Ottawa 67’s fall to Otters on a day honouring 1999 Cup-winning team

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OTTERS 6, 67’S 5

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The “Legacy Game” at TD Place on Sunday afternoon began with a pre-puck drop ceremony honouring nine members of the Ottawa 67’s 1999 Memorial Cup-winning squad, with former captain Zenon Konopka taking the microphone to say a few touching words about teammate and close friend Lance Galbraith, who died in a car accident two years ago.

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It ended with the Erie Otters walking down the hallway to their dressing room pretending their sticks were brooms as they  screeched “Sweeeeeep!” in celebration of their third win on a three-game road trip.

The Ottawa party was stained by a disappointing 6-5 result in front of 5,309 fans who were hoping to celebrate a sweep by the 67’s, who were coming off two road wins (Thursday in Niagara and Friday in Mississauga) and had victories in five of their previous six.

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It was just the third time in the last 18 games that the 67’s have failed to pick up at least a point, but they remain lodged in third place because the Brantford Bulldogs and Oshawa Generals — the top two teams in the East Division — have been hot too.

The Otters started the day last in the Midwest Division, but with the win catapulted past Owen Sound and Guelph into third.

“You can’t take the first period off,” said 67’s coach Dave Cameron, whose team was sluggish to start and gave up a shorthanded goal just 2:16 in, but it was still tied 1-1 at the intermission. “You’ve got to play 60 minutes. Especially this time of year. Against everybody.”

Ottawa was outscored 3-1 in the second period and trailed 6-3 with just over seven minutes left in the third when Cooper Foster scored his second of the game and Brad Gardiner found the back of the net just 21 seconds later.

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The 67’s appeared to tie it up with goalie Collin MacKenzie on the bench for an extra attacker and 1:34 on the clock, but the goal was vigorously waved off by the referee who ruled Brady Stonehouse batted the puck into the net with his hand.

After looking so sure he made the right call, the men in stripes were gathered at the timekeeper’s bench for about five minutes, seemingly reviewing the video, before making it official.

“He said the system went down,” Cameron said when asked about the explanation he received. “They said it wasn’t conclusive enough to overturn it. So I asked, you’re 100 per cent sure that you saw that?  He said he was.”

Along with scoring twice, Foster added a couple of assists for an almost matching weekend bookend to the three points (two goals and an assist) he had in Niagara.

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Foster, a Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick, admitted the team wasn’t holding out a lot of hope that the disallowed goal would be overturned.

“I think we kind of all knew,” he said. “I think Stonehouse knew he kind of put it in with his hand, so we weren’t expecting much. Just had to get back out there and try to score with the minute and a half we had left.”

Also scoring for Ottawa was Henry Mews, who had the game-winner in both Niagara and Mississauga, and Bradley Horner, who also had an assist.

Jacob Maillet added three apples.

“We didn’t play our game at all,” Mews said when asked about the slow start. “I thought we came in loosey-goosey a bit. We weren’t connected at all, we didn’t play our game from the start, and that’s kind of what got us in trouble. When we finally started to find our energy and stuff, it was too late.”

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And yet right to the buzzer it looked they might pull this one out of the fire.

“I think we definitely could beat this team,” said Mews. “I mean, we did it in Erie (4-2, Dec. 16. I think our mistakes were costly, and the way we were playing. (The back to back goals in the third) were good moments where we were playing really well, but we just weren’t consistent every shift with that. I think that’s what the big problem was here.”

In attendance from the championship squad of 25 years ago, along with Konopka, were Dan Tessier, Matt Zultek, Mark Bell, Justin Davis, Joe Talbot, Jonathan Zion, Jeremy Van Hoof and Seamus Kotyk, as well as coaches Brian Kilrea and Bert O’Brien, and trainer Jeff Keech.

The group of legends were at a table on the main foyer signing autographs starting in the first intermission, and they were still at it into the third period.

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The current 67’s had not been born when the honoured group won the Cup, but they were disappointed they couldn’t do their part by putting a prettier bow on the Legacy Game.

“Obviously, I know about the history, there’s all the pictures on our wall of all the winning teams so it’s really special to have them out on the ice,” said Foster. “There was a little bit of excitement on the ice and throughout the rink,  so I feel like that gave us a little bit of a jump, but obviously not enough.”

The 67’s next game is Tuesday in Oshawa, followed by a trip to Peterborough for a meeting with the Petes on Thursday.

They return home to face Niagara on Friday.

dbrennan@postmedia.com

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