Postponed Game Doesn't Stop 67's

A one-day layoff caused by Friday’s weather-postponed game didn’t help the Windsor Spitfires, as even with an extra day to rest, they surrendered three goals on the first five shots and a Sean Monahan hattrick en route to an 8-5 Ottawa win on Saturday night.

Monahan, who has now scored five times in his last two games, had his first goal of the game three and a half minutes in, adding another in the final minute of the opening frame, and an empty net goal to cap off the scoring with one second left in the game.

“He’s definitely playing well,” said Chris Byrne of his Captain.  “He’s definitely shooting the puck well and his line had some great shifts tonight.”

If either team were affected by the postponed the game, Byrne wasn’t hinting at it one way or another.  “I only worry about our team; I thought our guys competed well.  For us, we had played on Wednesday, so I didn't think it mattered much.”

Ottawa took a 4-2 lead into the first intermission, a score that would hold up until the first minute of the third period, when Kerby Rychel brought Windsor to within one.  Daniel Walsh scored his first OHL goal two minutes later to restore the two-goal cushion.

“It was a great goal,” added Byrne.  “A nice pass by (Sergey) Kuptsov as well, good for him to get a goal and I thought those guys played well.”

Monahan, Joseph Blandisi and Dante Salituro scored to give Ottawa a quick 3-0 lead.  Alexander Khokhlachev got Windsor on the board before ex-67’s forward Remy Giftopoulos tallied on the powerplay.

Brendan Bell and Brett Gustavsen also scored for the Barberpoles.  Josh Ho-Sang and Brody Vail had the other two markers for the visitors.

Clint Windsor made 39 saves against his city namesake, in his third appearance in two games.  The Spitfires’ Jaroslav Pavelka was pulled after allowing three goals on five shots, while Jordan DeKort made 32 stops in relief.

The 67's return on Sunday to take on the Belleville Bulls and Tyler Graovac, who appears in his first game against his former team.  Graovac's Bulls teammate and fellow ex-67 Jake Cardwell won't be in the lineup, as he starts serving a ten-game suspension for poking an Oshawa fan with his stick.

Tonight's game sheet can be found here.

Assorted Notes:

• Ottawa simply played a better team game.  Ho-Sang and Khokhlavhev, amongst others, have a ridiculous amount of talent, but try to do everything themselves.
• The Spitfires iced the puck three times on the powerplay as a result of these individual efforts, and went 1-for-7 with the man advantage.  Ottawa was 1-for-3.  There was no real deterent for the 67's from continuing to take penalties.
• You can tell where Windsor is getting their tough, 'goon' reputation from.  After the seventh goal, the Spitfires' Ben Johnson came out of the penalty box and elbowed Bell.  For the final shift, tough guy Emerson Clark was intentionally put at his unfamiliar position of center just to have his presence on the ice.
• Giftopoulos took a penalty after he tackled Salituro late in the third. before mixing it up with Gustavsen and Bell.  Not the best way to end his return to the Nation's Capital.

Three Stars as Selected by the Team1200

 

 

Hardest Working 67's: Brendan Bell 

 Random Thoughts from Behind the Bench:

•  Windsor played with a rather short bench:   9F and 5 D.  But they still have guys who's speed drew some of the 7 Ottawa penalties.  Ottawa ranks 9th overall in the league for the number of penalty minutes.
• This was certainly a more engaged effort by the team. When chatting with or listening to scouts about making it to the next level, among the things they mention is consistency - does a player play consistently from game to game. 
• Let's see what they have left in the tank for their game against divisional rival Belleville.  
• I'm sure there's a lot that players have to keep in mind while they're on the ice so it's impressing that they can also remember special goalsof their colleagues.  I'm pretty sure I saw a 67's player retrieve the puck from Daniel Walsh's first goal of the season.  Nice touch.
• Postponing the game to Saturday caused an un-planned hockey double-header at SBP as the Senators had an afternoon game.  It was a tight turn-around for the folks managing SBP but you think they would have made some effort to clean up after the NHL game.  The stands were a mess.

Some pictures from the game: 

 

Ryan Van Stralen in a familiar spot. 

  

Joseph Blandisi driving into the slot. 

  Celebrating Daniel Walsh's first goal of the season. 

Click here to see more pictures.