OFF TO A GOOD START
Top pick Konecny dazzles in debut as Ottawa opens season with win
Jacob Blair and a young Ottawa 67’s lineup open the Ontario Hockey League season with a victory.
The quest to become the most improved team in the entire Ontario Hockey League cannot be measured in one night but all of last season’s frustration may just have been worth it to land Travis Konecny.
With the 16-year-old leading the way, the 67’s showed uncharacteristic fight from the dismal 2012-13 edition, twice overcoming two-goal deficits before Joseph Blandisi broke a 4-4 tie with 3:20 remaining Friday night at the Canadian Tire Centre, in front of a Season Opening Night crowd of 12,379 that included former 67 star Cody Ceci, the Canadian Little League champion East Nepean Eagles and Konecny’s entire fan club, a group sure to grow exponentially in coming days and weeks.
“It’s a pretty special night,” said Konecny. “It was really a great effort by the team to come back.”
The OHL debut of Konecny, the No. 1 pick overall last May, shows two assists on the scoresheet, both of them highlight-reel passes, the first to set up teammate Sam Studnicka for the first 67’s goal of the season, the latter to set up veteran Taylor Fielding in the third. He’s also listed as the game’s first star.
What the game summary doesn’t show: Konecny’s tape-to-tape passes, his explosive speed and his ability to shoot from anywhere. It also doesn’t show Konecny on a breakaway trying to score between his legs in the final minutes of the game and the score tied 4-4.
He also has eyes in the back of his head as his second assist attested to set up Fielding with his second of the game six minutes into the third. That cut the deficit to 4-3 and Mike Vlajkov tied it on the power play at 8:38 to make it a game.
Konecny can even sell jerseys with no less than 14 No. 17s spotted in the crowd with ‘K-o-n-e-c-n-y’ on the back.
“I guess I have a pretty big family and they’ve been buying up jerseys,” he said. “I saw them.”
And seeing how the 67’s lost seven straight times to the Bulls last season before finally winning a meaningless game versus Belleville in March, the Bulls just might be a good yardstick to where the 67’s are going.
The 67’s continue their allimportant five-game homestand to open the season when the re-deployed North Bay Battalion invade Sunday at 2 p.m.
The 67’s got just the kind of start they seemed to experience nightly last season, falling behind a pair of goals before the game was six minutes old.
For starters, Brady Austin took advantage of some careless play by 67’s starting netminder Jacob Blair to covert a wraparound from behind the net at 3:27. Just 1:39 later Scott Simmonds made it 2-zip and it was 2012-13 all over again.
Instead of wilting as they might have last season, however, the 67’s came back to life courtesy of super rookie Konecny, who deftly sent a back-hand pass right onto the stick of newcomer Sam Studnicka to complete a 67’s 3-on1 at 6:31.
Ten minutes later the dependable Fielding tied it after taking a pass from Ryan Van Stralen.
“Our start is very important to us,” said 67’s head coach Chris Byrne, who watched from on high, sitting out the first of a two-game suspension. “We want to get off on the right foot.”