Ottawa 67’s drop Game 1 against Brantford Bulldogs

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Special teams were the story in Game 1 between the Ottawa 67’s and Brantford Bulldogs, in what ended up as a 5-2 victory for the home team.

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The Bulldogs enjoyed nine chances on the power play and it paid off in spades. A trio of goals with the man advantage from Nick Lardis (two) and Lawson Sherk gave them the lead and firmly placed them in the driver’s seat as the 67’s tried to make a final push.

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Ottawa went 0-for-4 with the man advantage, though two of those chances were shortened to around 30 seconds by penalties subsequently called against them. It did, however, score a short-handed goal, courtesy of a late marker by Caden Kelly.

The 67’s had already found themselves short-handed 2:08 in, and it took all of ten seconds for Lardis to open the scoring on a back-door play, for his first of two on the night.

Lardis’ second of the period came on another power play, though it was an unfortunate bounce off the end boards that bounced off of Collin MacKenzie and in for the game.

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Finally seeing a stretch of five-on-five play, Ottawa responded courtesy of the captain, Luca Pinelli, but the good fortune was short lived for the Barber Poles.

Marek Vanacker made it a 3-1 game just over three minutes later and six of the next seven penalties called were against the 67’s allowing the Bulldogs to gain momentum.

Calvin Crombie converted on a rebound 6:46 into the third, and as tempers flared, Ottawa found itself s shor-handed again, where Sherk was able to ice the game.

Kelly’s short-handed marker served as his first career playoff goal with less than five minutes to play, but too late to mount a comeback.

Game 2 is set for Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. from the Brantford Civic Centre.

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