PREVIEW: 67's Season On The Line in Game 6

The last time the Ottawa 67's staved off elimination at the hands of the Niagara IceDogs was in March of 2009, when Ottawa's goaltending situation was as unpredictable as ever.

That night, Adam Courchaine pitched a shutout to keep the season alive.

Ottawa's going to need some more game six goaltending magic this afternoon to keep the 2015 season going.

The Barberpoles were bounced from the 2009 playoffs the next night in a heartbreaking overtime loss, but they pushed the series to the brink -- a duplicate performance is all Jeff Brown is asking for at this point.

"We have one game to win," he said after game five's blowout loss.  "We've won some games in some tough barns and we proved we can do it."

Ottawa will also have to do it without their main source of offence, Travis Konecny.

Whether Liam Herbst gets a chance to redeem his rough game five, or rookie Leo Lazarev gets thrown to the dogs, Ottawa needs their netminder to give them a chance to win game six.

"We're just scoring"

Jeff Brown's post-game two comments seem to have fallen on deaf ears when he insisted his team wasn't playing the right way and "just scoring".

The offence hasn't gone totally dry, but it's a far cry from the offensive outbursts in the first two games.

Keys to the game

Niagara:

• Protect the middle of the slot (see above)
• Play keep-away vs. Salituro-Addison line, Ottawa's biggest threat
• Don't let Ottawa establish a cycle game

Ottawa:

• Set the tone, get the crowd out of it, same as game four
• Play with urgency and desperation
• Keep playing Mallette vs. Ho-Sang, Dunn
• Create offence without Konecny again (4-1-0 w/o him, 19 GF)

Scrambled lines

Ottawa's lineup by the end of game five didn't look much like it did at the opening faceoff.  Travis Barron took several shifts on the top line and without Konecny, there doesn't seem to be any reason he won't move back to the top-six in some capacity.

If the season hangs in the balance anyways, there's no reason to not give the team's top rookie some valuable playoff experience.

Game five lineups

Ottawa 67’s  

Brendan Bell – Nathan Todd – Travis Konecny
Jeremiah Addison – Sam Studnicka – Dante Salituro
Travis Barron – Curtis Meighan – Trent Mallette
Mike Vlajkov – Ben Fanjoy – Adam Craievich

Jake Middleton – Alex Lintuniemi
Nevin Guy – Evan de Haan
Zack Pittman – Taylor Davis

Liam Herbst
Leo Lazarev 

Scratched
Brandon Lukezic
Ryan Orban
Conor Graham
Dylan McDonald 

Niagara IceDogs

Brendan Perlini – Carter Verhaeghe – Cody Payne
Billy Jenkins – Jordan Maletta – Josh Ho-Sang
Anthony DiFruscia – Mikkel Aagaard – Graham Knott
Johnny Corneil – Christopher Paquette – Mitchell Fitzmorris

Vince Dunn – Aaron Haydon
Blake Siebenaler – Ryan Mantha
Zach Wilkie – Brian Brosnan

Brandon Hope
Brent Moran

Scratched
Matt Gillard 
Jonathan Schaefer
Aleksandar Mikulovich 

Head-to-head

Ottawa:
Goals For- 24
Goals Against- 25

PDO- 1.046 (inflated shooting percentage)

Niagara:

Goals For- 25

Goals Against- 24

PDO- 0.97 (slightly deflated shooting%)

Specialty teams

Ottawa:

PP- 23.8% (7th in league) *was 6th

PK- 81.2% (8th in league) *was 8th

Niagara:

PP- 18.8 % (9th in league) *was 9th

PK- 76.2% (10th in league) *was 11th

Top performers

Ottawa:

Travis Konecny- 3 goals, 10 points in 5 games

Jeremiah Addison- 6 goals, 9 points in 5 games

Dante Salituro- 4 goals, 8 points in 5 games

Niagara:

Josh Ho-Sang- 1 goal, 8 points in 5 games

Vince Dunn- 5 goals, 7 points in 5 games

Brendan Perlini- 4 goals, 7 points in 5 games

NHL Draft Picks

Ottawa:

Alex Lintuniemi – Los Angeles Kings (2nd round, 2014)

Jacob Middleton – Los Angeles Kings (7th round, 2014)

Travis Konecny – ranked #26 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Jeremiah Addison – ranked #127 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Dante Salituro – ranked #145 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Liam Herbst – ranked #14 of North American Goalies in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Niagara:

Brendan Perlini – Arizona Coyotes (1st round, 2014)

Josh Ho-Sang – New York Islanders (1st round, 2014)

Carter Verhaeghe – Toronto Maple Leafs (3rd round, 2013)

Blake Siebenaler – Columbus Blue Jackets (3rd round, 2014)

Brent Moran – Dallas Stars (4th round, 2014)

Ryan Mantha – New York Rangers (4th round, 2014)

Cody Payne – Boston Bruins (5th round, 2012)

Aaron Haydon – Dallas Stars (6th round, 2014)

Vince Dunn – ranked #53 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Graham Knott – ranked #54 of North American Skaters in CSS’ Midterm rankings

Ottawa connections

Brent Moran – Orleans native

Billy Jenkins – Ottawa native

Schedule

Game 1 - Thu Mar 26 7:00 PM Niagara 5 at Ottawa 8

Game 2 - Sat Mar 28 1:00 PM Niagara 2 at Ottawa 8

Game 3 - Mon Mar 30 7:00 PM Ottawa 2 at Niagara 6

Game 4 - Wed Apr 1 7:00 PM Ottawa 3 at Niagara 4  OT

Game 5 - Fri Apr 3 7:30 PM Niagara 8 at Ottawa 3

Game 6 - Sun Apr 5 2:00 PM Ottawa at Niagara

Game 7 - Tue Apr 7 7:00 PM * Niagara at Ottawa

*if necessary