67’s short on mercy against wounded Gens
The Ottawa 67’s certainly weren’t feeling sorry for the short-handed Oshawa Generals Friday and eventually wore them down for a 5-3 win at TD Place.
The Generals came to town with just 10 forwards and six defenceman then lost forward Eric Henderson to a match penalty for a slew foot early in the third period.
During that five-minute power play, 67’s captain Travis Barron scored his second goal of the game to tie it at 3-3. Austen Keating scored the winner 12 minutes into the period as he redirected a slap pass from Noel Hoefenmayer into the net for a 4-3 lead.
Keating scored into an empty net with 28 seconds left to seal the win ahead of a rematch Sunday in Oshawa.
“It was the end of my shift and I knew there wasn’t much time left and the end of a penalty kill, so I was just trying to get the puck out and it was a bit of a fortunate bounce,” said Keating, whose backhand from inside his own blue-line rolled the length of the ice into the empty net.
“I’ll take them any way I can get them.”
Sasha Chmelevski also scored for the 67’s (11-8-1), who got a 21-save performance from Olivier Tremblay.
Allan McShane scored all three goals for the Generals (8-8-1), who have now lost four straight including three last weekend when they were outscored 16-3.
A goal from each side in the first had the teams level heading into the first intermission.
Barron opened the scoring at 2:19 on a one-timer from the slot that beat Cole Ceci, younger brother of Ottawa Senators defenceman Cody Ceci. Just 80 second later, the Generals tied the game when McShane found a loose puck at the side of the net and lifted it over the glove of a sprawling Tremblay with 67’s forward Nolan Gardiner serving a slashing minor.
Although the teams were tied after the opening period, the 67’s outshot the Generals 14-4. They also had five power plays in the period, including a 4-on-3 and another extended 5-on-3 to close out the period.
“The first two periods I don’t think we were detailed enough even though we had a lot of shots,” 67’s coach Andre Tourigny said.
“In the third period we had another gear and we showed it. It’s human nature. They had a lot of injury or guys out of the lineup, but they worked really hard and put us in a tough position.”
Chmelevski scored 37 seconds into the second period as the first penalty on the 5-on-3 was about to expire, but that was the only thing that went for the 67’s in the period.
McShane scored his second power-play goal of the game when he beat Tremblay from the top of the circle at 2:21 to tie the game 2-2.
McShane then completed a 2-on1 to complete his hat trick when he took a pass from Domenico Commisso and slid a back-hand underneath Tremblay at 6:37 to give the Generals their first lead of the game.
“It showed a lot of character in the group. Obviously our first two periods weren’t our best hockey, but we were fortunate to have eight or nine power plays, so we got a lot of shots,” Keating said.
“In the third period we came out and played the hockey we wanted to play and that’s why we were successful.”
The win allowed the 67’s to earn a split in their recent four games at home.