67’s playoff run ends with loss to Niagara
ICEDOG S 5 , 67 ’ S 2 IceDogs win series 4-1
TERRY KOSHAN
Leo Lazarev could have used a little help from his friends on Friday night.
The Ottawa 67’s goaltender watched from his crease as his teammates were unable to mount much of an offence against the Niagara IceDogs, and the pop-gun attack at the Meridian Centre helped bring an end to the 67’s season.
Before a capacity crowd of 5,300, the IceDogs beat the 67’s 5-2 to win the Ontario Hockey League Eastern Conference best-of-seven quarter-final in five games.
Ottawa mustered 24 shots on IceDogs goalie Alex Nedeljkovic and didn’t score on six power plays. There never was the feeling the 67’s, who gave up 34 shots on goal, were going to start peppering the Niagara netminder.
That Ottawa was able to win one game in the series, as well as end the regular season with a 36-29-2-1 record after trading captain Travis Konecny to the Sarnia Sting in January, was a testament to the club’s resolve.
There’s a solid group of youngsters moving forward and this playoff experience, though brief, should help the maturation process in 2016-17.
“We fought to the end and I’m really proud of our guys,” 67’s coach Jeff Brown said.
“We just ran out of a little steam. We leaned on too few guys. We just did not have the depth that (the IceDogs) had. It was tough sledding.
“These games are priceless for (the members of the 67’s who will return next season). Next year they are going to have so much more confidence come playoff time.”
The series win marked the fourth time in nine seasons since moving to the Niagara region from Mississauga that the IceDogs eliminated the 67’s from the playoffs, and the second year in a row it happened in the opening round.
Ottawa has ousted Niagara once in the same span, that coming in 2010, also in the first round.
Though the IceDogs had one goal disallowed because the play was ruled to be offside, there was a later Niagara goal that was allowed to stand that Brown thought was offside.
With that, the coach wasn’t happy. “Why have video review if it is not used? I don’t know,” Brown said.
“Those kinds of things are frustrating. That is black and white to me. It’s one thing for questionable calls on the ice, but when it is black and white on a video screen, I don’t know how we can’t use that. And if we’re not going to, let’s not use it ever because it is not fair.”
That in mind, Brown took nothing away from the IceDogs, saying the 67’s were beaten by “a better team.”
“It is a tough pill to swallow, especially when you look after the deadline and the trade we went through,” said defenceman Jake Middleton, who was named cap- tain after Konecny was dealt.
“We turned a lot of heads, so for it to end this shortly, it’s a bit of a buzzkill for us. We spoke right after that trade and we said we weren’t throwing in the towel. There was none of that. It was just we were a little younger. We battled hard and I can’t be more proud of the guys.”