Kingston 7, Ottawa 4
Head Coach for the Ottawa 67’s, Dave Cameron, had a few — key — words to describe his team’s power play against the Kingston Frontenacs on Saturday.
“Pathetic. Slow. Sloppy.”
The whole thing was a mess.
“It makes me want to cry,” Cameron said.
It was a tough way to end the year. Adding salt to the wound, it was also Ottawa’s first game back home in nearly two weeks.
TD Place was a packed house for Ottawa’s return. It was immediately clear this would be a fast game.
Ottawa’s Nic Whitehead broke the scoring not two minutes in after poking a loose puck through traffic into Kingston net.
A few minutes later Ottawa suffered a four-minute high-sticking penalty. It took Kingston about 30 seconds to convert, as they have with about a quarter of all their power plays this season. Credit to Gabriel Frasca.
Still short-handed, Ottawa had the perfect response on the following puck drop. Will Gerrior broke free on a two-on-one to go upstairs and retake the lead in a matter of seconds.
It’s Gerrior’s 14th. He’s now tied his record last year for goals in about half as many games.
Kingston still had the man advantage, however, and their continued pressure on the power play meant more time dominating in Ottawa’s zone, leading them to tie the match.
In the first six minutes of the game there had already been four goals. Kingston would add another minutes later on another odd man rush.
For Ottawa netminder, Max Donoso, it was a tough night. He had won four of his last five starts but on Saturday he allowed three quick goals on five shots. That said, the result was not all on him.
Donoso now has a 0.897 save percentage. Photo courtesy of Tim Austen.
Donoso stopped three breakaways this game, two of them while his team was on the power play.
Still, his efforts weren’t enough to stop a spinning backhand pass to Kingston’s Matthew Soto from Jacob Battaglia to double their team’s lead.
The first period still hadn’t ended, and Ottawa would then need to kill the final two minutes of it short-handed again. Despite Kingston’s efforts, they did.
Kingston wouldn’t let up. They scoring early in the second period and boiling Ottawa’s blood by extension.
A boarding penalty by Kingston gave Ottawa a chance; one they nearly gave away when the Frontenacs picked up a mishandled puck for a breakaway.
Donoso was making saves to give his team some hope, but Ottawa still couldn’t convert until Henry Mews threw the puck on net from the hash marks, finding the top shelf.
The game got more physical with each passing shift and Kingston’s aggressive play landed Ottawa another power play.
And for the third time, Ottawa gave Kingston a breakaway. Donoso made the first save, but Christopher Thibodeau picked up the rebound to score his second of the night for a 6-3 lead.
The third period saw more of the same. Despite 67’s’ Kimi Körbler scoring his first on a penalty shot, Kingston’s Jacob Battaglia made it a touchdown with seven goals against Ottawa.
Despite his frustrations, Cameron had some positives to take away from the game.
“I liked my young guys today. I thought that the Whitehead, [Chase] Yanni and Kimi line was real good. They were our best line.”
As for Gerrior, he agreed with his coach.
“I think the young guys did a great job at stepping up. It’s just more of a connection thing and it comes with practice.”
Ottawa has a chance to start the new year off on the right foot. They play Kingston again today.
Ottawa is now fourth in their conference with 38 points in 33 games.
