Kingston 6, Ottawa 3
Six games, five wins: that’s Kingston’s record against Ottawa this season. Their victory on Wednesday also snapped a nine-game point streak for the 67’s.
For the past few games, rain or shine, 67’s assistant coach, Norm Milley has been the one to meet the media.
On this occasion he said the game came down to a bottom line.
“We just didn’t compete.”
When adding up the goals in all six games against each other, it’s 35 for Kingston to 19 for Ottawa. This week, it only took Kingston’s Jax Dubois 44 seconds to break the scoring.
For Milley, the takeaway is clear.
“We’ve got to be better. We can’t go out and start a game like that,” he said. “We just didn’t compete, and if we don’t compete against a team like that the results will be like this.”
What surprised Milley, he added, was the sudden change in his team’s performance, considering their recent hot streak.
“We’ve been playing some good hockey. We knew Kingston kind of had our number this year. So I thought we were going to come out and really have a solid effort.”
Ottawa’s alternate captain Brady Stonehouse agreed, saying his team can’t lay an egg every so often like this.
“It’s two rivals. It’s going to happen in hockey, but it’s normal,” he said. “Good rival.”
Ottawa is now the only team in the Ontario Hockey League with the same number of goals for as goals against, sitting at 173. That’s certain to change come Friday, when they head to North Bay to battle the third place Battalion.
The 67’s are fifth in the Eastern Conference with 58 points. Worth noting that Kingston is seventh with 51 points, 10 taken in wins over Ottawa.
