Petes’ goalie steals one from 67’s

The Ottawa 67's crack promotions department had a little fun with a night themed after the legendary TV show Friends, complete with a snippet of a famous scene starring the likes of 67's Noel Hoefenmayer, Austen Keating and Merrick Rippon.

The three re-created a scene in a prés-game video where Chandler, Joey and Ross unsuccessfully try to move a sofa up a curved stairwell and it came off quite well.

Sixty minutes of hockey later, however, no 67's player was laughing and Peterborough Petes goaltender Hunter Jones was certainly no friend of the home side.

The second-round pick of the Minnesota Wild made 34 saves to stone the 67's 3-1 before a TD Place crowd of 3,032 Friday night despite Ottawa outshooting their opponents 35-18.

It was the first night of many for the 67's without leading goal-scorer Graeme Clarke to injury and if ever there was a game they could have used him, it was against the Petes — especially in a second period when the Ottawa outshot the visitors 19-3 and wound up outscored 1-0.

“(Jones) is one of the best in the league: he's going to world juniors (for Team USA) and he showed why,” said Keating, who had the 67's lone goal with just 1:28 to play in the game. “But at the end of the day, we needed more bodies to the net and into the dirty areas.

“Yes, it would be nice to have Grammer. He's a big loss. This was a tough one (to lose).”

Immediately on Thursday night,

At the end of the day, we needed more bodies to the net and into the dirty areas.

after finding out he needed potentially season-ending surgery, Clarke texted linemates Keating and Marco Rossi. Keating said the news was difficult to take.

“That's hockey and it's (Clarke's) future,” said Keating. “We just feel bad for him. He is such a great kid on and off the ice.”

As for Petes, the 67's just never did have an answer for Jones and, fortunately, they get right back at it Sunday afternoon to celebrate the 85th birthday of Brian Kilrea around facing the Hamilton Bulldogs.

As expected, any contest between Ottawa and Peterborough figures to be a match-up between two of the league's top goaltenders with 67's Cedrick Andree and Jones two of only six goalies in the league with goals-against under 3.00.

And it went pretty much to script until the Petes' Liam Kirk fired an innocent-looking shot from deep in the corner that some how trickled past Andree with 11 seconds remaining in the opening period.

The 67's showed a burst early in the second only to have two of the Petes with Ottawa and Ottawa Valley connections combine to give Peterborough a 2-0 lead, with Pembroke's Mason McTavish giving Ottawa's Cameron Butler a perfect feed for a goal at 4:16. It was the fourth of the season for Butler after an impressive 18-goal rookie campaign.

Ottawa pressed the Petes all period long, especially in the final minutes, firing shot after shot at Jones, only to be denied, sometimes with the 67's making one pass too many.

Keating gave them a chance before Max Grondin iced it with an empty-netter.

“Am I frustrated?” said 67's head coach Andre Tourigny. “Of course I am. I hate to lose. But it was one of those nights. (Jones) stood tall and looked confident.

“But I am trying to find a negative and other than the result, I can't find one.”