COLTS RUN OVER 67’S
Tough loss in home opener
Guaranteed-win day certainly didn’t work out as well as the Ottawa 67’s had hoped.
The Barrie Colts took advantage of disorganized play by the powerplay unit and in the 67’s defensive zone, to sneak out of TD Place arena with a 7-5 victory in an Ontario Hockey League game on Sunday afternoon.
The defeat in their home opener meant not only that 67’s ticket-department staffers would have to deal with requests from freebies for future games from the spectators in the announced crowd of 5,073, but also that players could expect a generous helping of tough love from head coach Jeff Brown.
His comments after the 67’s went 0-for-7 with the man advantage and allowed the Colts to cruise around the ice surface with relative impunity were pointed, to say the least.
“(Sunday’s) power play was an embarrassment,” Brown said. “We spent an hour on it yesterday, and I just wasted my time. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to accomplish out there. If guys don’t work, nothing is going to work, and certainly, if guys don’t listen, nothing is going to work.”
The point should be underlined that the 67’s have a relatively youthladen roster and the new season is just two games old, with Thursday’s 5-3 win in Peterborough balancing Sunday’s home loss against the Colts. Still, Brown’s message has merit because no hockey team will succeed if it continues to offer up the plentiful scoring chances that the Colts enjoyed.
67’s netminder Leo Lazarev was left on his own far too often. He wasn’t great, but it was far from his fault alone that Lazarev was beaten six times on 32 shots before Olivier Lafrenière replaced him midway through the third period.
A weak clearing attempt led to the first Colts goal; the second came on a short-handed breakaway; the third was scored by a Colts skater who had all the time in the world to make his move as he skated through the 67’s defensive zone to the net. The Colts added later goals on a snap shot that clanged in off the crossbar, a tipin during a power play, a screened shot through an assortment of bodies in front of the crease and one into an empty net with Lafrenière on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
For the record, Anthony Stefano scored the last two for Barrie (2-0-0), with single goals by Kyle Heitzner, Zachary Magwood, Matt Brassard, Kirill Nizhnikov and Cordell James.
Chase Campbell scored twice for the 67’s (1-1-0), with Kody Clark, Ben Fanjoy and Drake Rymsha adding other goals for the squad that next weekend makes an extended road trip to Sarnia, Saginaw and Flint before returning home to face the Kingston Frontenacs on Oct. 6.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Rymsha said. “Road trips are the best time to acclimate everybody, and you kind of get to know everybody a little bit more.”
The stop in Sarnia will mark the first trip back there for Campbell and Sasha Chmelevski since the 67’s acquired them from the Sting in the multi-player, multi-draftpick deal that sent Travis Konecny the other way in January.
“I’m excited,” said Chmelevski, who played only five games for the 67’s last season because his collarbone was broken on a hit by a Peterborough Petes player shortly after the transaction and who was making his 2016-17 season debut on Sunday after playing in the CCM/USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game at Philadelphia last Thursday.
“Anytime you get to play against a team, your old team that traded you, it’s definitely an exciting thing. I think it’s going to be very competitive, and it will mean a lot to me.”
67’s left-winger Travis Barron injured his left knee slightly last week at the training camp of the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche, so he’s not yet available, and overage defenceman Jacob Middleton remains in San Jose Sharks camp.
Sure, it would help the 67’s if they returned, particularly so with the expected contribution Middleton would make for an otherwise youthful defensive corps, but Brown’s comments suggested even that wouldn’t cure all the problems.
“We’re in a situation where a couple of good players are out of the lineup, but if the rest of the guys play like they did (Sunday), two guys aren’t going to make a difference,” Brown said. “It’s a team game.”
Colts netminder David Ovsjannikov stopped 19 of the 24 shots he faced, and his team was 1-for-7 on the power play.