ROUND 2 GAME 6 – Sudbury at Ottawa (17-Apr) – Ottawa Wins Series 4-2! Woo Hoo! Bring On The Petes!

The 67s win 7-4 over the Wolves. See OHL game summary here. See also the 67s’ playoff site here.


IN THE NEWS
From the Ottawa Sun Barre Campbell writes Wolves gone in a puff. Snippet:

And, as usual, goalie Danny Battochio provided stellar play in net, making 38 saves.

"At the start of the series, I had something to prove," said the 19-year-old Sudbury-area native.

"Beating the home-town team just feels so good. It's real hard to put into words how I feel, but it means a lot."

Also by Don Brennan, Wolves' attack no match for Mancari. Mancari on Musselman:

"He came to the room and said he hoped I was all right, that he was glad to see me playing," Mancari told Cheapseats following his three-goal -- all on breakaways -- one-assist performance. "I said to him I didn't expect the suspension to be that long. I mean, I knew he'd be suspended and it's not my job to say how long it should be ... but life is a pretty long time, for me."

And Akeson on his goal:

"I didn't know where the puck was," said Akeson. "I knew it hit his pad, so I just tried to push him in. I just wanted to go to the net and see what would happen."

Ha! This is SO true:

A 67's playoff ticket: $15. Parking at the Civic Centre: $5. A digestible hotdog: $2. Having a pigeon crap on your head: Priceless.

From the Ottawa Citizen Chris Yzerman Next stop, Peterborough. Snippet:

"We went into the (dressing) room, we didn't think of it as Game 6," Mancari said. "We know how good (the Wolves) are in their rink, and we know how good we are in ours, so we weren't thinking there was no other game. This was Game 7. We were going to go out hard and we're going to win."

From SLAM! Sports, 67's eliminate Wolves.

From the Sudbury Star Scott Mitchell writes, Wolves sent packing. Snippets:

“It’s probably one of the hardest buildings to play in when they’ve got almost 10,000 fans in there, but during playoffs you’ve just got to try to find a way to win, and obviously they were fired up and we just couldn’t get it done today,” said Wolves assistant captain Bobby Chaumont.

Fans make a difference!

From Northern Life Scott Hunter Haddow writes, Great season for Wolves ends in defeat in Ottawa.

And Peterborough is ready for Ottawa! From Peterborough This Week Mike Lacey writes, It's Petes, 67s in OHL conference final. And from the Peterborough Examiner Mike Davies writes, Petes-67's already in conflict.

PRE-GAME NOTES
The game was broadcast on radio (TEAM 1200/Dave Schreiber and AJ Jakubec) and television (Rogers Television 22/Scott MacArthur, Ed Hand, and Lee Versage). A couple of quick notes:

*Beech to get the start.
*For fans: In a pre-game interview AJ had with Sean Howard (Sudbury scout) he asked him why it’s so difficult for teams to come and play in the Civic Centre. Howard said [paraphrasing] that prior to London’s arena, there wasn’t another arena that has 10,000 seats. Coming in here for a lot of teams, the kids are in awe. Also, with all the bodies in here it is very warm and humid. The corners are different. And with the noisemakers, 8 to 10 thousand sound more like 10 to 15 thousand.

PRE-GAME INTERVIEW w/ KILLER (AJ)
(On Game 5) It wasn’t a good game. In the first period you fall behind with so many goals. For them to get four goals is not usual. The second and third we started playing better but it was too little too late.
(On pulling Battochio) Our guys need to realize the importance of Danny. We can’t look back, need to look forward.
(On Stortini in front of the net in Game 5) He’s the captain and he had a good game for them. The whole team played well. They had good performances from the whole team.
(On Sudbury’s chances) Maybe some didn’t realize that they ended up ahead of us in the standings, and they didn’t get there by accident.

PRE-GAME INTERVIEW w/ BICKELL (AJ)
(What the team needs to do in Game 6) We don’t want to go back to Sudbury, we need to work hard. We just need to forecheck the D, drive hard, and get to the net.
(Role of Bickell/Bonello/Mancari line in Game 6) We need to stir some stuff up, get the crowd into it, hopefully get some bounces come our way.
(The atmosphere/fans) The crowd is great here. They’re always supportive. Hopefully we can get the win.

LINE UP
*Forwards: McGinn, Talbot, Hulit; Bickell, Bonello, Mancari; Akeson, Petruzalek, Kaspar; VanderVeeken, Ouellette, Alphonso.
*Defensive pairings: Colbert, Joslin; Staubitz, Van Herpt; Lawrance, Beard.
*Starting in goal: Battochio, and Guadagnolo as back-up.
*Scratches: Spezza, Jarram, and Kiriakou (healthy), and Lahey (inj-conc) and Reid (inj-leg).

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
First Period. The 67s came out strong and in control. There was some concern that they would come out over-excited, hitting everything in sight, getting penalties, etc. Akeson (Akeson!) scored first on the first shot on goal. It was a real messy goal – Kaspar got tied up with 2 Sudbury players, while Akeson barrelled toward the net along with a Sudbury D-man, Crouch I think.

One shot, one goal . . . off to a great start.

First goal celebration.

The 67s got the first PP of the game, but were not able to score. Mancari got called for slashing on Christison, and while they were PKing, Bonello was called for tripping Pouliot in neutral ice. That gave the Wolves a 5-on-3. The 67s (Talbot, Colbert, and Staubitz) killed off the first penalty, but were unsuccessful with the second. Mancari, back on the ice from the penalty box, was without his stick; he had given it to Staubitz when his broke. Baker scored, tying it up 1-1. It was a nice goal for Sudbury. Baker was all alone to Battochio’s left, and Battochio couldn’t get over in time.

The 67s came back 15 seconds later to regain the lead (2-1). A nice goal by Kaspar, who scooped it up and over Beech into the net. And Bonello scored a PP goal, making it 3-1 for Ottawa. (Hastings hit Hulit, knocking his helmet off.)

Bonello scores, everyone celebrates!

The 67s had good offence in the first period – the three goals, one a PP, plus Bickell had one shot hit the post. They were all working hard, and I especially noticed Akeson, Petruzalek, and Kaspar – skating fast, fore-checking hard. Battochio made two awesome glove saves. He just stuck out his left arm and snapped up the puck – quick like a frog after bugs. The SOG at the end of the period were 11 for Ottawa and 14 for Sudbury. Ottawa was up 4-1.

Second Period. Hulit took another hard hit, knocked the wind out of him? He was okay after recuperating on the bench. He’s been on the end of a lot of physical play over this series. Mancari, with a pass on his stick from Bonello – a beautiful spin-a-rama pass backwards – scored SH on Beech (4-1). In came Ehelechner, and the revolving g-tending could not have been a good sign to Sudbury fans.

Hulit scored to make it 5-1 for Ottawa on the PP. The initial shot, a bullet by Kaspar hit Ehelechner in the mask, the crack clearly heard despite the noise in the rink. Ehelechner was tended by the Sudbury trainer; he even came to the bench and Beech skated into the goal. But in the end Ehelechner was able to resume play.

Stortini was looking really frustrated – he was doing everything he could to keep his team pushing hard.

Stortini takes out both Ottawa D-men at the same time!

Pouliot scored to make it 5-2. The 67s were caught standing around for this goal. With a few minutes left in the period, Mancari scored on a break-away, making it 6-2. It’s to the point where you see him take off down the ice and you rise up out of your seat in anticipation! (Used to get that all the time when Locke and Foy would tear off down the ice.) Love that.

Battochio out to congratulate his teammates.

Lawrance and DiDiomete tusseled, neither really getting in any good shots, but with DiDiomete taking Lawrance to the ice. SOG at the end of the period were 27 for Ottawa and 26 for Sudbury (a first for Ottawa to have more?). The score was 6-2 for Ottawa.

Third Period. Baker cut the 67s’ lead to 3 (6-3), with his second goal early in the third. Battochio stopped the first shot, but Baker was positioned in the right spot to get the rebound and pop it into the net. This goal really pumped up the Wolves. They weren’t out of things yet. They really started pressing with about 10 minutes left to go. Pouliot took a bad penalty – a frustration type shot on Battochio – which they killed off.

Mancari scored another goal (hat trick!) on the breakaway to make it 7-3. He did it on the back hand this time, and it was another seat raiser. StatsGuy got to throw another hat, which I think was his fourth this season. (Brennan noted in his article linked above that there were only 7 hats thrown, which was weak. We agree. Everyone should have thrown their hat for that performance. Maybe people don't realize that they can go and pick them up after the game if they want them back.)

To Sudbury’s credit, they kept battling until the last seconds, with a final goal by McDonough (who was working hard in the game) to make it 7-4. SOG were 37 for Ottawa and 42 for Sudbury. Ottawa won 7-4.

Ottawa wins Game 6!

The handshakes were a nice ending to a very physical series. It was good to see Mancari and Musselman shake hands, also to see Battochio get the congrats from the opponents who peppered him throughout the series.

The best was seeing Battochio come out for his first star with his arms above his head – the first real emotion we’ve seen from him on the ice! He’s been so focused and steady. Definitely the star of the series.

Two final notes and a few pics:

*Kudos to the Sudbury fans who made the trek to Ottawa. There were a large number of Wolves sweaters and blue faces and ‘Go Wolves Go’ signs in groups throughout the stands. It was a great series, and I imagine your support for the home team was greatly appreciated.

*Happy birthdays to both Bonello and Jeff Hunt, celebrating over the last few days.

Nice to see Beard back in the line up.

Beard lines it up . . . and shoots.

Bonello.

Kaspar.

Captain Colbert.

Joslin.

VanderVeeken.

Talbot.

Staubitz.

SCORING
OTTAWA
1, Akeson, (3) (Kaspar, Petruzalek), 04:36
1, Kaspar, (4) (Petruzalek, Akeson), 11:45
1, Bonello, (5) (Mancari, Staubitz), 13:01 (PP)
2, Mancari, (7) (Bonello, Van Herpt), 07:03 (SH)
2, Hulit, (7) (Kaspar, Staubitz), 08:29 (PP)
2, Mancari, (8) (Bickell, Bonello), 16:25
3, Mancari, (9) (Bickell, Staubitz), 16:33

SUDBURY
1, Baker, (4) (Staal, Foligno), 11:30 (PP)
2, Pouliot, (6) (Mills, D'Aversa), 14:01
3, Baker, (5) (Stortini, Crouch), 06:14
3, McDonough, (2) (Martynowski, Blaho), 19:24

THREE STARS
OHL three stars were: (1) Battochio, (2) Mancari, and (3) Staubitz.

TEAM 1200 three stars were: (1) Mancari, (2) Kaspar, and (3) Bonello.

REFFING
Beer.

ATTENDANCE
7688. Not a sell-out, but loud and supportive and extremely happy.

NEXT UP
ROUND 3, Eastern Conference Playoffs vs Peterborough!!! The schedule (via 67s site):

Game 1 Thurs Apr 21 at PET, 7:00 p.m.

Game 2 Sat Apr 23 at OTT, 7:00 p.m.

Game 3 Mon Apr 25 at PET, 7:00 p.m.

Game 4 Wed Apr 27 at OTT, 7:00 p.m.

*Game 5 Fri Apr 29 at PET, 7:00 p.m.

*Game 6 Sun May 1 at OTT, 2:00 p.m.

*Game 7 Mon May 2 at PET, 7:00 p.m.

*If necessary