67’s edge Rangers 4-3

OTTAWA – Shane Prince scored the game winner against his former team as the Ottawa 67’s defeated the visiting Kitchener Rangers 4-3 in regulation Friday night. That marked Prince’s team leading 5^thgame winning goal of the season.

With the help of some undisciplined play from the Rangers, the 67’s flew out of the gates in the first period firing 14 shots on goaltender John Gibson. However, it was the Rangers that drew first blood. Tomas Rieder picked up the puck behind the net and passed it to Ryan Murphy who was right in the slot and wired it past Petr Mrazek.

The 67’s tied it up on the two man advantage after some great puck movement. Tyler Toffoli scored his 36^th of the season after knocking it in off his own rebound. A turnover from Stephen Midensky leads to a 2-on-1 attack. Tyler Graovac jams in big rebound off a shot by Steven Janes. A big relief off of Graovac has it was his first in 15 games.

Off a great feed through traffic from Tyler Toffoli, Sean Monahan shot the puck into the top corner of the net to give the 67’s a two-goal lead. The Kitchener Rangers would respond on the powerplay. NHL top ranked 2012 prospect Radek Faksa notches his 20^th of the season after he grabbed a rebound off of Marc Zanetti’s skate and shot it in to the net top glove-hand side.

The Kitchener Rangers continued to press and it paid off midway through the third period. A great heads up play, Tobias Rieder made a crisp pass to Andrew Crescenzi in the high slot & fired it past Mrazek to tie the game at 3 on the powerplay.

After some great saves on both ends of the ice, Shane Prince came up clutch and jammed in a rebound on the side of the net from Cody Ceci’s point shot to close out the scoring.

The 67’s finish the weekend with a 3-0-0 sweep and outscored their opponents 21-10.

UP NEXT:

The Ottawa 67’s will host the Yakupov-less Sarnia Sting Friday night at 7:00pm. The time change is to accommodate the broadcast on Rogers Sportsnet. Meanwhile, the Kitchener Rangers will continue on the road for one more game when they travel to London Wednesday night to take on the Knights at 7:00pm.

67’s spank Gens 8-3

OTTAWA – After steamrolling over the Peterborough Petes 9-4 just the night before, the 67’s didn’t seem to want to let up.  Steven Janes had a pair of goals and an assist enroute to lead the Ottawa 67’s to an 8-3 victory over the Oshawa Generals Friday night.

However, it wasn’t like that all game.  The early first period, the Gens were all over the 67’s with Petr Mrazek standing tall in net.  It wasn’t until after two fights broke out that we would see the first goal scored in the game.  With the Generals killing a penalty in the final minute, Boone Jenner breaks away with Nicklas Jensen and sets him up to beat Mrazek shorthanded sending the 67’s away with a one goal deficit after the first.

The 67’s regrouped during the first intermission and came out of the gate flying scoring two quick goals within 44 seconds.  With a powerplay extended over into the second, Marc Zanetti fired a shot from the point that made its way through the traffic and past Nepean native Daniel Altshuller.  Next, John McFarland sneaks in and shoots it top shelf and in.

The Gens would respond.  Off a great feed from Lucas Lessio, Nicklas Jensen tips it the puck past Mrazek to tie the game up at 2.  Cody Ceci regained the 67’s lead after sending a bullet shot from the point into the back of the net.  Less than 40 seconds later, Steven Janes would give the 67’s the go ahead goal after catching a big rebound.  The 67’s wouldn’t stop there.  Jake Cardwell scored Ottawa’s 3^rd powerplay goal of the period increasing their lead to 3 goals chasing Altshuller from nets after the second.

Kevin Bailie would replace Altshuller at the beginning of the 3^rd period.  Just over a minute in, Tyler Toffoli notches his 35^th goal of the season after the bouncing puck hit Julian Melchiori and in the net.  Sebastian Uvira cut the 67’s lead in half after taping a puck trickling past Mrazek.  The Gens fired 12 more shots his way, but couldn’t solve Mrazek.  Dalton Smith and Steven Janes would round out the scoring to add to the 12 different 67’s players that touched the scoresheet.

NEXT UP:

The Ottawa 67’s will host the Kitchener Rangers in a Sunday afternoon matchup at 2pm.  The Oshawa Generals host the Kingston Frontenacs Saturday night at 7:05pm.  The Fronts just came off a 9-1 romping of the Kitchener Rangers Friday night.

Toffoli nets 300th point as 67’s stomp 6-1 over Bulls

OTTAWA – After a disappointing effort Friday night, the 67’s stormed out of the gates and bounced back quickly.  Petr Mrazek stopped 37 of 38 shots while Jake Cardwell led the way in scoring with 2 goals and an assist.

The Ottawa 67’s struck first.  Shane Prince made a nice feed to Cardwell who was sitting on the doorstep and tapped it past Charlie Graham in the Bulls net.  This opened the flood gates.  Less than 4 minutes later Tyler Toffoli would score his league leading 34^th goal of the season and his 300^th OHL career point.  Just over a minute later, Shane Prince would give the 67’s a 3-goal lead.  Off an outstanding individual effort, he went forehand to backhand putting the puck in the back of the net after catching Graham in bad positioning.

Head coach George Burnett quickly called a timeout to gather his troops.  The Bulls tightened up defensively and did not allow any more goals in the 1^st period.

After some great saves by Graham, the 67’s would crack him again.  Dalton Smith tipped his 12^th goal of the season off a Cody Ceci point shot.  Deja-vu for the Bulls when Cardwell would score his second of the game 51 seconds later off a great play by Tyler Graovac.

The Bulls finally responded when Joseph Cramarossa would get a hold of a big rebound from Brendan Gaunce’s original shot breaking Mrazek’s shutout bid.  But that didn’t silence the 67’s, newly acquired Mike Cazzola went top shelf to regain the 67’s 5-goal lead and round out the scoring.

The 67’s and Bulls went scoreless in the 3^rd period, but it wasn’t for a lack of shooting.  Each team saw some big saves on both sides of the ice with the shots ending 40-38 in favour of the 67’s.

NEXT UP:

The Ottawa 67’s travel to Peterborough to face the Petes on Thursday night at 7:05pm & return to Ottawa on Friday night hosting the Oshawa Generals at 7:30pm.
The Belleville Bulls host the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors on Wednesday night at 7:05pm.

Smith leads 67’s to 7-2 win over Bulls

OTTAWA – Dalton Smith scored his first career hat trick to lead the Ottawa 67’s to a 7-2 romping over the Belleville Bulls Friday night.

With Petr Mrazek returning late Friday night and Malcolm Subban recovering from a groin injury, both teams were without their number one goaltender.  Michael Nishi stole the show making 38 saves on the night while John Chartrand had a rougher night letting in 7 goals on 31 shots.

Shane Prince opened the scoring after picking the pocket of sophomore Dylan Corson along the halfboards and wristing it in the high slot past Chartrand.  Under 1 minute later on the penalty kill, Tyler Toffoli made a great move to get past the Bulls’ defender and his shot just squeaked past the goaltender which seemed to rattle Chartrand.

Feeding off the tense goaltender, the 67’s would score two quick goals in the final minute of the first period after a series of unfortunate events for the Bulls.  Smith picked up his first goal of the night after grabbing the rebound off Cody Ceci’s point shot.  Moments later, Prince scored his second of the game off a turnover in the offensive zone.

The Bulls seemed to regroup in the second period and outshot the 67’s 17-10 for the 20 minutes.  With Tyler Graovac off in the box for interference, Austen Brassard rifled a shot over the shoulder of Nishi blocker side to break the shutout bid and extend his goal scoring streak to 6 games and his point streak to 9 games.

In the third period, Alex Carnevale made a nifty move to deke the defender and goaltender to cut the 67’s lead in half.  It looked as if the Bulls were making another comeback, but they could not generate any more offense.

Just over one minute later, the 67’s responded.  Toffoli, Monahan and Smith combined in a beautiful tic-tac-toe play as Smith tipped the puck top corner and in the net to regain a 3 goal lead.  The high flying 67’s offense was too much for the Bulls to handle as Smith and Ceci add one more each to round out the scoring.

NEXT UP:
The 67’s will travel to Belleville for the second of the home-and-home series tonight at 7:05pm.

THREE STAR SELECTION:
1. Dalton Smith
2. Tyler Toffoli
3. Shane Prince

NOTES:  Ottawa was 1 for 2 on the powerplay while Belleville went 1 for 3 …  Tyler Toffoli jumps into first place overall in OHL goal scorers with 31 goals while Monahan moves into a tie in 5^th with 23 goals … Austen Brassard extends his goal scoring streak to 6 games and his point streak to 9 games .… Adam Payerl’s point streak ends at 5 games after he was held scoreless … Joseph Cramarossa had an assist in his Bulls debut after being acquired from Mississauga … Ottawa acquired forward John McFarland from Saginaw in exchange for rookie forward David Perklin & a 4^th round pick … Petr Mrazek flew into Ottawa late Friday night … Petr Mrazek and McFarland are expected to be in the lineup tonight.