Alumni night in Ottawa no help as 67’s fall to Generals

Not even the karma created by having many of the top 50 players in Ottawa 67’s history on hand at TD Place could keep the current edition from losing an important Ontario Hockey League game, 4-3, to the Oshawa Generals on Friday night.

With the loss — their second in a row to the Gens after winning three of the first four this season — the 67’s dropped one point behind Oshawa and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

The evening began on a festive note as the club, celebrating its 50th anniversary, unveiled its top 50 players, with the crowd giving a rousing reception to a group of returning heroes, including originals Pierre Jarry, Murray Wilson and goaltender Gary Doyle, all of them now in their 60s.

But if the 67’s were hoping the pre-game ceremony would give them an early boost, they were wrong. The Generals opened the scoring 3:20 in on Kyle MacLean’s goal, then struck again early in the second period when Serron Noel netted his 15th of the season.

The home side rallied to tie it 2-2 on goals by Tye Felhaber and Austen Keating (short-handed) but then let the Generals retake the lead on a short-handed goal by Hayden McCool with 99 seconds to go in the frame.

In the third period, Sasha Chmelevski scored his teamleading 16th to pull the 67’s even, but again the Generals were able to forge ahead 4-3 when Kenny Huether, also with his 16th, beat netminder Olivier Tremblay less than four minutes later with the game-winner. Ottawa outshot Oshawa 36-29, including a 17-7 edge in the second period.

The 67’s are in Peterborough on Saturday night (7:05 p.m.) to face the Petes, who are only one point back in seventh place. Postmedia News