Ottawa 67’s start ‘flat’, losing to Mississauga Steelheads

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STEELHEADS 4, 67’S 2

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There’s a list of reasons why the Ottawa 67’s slipped to sixth in the OHL’s Eastern Conference on Sunday instead of keeping pace with the big boys just ahead of them at the top of the standings.

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It includes, in no particular order, an inadequate compete level, a lack of discipline and a defensive zone error by their best player.

“I just made a mistake going (behind) the net,” said Luca Pinelli, the 67’s captain, inspirational leader and leading (43 goals, 75 points) scorer.  “Stuff like that happens. I just tried to bounce back after that.”

So did his team, but without success.

Trailing 2-1 after one period, the 67’s fell behind by a couple when Pinelli was stripped of the puck by Mississauga Steelheads winger Mason Zebeski, who took it out front and banged in his second goal of the game and 20th of the season nine minutes into the second period.

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It stood as the winner, as the 67’s bowed 4-2 to the Steelheads in front of 5,055 fans at TD Place.

“I don’t have enough Bradley Horners,” 67’s coach Dave Cameron said of his hardworking 18-year-old defenceman from Vankleek Hill when asked what what went wrong in this particular playoff-type tilt. “I don’t get enough guys that play 50-50 hockey or physical. They’re all in for the top of the puck right now.”

Cheating offensively didn’t help the 67’s, as they had just 18 shots on goal and very few quality chances through 40 minutes.

They outshot Mississsauga 17-7 in the third, but didn’t manage their second goal of the game until defenceman Matthew Mayich’s blast found the top shelf with 1:46 left.

Finn Harding ruined any chance of a comeback by scoring a rink-long empty-netter with 31 seconds to go.

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Collin MacKenzie stopped 20 shots in the Ottawa net while Mississauga goalie Jack Ivankovic was named the game’s star for his third-period work and 33 saves.

“We knew this game was going to be a big one, it was going to be important, but I think we came up a little bit flat today,” said defenceman Thomas Sirman, who scored Ottawa’s first goal and also assisted on the Mayich tally. “I don’t think we were competitive enough to win the game, and I think it showed. That’s why we lost.

“I don’t think we won enough puck battles. I think we we had a lot of chances, especially in the third. I thought we had a better third, when we were more urgent on the puck, but I think we needed to play like we did in the third the first two periods and we would have had a better chance of winning.”

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The 67’s and Steelheads were tied in the standings with 73 points entering the day, and like most teams in the conference have been soaring of late. Mississauga, now at 75 points, has just one regulation-time loss in its last 14 games, while Ottawa had grabbed 15 of a possible 20 points in its previous 10.

Prior to Sunday evening’s Oshawa-Barrie, Brantford-Peterborough results, the Generals and Sudbury Wolves were tied for first with 77 points, followed by the Bulldogs and North Bay Battalion at 76.

While top spot is the obvious goal, finishing at least fourth brings home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. With the parity the way it is, a Game 7 in front of home fans could be the difference between advancing or packing it in for the season.

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“It’s definitely a big thing,” said Pinelli. “We kind of know our boards here and everything, and obviously we have really good fans, so it’d be nice get home advantage.”

Said Sirman: “I think Mississauga might be a team we play in the first round or second round in the playoffs, so we knew today was gonna be kind of a playoff atmosphere, and it felt like that in the arena in the warmup and first minutes. We just lost too many battles. We could have been harder on the puck and put more bodies in front of the net.”

That can’t be the case in the playoffs, as the 67’s should know all too well. A total of 14 players from this team were here last season, when the 67’s led the entire OHL with 107 points and they fell in the second round to the Petes.

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“If you’re a serious team, you’ve got to be able to win on the road in the playoffs,” said Cameron, whose team was 0-for-2 on the power play Sunday while Mississauga converted one of four man-advantage opportunities. “Home ice is nice, for sure it is, probably most advantageous in the seventh game. You play to finish as high as you can, with one eye on making sure when the puck drops in playoffs you’re playing your best hockey.

“It’s important to be playing well going into the playoffs.”

Just six games remain on the 67’s schedule, only two of which are at home.

They host the Barrie Colts at TD Place on Tuesday afternoon in another school day, 2.p.m., start, visit the Colts on Thursday, Brantford Saturday, Peterborough March 21, Kingston March 22 and then conclude the regular season with a home-ice battle against Brantford on March 24.

dbrennan@postmedia.com

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