0 lead to disappear in a gut-punch of a loss.


Ottawa allowed five unanswered to the Bulldogs in the back half of the game, losing what Jeff Brown referred to as "the worst loss of the year."

"It's not even close.  That game should have been done midway through the first.  We go out there with a lead, we take long shifts, we don't pay attention to detail, our powerplay lays an egg, and our two oldest defencemen are our worst defencemen all night."

Evan deHaan had three giveaways that all lead to goals against, and Stepan Falkovsky got caught without his feet moving twice on the same shift, both ending up in breakaways and eventually leading to Hamilton's second goal of the game.

By the third, rookie Hudson Wilson was topping the 67's blueliners in icetime.

Once the ice tilted -- Ottawa once lead 21-6 on the shot clock -- Connor Hicks got more and more comfortable in the Hamilton crease and couldn't be beat.

"Our goalies steal games for us too sometimes," added Brown, "it's about the attention to detail and not doing the little things."

Artur Tyanulin had two assists, a highlight-reel setup to Connor Warnholtz in the first and a seeing-eye pass to Nevin Guy in the second, but couldn't generate any offence down the stretch.

Ottawa takes on Peterborough tomorrow, trailing them by just two points.