Ottawa 67s Fan Report: 67's Victim of Petes' Playoff Push

The Ottawa 67’s were unable to make up any ground on the team closest to them in the Eastern Conference standings, the Peterborough Petes, as the Petes rolled to a 10-6 win at Scotiabank Place on Wednesday night.

The Petes continue their strong run of late with the win, moving to within four points of Kingston in the eighth and final playoff spot. Ottawa, meanwhile, falls nine points behind Peterorough.

“You can't start games by giving up 20 shots in the first period,” said Chris Byrne. “Even though we had goals, came back and worked hard in other parts of the game, we just can't be a no-show in the first period.”

Ottawa had three goaltending changes in the first half of the game. Jacob Blair started the game and swapped spots with Clint Windsor twice before Windsor came in to close out the game. Blair, credited with the loss, stopped 22 of 28 shots he faced, while Windsor made 20 saves on 24 shots in two stints of relief.

After falling down 8-1 early in the second period, a trio of goals from Brendan Bell, Connor Brown and John Urbanic made it interesting. Down 9-4 after giving up a goal on the first shot of the third period, Sean Monahan added a pair of markers, but that’s as close as Ottawa would get.

“He doesn't change his work ethic from shift-to-shift, day-to-day or practice-to-practice,” added Byrne regarding his Captain.

Joseph Blandisi had the lone first-period goal for the home side.

Peterborough was able to score-by-committee, with seven different players adding goals. Michael Clark had two goals in the opening frame, while Jonatan Tanus and Cody Thompson also had a pair of goals each. Nick Czinder, Eric Cornel, Stephen Pierog and Chase Hatcher also tallied for the visitors.

Andrew D’Agostini made 31 saves, most of them in a busy second period, to get the win for Peterborough.

Ottawa is now two games into their seven-game homestand. This weekend, they welcome back players that they dealt at the trade deadline, Remy Giftopoulos and Tyler Graovac respectively, as they take on the Windsor Spitfires and Belleville Bulls.

Game sheet can be found here.

Assorted notes:

Several times in the first period, Peterborough's goal count matched Ottawa's shot count. At least Ottawa made the game look better on the scoreboard.
This game wasn't the goaltenders' fault, but the triple goalie switch was interesting to say the least. After Monahan tried his hand in net during practice this week, he may have been their next option between the pipes if he were allowed.
Ottawa could have made a game out of this after they came out firing to start the third down 8-4. Allowing a goal on the first shot of the period deflated them, though.
It's good to see that Blair is getting his fair share of time in net. He came back into the game with the score 5-1 and held the Petes off the board for over five minutes.
In a game like this, it's good that the referees put the whistles away and let the two teams play it out. Only eight penalty minutes on the night.

Three Stars as Selected by the Team1200:

Hardest Working 67's: John Urbanic

Random Thoughts from Behind the Lens:

Holy crap on a cracker, what the heck was that!? From world-beaters last Friday to this. This has to drive coaches crazy.
If one is looking for anything good from this game, when down 8 - 1, the 67's didn't totally give up. But it still was way too inconsistent.
I bet we don't see those black jersey's again this year.
Props to Peterborough though, they have seriously turned it around after a bunch of trades/defections and coaching changes. But they let Ottawa get back into this game which probably had their coaches worried for a bit.
Near the end of each game, "The Hit of the Game" is shown on the jumbotron. For this game, they played a video of two wee TimBits players bumping into each other during the intermission game. It really was the hit of the game; none of the OHL players had much to offer as competition.
Lots of scouts in the house to see this one. Sure would be interesting to hear their thoughts.
It's interesting to listen to fans during the game. When an apparent penalty isn't called, the reaction from fans can be loud and harsh. At one time during this game, rather than the usual barking, I heard a gentle voice with a beautiful island lilt say "ain't right mon, ain't right.". Makes me smile every time I think of it.

Some pictures from the game: