67’s lose hard-fought shootout
Goalie makes 37 saves to give teammates a chance
Outside of the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, there is no tougher rink in the Ontario Hockey League this seasons for a visiting team to get points in than the Essar Centre in Sault. Ste. Marie.
So the Ottawa 67’s were happy enough to escape with a point, get back on the bus and head east to Sudbury late Friday night after a hard-fought 2-1 shootout loss to the Greyhounds in front of a crowd of 4,289.
The Hounds just hardly ever lose at home as evidenced by their 11-10-2 record.
But they still needed to outscore the 67’s 2-0 in the shootout after 67’s netminder Philippe Trudeau made 37 saves through regulation and overtime to give his teammates a chance against the fourth-highest scoring team in the entire Ontario Hockey League.
The 67’s, who had won three straight, are already guaranteed a split on their northern Ontario swing and spend an off day in Sudbury before facing the Wolves Sunday afternoon.
The 67’s did an outstanding job of killing penalties all night, including a stretch of 1:46 down two men early in the second period.
They also had their chances but just couldn’t get the goal they needed against potential Team Canada Junior goaltender Matt Murray.
Joseph Blandisi had a golden chance to win it in overtime and Murray was there to make the save.
In regulation, the 67’s battled hard though the Greyhounds finally broke the ice when David Miller took a feed from behind the net and beat Trudeau with just 1:33 to play in the second period.
The 67’s got that one right back just 1:06 into the third when Travis Konecny took a feed from Ryan Van Stralen and beat Murray.
“My job is to make one more save than the other guy every night,” said Murray, who will find out this week if he’s headed to the World Junior selection camp. “(Trudeau) played outstanding. He kept them in it.”
Brendan Bell and Brett Gustavsen both missed on shootout attempts against goals by Jared McCann and Sergey Tolchinsky.
PIQUES HIT 20-WIN MARK
The surging Gatineau Olympiques became the third team to hit the 20-win plateau in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with an impressive 6-3 win over the Baie-Comeau Drakker Friday night at the Robert Guertin Arena.
Baie- Comeau led 2-1 after 20 minutes on goals by Valentin Zykov and Bokondji Imama sandwiched around one by Gatineau captain Taylor Burke.
The Olympiques took charge in the second out-scoring the visitors 4-0 with a short-handed goal by Emile Poirier, a power-play marker by rookie Alex Dostie and goals at even strength by Martin Reway and Poirier again with his 19th.