67's Spoil a Sudbury Saturday Night

Sean Monahan had two goals and an assist to pull into a three-way tie for third in league scoring while finally pull himself out of a minus +/- rating, helping lead the 67’s to a 4-3 shootout win on Saturday night in Sudbury.  After Sudbury came back from a two-goal deficit in the third period, Taylor Fielding had the shootout winner.

Tyler Groavac also scored in the shootout for the 67’s, who improve to 6-8-0-2 and pull back into a tie with the Kingston Frontenacs for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.  Joshua Leivo responded for Sudbury (8-8-0-1).

 

After surrendering the first goal of the game for the second night in a row, Monahan tied the game with a snapshot from the slot with three minutes remaining in the first, a point in the game where the Wolves were all over the 67’s.  He added his second of the game midway through the middle frame on the man advantage, helping an Ottawa powerplay that now leads the league.

Ryan Van Stralen padded the visitors’ lead just 18 seconds into the third period after taking Monahan’s feed.  Sudbury had a 29-21 advantage in shots at the time, but Ottawa was starting to dictate the pace of the game. 

 

It wasn’t until the final three minutes that the hometown Wolves came to life again.  Michael Kantor scored twice to tie the game, the latter of the two markers with just 15 seconds to play, and both assisted by Ottawa native Nate Pancel who also opened the game’s scoring for Sudbury. 

The 67’s outshot Sudbury 10-1 in the extra period with the help of a late powerplay, but were unable to crack Wolves goaltender Joel Vienneau, who made 35 stops on the night.

Vienneau also stopped Dante Salituro and Monahan in the shootout.  Keegan Wilson, who made 40 saves in regulation in his 10th consecutive start, stopped Pancel, Frank Corrado and Matthew Campagna in the shootout to preserve the win.

Ottawa takes on the Kingston Frontenacs on Tuesday in a game that will decide who temporarily owns eighth place in the Eastern Conference.  They stay at home to take on Saginaw and Belleville next weekend.

Additional Notes:

• Nevin Guy has been impressive enough not only to move back to the defence, which he played in training camp, but to find himself on the top pairing most of the night with Cody Ceci

• The OHL's attempts to remove pre-meditated fights seems to go out the window when Connor Brown is in the lineup against Sudbury.  Last meeting, he fought Sam Schutt off of a faceoff. Tonight he did the same with the player traded from Kingston for Schutt; Nathan Cull.

• After giving up a late 3-1 lead, this game was very reminiscent of the third game in Sudbury's four-game sweep of the 67's in the 2011 playoffs.  Thankfully for Ottawa fans, this one had a much better outcome.