67’s left frustrated with refs after loss
The Oshawa Generals won Round 1 in a battle of the Ontario Hockey League’s front-runners Friday night at The Arena at TD Place.
Many of the fans on hand — and Ottawa 67’s coach Andre Tourigny — thought the refs gave the first-place Generals a big helping hand in the 3-2 victory over the second-place 67’s.
With less than a minute left, the Generals may have got away with one. Ottawa’s Noel Hoefenmayer was tripped up in his own end and Oshawa’s Brett Neumann retrieved the puck and scored the game-winning goal. The obligatory, “Ref, you suck” chants broke out in the arena.
“It was glaring, I think everybody saw it,” said Tourigny. “For me, it was unacceptable. I guess I have to live with it. It’s frustrating, but it’s even more frustrating that it happened the same in the first period — we had a 2-on-1 and we got tripped, no call. (The officials) make a call right after and (the Generals) score on their power play. It’s two in that game. I’m really frustrated about the result and I’m frustrated about the way it happened. Everybody is human — we make mistakes, they make mistakes, that stuff happens.”
Hoefenmayer said: “It’s not the way we wanted the game to end. I couldn’t really see him behind me. I just know I fell, I’m not sure what happened. Everyone makes mistakes, we just have to man up as a team, accept the way it turned out and move on.”
Ottawa is now 12-5-0, while Oshawa improved to 13-3-0 to sit on top of the East Division standings.
“We played really well,” said Tourigny. “We did a lot of positive things. We battled against a team with a lot of experience. We have a ton of injured players, I’m really proud of our team. Oshawa took the momentum halfway through the first period and for part of the second. We bounced back, we battled. They’re not an easy team to play against.”
The game was tied 1-1 after the first period. At 8:06 into the period, Alec Belanger wristed a wellplaced shot into the net after some great patience by defenceman Kevin Bahl, who circled the net before passing.
Ottawa goalie Cedric Andree made a big save on Generals captain Kyle MacLean. Then the 67’s had another great opportunity, but what looked like a great defensive play prevented Mitchell Hoelscher from knocking the puck into the net. Oshawa tied the game when Neumann broke down the right wing and rifled a shot past Andree with 2:26 left in the period.
After Ottawa’s Quinn Yule took a cross-checking penalty, Serron Noel wristed a shot into the 67’s net to make it 2-1 for the visitors 3:36 into the middle period.
The 67’s tied the game in the third period when Keating took advantage of a nice bounce and fired the puck into an open Oshawa net at 5:26.
ICE CHIPS: Attendance for Toonie Beer Night was 4,250 ... Up next for the 67’s is a Sunday afternoon game in Peterborough. The 67’s will be on the road next week, playing Thursday in Saginaw, Saturday in Flint and Sunday in Sarnia.