The Ottawa 67’s closed out their tough road trip by ending a three-game losing streak, Sunday afternoon, with a 5-3 win over the Guelph Storm at the Sleeman Centre.
Brady Stonehouse scored twice, with Vinzenz Rohrer, Brad Gardiner, and Cooper Foster supplying the remainder of the offence. Max Donoso made 26 saves in goal, en route to his 15th win of the season.
As they have on so many prior occasions, this season, the 67’s found the opening marker early, thanks to Rohrer. Luca Pinelli streaked into the Guelph zone, and found Chris Barlas on the far side of the ice. He fired it to the goal, where Rohrer was parked on the doorstep to deflect home his 11th of the season, and the Montreal Canadiens prospect gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead.
Jake Karabela batted the tying marker out of the air for Guelph, on a five-on-three just over ten minutes later, but it wouldn’t be long before the 67’s had a two-man advantage of their own. With 19 seconds to go in the frame, Gardiner took a feed from Thomas Sirman, and rifled a powerplay goal short side, sending the 67’s to the second with a 2-1 lead.
The middle period was, perhaps, highlighted by a Will Gerrior hit that sent Storm defenceman Cam Allen flying into the Ottawa bench, but Stonehouse made his own case, as well. With the Barber Poles shorthanded, he made a steal at the 67’s blue line, and sped in on a breakaway, beating Dixon Grimes while sliding to make it 3-1.
With a little over a minute and a half to go in the frame, Ethan Quick connected with Foster cutting in to Grimes’ right, and his laser of a shot found the twine up high, making this a 4-1 game.
Cedricson Okitundu got one back for Guelph before the midway point of the third, on a play that the 67’s unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference, and a powerplay marker by Braedan Bowman at the 11:46 mark cut the Ottawa lead to 4-3.
The Storm mounted a late rally with the net empty, but Stonehouse iced this one with his second of the game into the yawning cage, and the 67’s earned a 5-3 win.
Ottawa is back home on Friday night, to face the Oshawa Generals.
Game Notes:
- Brady Stonehouse now leads the 67’s with 15 goals on the season.
- Chris Barlas now has eight points in his last ten games.
- The Barber Poles earned this win without a number of key skaters in the lineup; with Tyler Boucher and Jack Matier both gone to their respective World Juniors selection camps, and Jack Beck, Jack Dever, and Derek Smyth still out with injuries/illness.
- This was the final game of Collin MacKenzie’s three-game suspension.
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