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October 17, 2016

67's (3-6-1) Week In Review: Can Barron steer sinking ship?

A day after honouring 32-year veteran referee Steve Corlyon for his last OHL game in Ottawa, Jeff Brown was up on the bench, shouting at Andrew Thompson, the official who had just given the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds their seventh powerplay in 33 minutes of action.

It was a convenient time as any for the bench boss to fire up the troops who would soon see their goalless drought extend over a 60 minute span -- they only scored two goals this weekend -- but the officiating helped shape another choppy afternoon for the Barberpoles offence.

"It was horrible, there was no flow to the game at all," said Brown of the officiating, speaking just down the hall from where his players had organized a post-game meeting.

"It's just one of those games where they're calling everything and it just killed the flow."

The 67's watched two points turn into zero with a late-game collapse Saturday against North Bay before being heavily outshot by the Greyhounds on Sunday, as a team that should've at least contended in a weak Eastern Conference is losing some early ground.

Captain Consistency

Late in Sunday's game, Travis Barron went knee-on-knee with Sault forward Morgan Frost at the Ottawa blueline, sending both to the ice for a minute before Barron was helped off.

It was a sigh of relief to see him return late in the game and be listed as a minor leg issue by the medical staff, and it was also one of the rare times Barron wasn't in the attacking zone creating offence.

The newly-appointed captain set up Patrick White for his first goal of the weekend on Saturday (he also scored on Sunday), almost set up Drake Rhymsha for a tap-in later in the game, and had countless scoring chances in the two weekend matchups.

"I'm sure we'd all like for everyone to be more productive but he's working hard and leading by example, they'll start going in for him," Brown says of his dominant but partially-snakebitten leader.

It won't be long until the 67's get the chance to erase the sting of losing to North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie, they visit the two to open up a three-game Northern road trip this upcoming weekend, before heading to their head coach's old stomping grounds in Sudbury.

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