Liam Herbst’ return to the scene of the crime -- the incident that caused his
lingering head injury suffered in December – was a successful one.
Although for Herbst and the 67’s, on this night, they
received the necessary help from the stripes on a Belleville hit that crossed
the line.
Unlike Jordan Subban’s fly-by headshot on Herbst earlier in the season that went unpenalized, Belleville’s Stephen Harper was ejected for a slew-foot on Adam Craievich, the catalyst for Ottawa’s comeback.
Down 3-2 late in the second, Jeremiah Addison scored on the
ensuing powerplay to tie the game, while Dante Salituro put up another
powerplay marker in the third and Travis Konecny added a third unanswered
tally, giving the visitors a 5-3 victory.
Herbst, no longer any worse-for-wear, put in his best
performance of the past week, collecting 22 stops for the win.
Things weren’t so pleasant in a first period that saw the
Barberpoles caught running around a bit.
Ex-67 Brett Gustavsen scored again against the team that
drafted him midway through the first.
23 seconds later, Connor Graham roofed a wrister on Charlie Graham,
a goal that had a calming effect on the bench.
Even with another Gustavsen marker in the second and Brett
Welychka’s tap-in to give the home side a 3-2 lead, the game never seemed out of
the 67’s control in the back half of the game.
Quips via Cogeco
Alex Lintuniemi, caught out of position on the third
Belleville goal;
“We talked about it in the locker room that it’s playoff
hockey from now on, just grinding it out.
We just have to keep playing our game.”
Jeremiah Addison, who jammed home the tying marker near the
end of the second;
“It's been a
bit of a track meet. I think we’ve got to slow that down and play some more
solid defence. We’ve got to up our compete level. We can take control of this
game easily.”
Judging by the final 30
minutes, he was clearly right.
Game sheet here.
The 67’s wrap up this
home-and-home on Friday before a home-and-home with Kingston.
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