Ottawa 67s Fan Report: Power Failure: Petes 1 - Ottawa zip, zero, rien, nula*, fizzzzzz……

*that’s Czech for zero

This was the 7th game between these two clubs this season with Peterborough winning 4 of the previous 6. Peterborough came into town after beating Oshawa the night before in overtime in Peterborough.

**Game Day Set-Up**
Ottawa 67s		Peterborough Petes
26-28-2-3	Record	25-32-0-3
57	Points	53
East – 6th	Conference – Rank	East – 8th
187	GF	181
219	GA	230
4-5-0-1	P10	2-8-0-0
14th - .0180	PP – Rank and %	9th – 0.190
10th – 0.817	PK – Rank and %	15th – 0.783

**Top Guns - Ottawa**
Player	Position	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-
Jamie McGinn	LW	49	27	28	55	+10
Logan Couture	C	42	20	33	53	+12
Matthieu Methot	LW	59	22	18	40	-14

Additional Ottawa Player Notes: Jason Bailey (hip) and Tye McGinn (healthy?) were the scratches. It appears I must have mis-heard about Jason as Chris Byrne mentioned in the pre-game show with Buzz that Jason has started skating again, is not yet pain free but he is a hopeful start for next weekend. (I gotta get these ears cleaned out!) Jon Carnevale was back from his bout with mono. Chris Perugini was in the net.

**Top Guns - Peterborough**
Player	Position	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-
Zach Bogosian	D	52	10	46	56	+8
John Armstrong	C	58	20	34	54	-10
Pat Daley	RW	54	24	18	42	-1

Additional Peterborough Player Notes: missing in action were D-Chad Lowry, F-Mike Ryan, D-Bobby Davey and C-Liam Heelis. Added to the roster was Ardian Robertson. Trevor Cann was their goalie.

Game Summary
As was done in all OHL arenas, the tribute video to Mickey Renaud was played after everyone stood and observed a moment of silence. If you want to see clips of the tributes in Windsor's first game since the death of their captain, go here (on the NOOF), go to page 9 and scroll down; someone has been kind enough to post them. Keep your tissues close – they are very touching. Both clubs are to be commended on how this was handled.

Well, as Screibs kept saying during the third period, Peterborough played a perfect road game, whatever that is (if someone wants to send me a message to explain that I would be truly grateful). I guess winning the game would be a good place to start.

The game started with a whole lot of skating but not a lot of shots on the goalies. By the time first period hit the half-way mark, I noted that only 4 shots had been generated by both teams together. Ottawa had its fair share of puck possession but really didn’t generate much in the way of scoring chances. Peterborough played a physical game and sitting right at the glass gives you a really good sense of how hard these guys try to hit and work along the boards.

On their second power play of the game, former Ottawa 67s Pat Daley scored the game’s only goal on a shot that was screened by Zach Harnden. Zach Bogosian and Arturs Kulda got the assists. Daley has had a lot of success against his former team. Well, a lot of former 67s have had really good games against the 67s. Hmmm.

Later, during a late-period gathering of the clans in front of Chris Perugini after a goal-crease scrum, things escalated from tugging, to a couple of face-washes into a pretty intense fight between Zach Bogosian and Matthieu Methot. Methot managed to shirt Bogosian, good hits were exchanged and Methot got the take-down. When it was all sorted out, the main combatants got each 5-for-fighting; Michael Latta was tagged for slashing and Pat Daley for roughing.

I was expecting that this would spark the team to pick their game up and play with more intensity but, alas, it didn’t quite happen.

It sure seems that the Petes have assembled the players, and former Ottawa 67s assistant coach Vince Malette (again note the word "former") has coached them into a team that is much more physical and aggressive than the Ottawa 67s. I wonder if this was among the reasons why Vince decided to break out on his own – for a chance to lead a tougher team than Kilrea tends to build and coach.

The Petes pressed hard even on the penalty kills and kept Ottawa from having too many real scoring opportunities on their 6 powerplay chances. There was a point in the third period where Ottawa had two powerplays back to back and were unable to get even one puck through to Trevor Cann in the entire 4 minutes. That’s essentially where they lost this game. They should have been able to capitalize on this 4-minute advantage mid-way through the third period against a team that played a tough game the night before and traveled to Ottawa. The rested home team should have been able to raise their game and get that tying goal. But, clearly some players were not up to it. Killer benched the captain in the third period for at least the second time at home this season. Messages are being sent but it appears that some guys are not listening. Maybe they need "The Total Transformation" (man those radio commercials are annoying!).

The 67s had a stronger second period with few scoring chances but they were unable to finish. To their credit, they collectively held the Petes to only one goal between some great defensive plays by all the players and snow-angel saves by Perugini, but overall they were unable to connect for any goals. For starters, their passing was pretty bad – ahead of players, behind players, anywhere but the tape in too many cases. They did manage to up the shot count in the third period but Trash-Cann (as serenaded by his hecklers) kept all of them out of the net. Realistically, I don’t think any of them were real scoring chances as they hit him pretty much in the crest and he didn’t let out any rebounds.

In the final minutes of the game the Petes kept the 67s from breaking out and pulling their goalie and thus protected their one-goal game.

The team headed out in the snow last night on their way to Mississauga with an overnight stay in Belleville. They play Saturday afternoon in Missy and then head to Oshawa for an afternoon game on Sunday. This team will be in tough for both these games.