Windsor strong in 67’s 3-0 loss to the Bulls

Clint Windsor was strong again in nets stopping a total of 50 shots in the Ottawa 67’s 3-0 loss to the Belleville Bulls on Sunday afternoon.  Already without the likes of Tyler Graovac, Sean Monahan, Brett Gustavsen and Daniel Walsh, Michal Vlajkov was also out today with a lower body injury that he sustained in Saturday night’s game against Guelph.

Both teams came out flat and looked almost disinterested in the first period.  Each team got into their own penalty trouble as a total of 5 powerplays were awarded in the opening frame.  One bright spot for the 67’s was a successful 5-on-3 penalty kill for almost the full two minutes.  In fact, neither team was able to score with the man advantage.  Ottawa went 0/5 while Belleville went 0/4.

One of the Belleville penalties was to former disgruntled 67, Jake Cardwell.  It was his first time facing his old team and unintentionally hit Windsor as he was driving hard through the crease.  Windsor was down for a bit, but to Ottawa’s relief was able to recover. 

It was scoreless after one and wasn’t until the 4:16 mark in the second that the deadlock was broken.  Unlikely suspect, Stephen Silas tricked the Ottawa defenders, snuck out in front of the net and slid the puck through Windsor’s five hole.  The goal sparked the Bulls to wake up and play with some more urgency testing Windsor even more.

Once the third period came along, you could tell the 67’s were gassed playing in their third road game in 2.5 days.  The Bulls continued to press and were awarded with their hard work after Sergey Kuptsov was waiting on the doorstep in perfect position grabbing rebound and tapping it in.

The Bulls would add one more goal as Carter Sandlak scooped up an errant puck and easily tapped in into a wide open cage on the Bulls’ 50^th shot of the game.  That was all she wrote.  Malcolm Subban picks up his second shutout of the year and while he was not tested a lot, he came up through for his team when they needed him to.

The 67’s finish their weekend road trip with a disappointing 0-3-0-0 record.  They are back on the road again this weekend facing Plymouth, Saginaw and Windsor for another tough 3 games in 2.5 days.