Shorthanded Petes Drag 67's To Shootout, 67's Squeak Out Win

It took a shootout to finally avoid the visitor’s trap, but the Ottawa 67’s took a 2-1 decision on Friday over a Peterborough Petes team decimated by internal suspensions.

On- and off-ice discipline, a clear concern for management in Peterborough, hasn't yet caused any huge problems for the Barberpoles, who are flying as of late.

“Our guys aren’t angels either but we try to teach them how to be good citizens,” said Jeff Brown, who from day one preached discipline and character in his locker room. 

“For (Petes head coach Jody) Hull to do that, it shows the character he has.  Their best player didn't play tonight which certainly helped us.”

Petes star Nick Ritchie, one of five Petes serving individual one-game suspensions for damaging a vehicle, was joined on the sidelines by Greg Betzold, serving his 15-game suspension for sending degrading phone messages.

Travis Konecny opened the scoring early on a perfect give-and-go with Erik Bradford coming out of the corner.  Josh MacDonald answered on the powerplay.

Despite outshooting Peterborough 11-4 in the third period, Peterborough had the two best chances of the period as Liam Herbst was forced to make point-blank saves.

“Herbst won us the game even though we outshot them with perimeter shots,” added Brown.  “They had point blank shots to win the game.  It was an ugly win.”

Brendan Bell and Nathan Todd scored in the shootout while Herbst made two more big stops.

It isn’t the first time Ottawa took advantage of a Petes roster decimated by team-enforced discipline. 

In October of 2013, the Petes took an 8-1 defeat at home to Ottawa when three regulars were made healthy scratches after pre-game warmups.

It won’t be the last time Ottawa faces a depleted Petes team, either, as they up a home-and-home with them tomorrow.

New line combos

With only one line that was a real threat 5-on-5, Brown opted to have his third line of Tyler Hill, Sam Studnicka and Trent Mallette shadow Peterborough’s top unit of Josh MacDonald, Hunter Garlent and Eric Cornel.

The checking line faced off against Peterborough’s big three for eight of their first 11 even strength shifts, before Ottawa began matching power against power in the third with their top line.

Travis Barron joined Dante Salituro and Jeremiah Addison for a few shifts on the second line. 

He may be utilized as a third liner for most of his rookie year, but all three of those players are young, there’s no reason to believe we won’t see them back together in the near future.