Ottawa 67’s win Game 1 of the OHL playoffs, downing Kingston 7-4

Game 1 of the Ottawa 67’s OHL playoffs began with a big and gutsy 7-4 win over the Kingston Frontenacs. There were so many elements to the hockey game that made it such that hard fought battle.

The first period was a very physical and high tempo start to the series which is the first between the two teams since 1981. From puck drop when Ottawa’s Teddy Spitznagel laid a huge hit which set the game’s tempo right from the hop.

Zach Houben (Ottawa) carried that heavy energy and physicality with a heavy fight with Andre Mondoux (Kingston). Houben had the crowd absolutely pumped up as he threw his hands in the air, at 3:44 of the first.

67’s forward Filip Ekberg started the scoring in the series as he put home a rebound off a beautiful shift from the first line to make it 1-0 Ottawa at 5:58. The assists came from Frankie Marrelli and Cooper Foster.

Things continued getting chippy in the first as David Bedkowski was absolutely dumped from behind by Kingston’s Nolan Snyder. Ottawa’s Kaleb Dietsch responded and fed rights to Snyder who immediately turtled and was ejected from the game. Dietsch was given a game misconduct and match penalty for fighting.

67’s forward Spencer Bowes walked in all alone and went five-hole on Kingston’s Gavin Betts on the four-on-four to make it 2-0 at 7:36 of the first. Assists came from Kohyn Eshkawkogan and Ondrej Ruml.

Kingston wasn’t going down without a fight as 67’s defenceman Kohyn Eshkawkogan bobbled the puck in the 67’s defensive end which allowed Kingston’s Nolan Snyder to grab the puck and go in all alone and score on the backhand past Ryder Fetterolf to cut the 67’s lead to 2-1 at 16:33. The lone assist from Robin Kuzma on the goal.

Ottawa’s Filip Ekberg double-dipped in the goal department as he received a backdoor pass from Spencer Bowes to restore the Ottawa’s two goal lead just 1:29 into the second period to make it 3-1.

Kingston forward Tomas Pobezal cut the 67’s lead back to one again as he received a cross ice pass from Alex Misiak. He walked in and blew it by Fetterolf at 4:42 to make it 3-2 Ottawa. The other assist was from Matthew Henderson.

Kingston defender Lukas Moore put his team behind the eight ball as he took two separate minors for holding on Ekberg and roughing Ekberg after the whistle on the way to the box.

Nic Sima made Lukas Moore pay as he re-directed a puck in the slot from Filip Ekberg who had his third point of the night on the first half of the four-minute power-play to make it 4-2 Ottawa at 7:09 of the second. Kohyn Eshkawkogan had another assist.

Kingston responded right back again as Will Bishop cut to the 67’s lead to 4-3, as he walked in and ripped a top shelf shot over Fetterolf at 12:15, with assists by Riley Clark and Matthew Frost.

Kingston struck again as Riley Clark just 11 seconds after Will Bishops goal was unmarked at the left circle and went glove side on Ryder Fetterolf to tie the hockey game at four. The secondary assist was from Nolan Buttar.

The scrappiness continued as Cooper Foster (Ottawa) and Tomas Pobezal (Kingston) dropped the gloves right at the Kingston net after a whistle and did more tying each other up than throwing punches at 13:52 of the second.

67’s defenceman David Bedkowski broke the tie when he stepped into the play and received a great pass from Spencer Bowes, ripping it top right corner on Gavin Betts to make it 5-4 Ottawa with 30 seconds left in the second period. Nic Whitehead had the secondary assist.

67’s captain Cooper Foster capitalized on the power play to extend the lead to two once again as he received a pass from Nic Whitehead in the bumper position and blew it past Gavin Betts to make it 6-4 67’s at 13:08 of the third period. The secondary assist was from Kohyn Eshkawgoan.

The 67’s got into some penalty trouble in the dying minutes of the hockey game as Shaan Kingwell and David Bedkowski both took penalties with under five minutes left and sent Kingston on a five-on-three power-play. However, Connor Bewick sent the puck 180 feet down the ice for a shorthanded empty net goal to put the game away at 19:22. Jasper Kuhta had the secondary assist.

Ottawa leads the best-of-seven series 1-0. Shots finished 31-30 in favour of Kingston. Ryder Fetterolf saved 27 of 31 and got the win for his team in his playoff debut. Game 2 goes Sunday at 3 p.m. at TD Place.

67’s forward Spencer Bowes spoke on the message head coach Dave Cameron gave to the group heading into Game 1.

“He’s just telling us, it’s gonna be a lot harder, a lot quicker, faster and pretty much like just keep it simple and play our game, stay tight and be structured,” said Bowes.

67’s forward Filip Ekberg, who had three points in the game including two goals, spoke on the mindset heading into Game 2.

“I mean, just keep sticking with it but I think 10 minutes in the second we played a little bit not as sort of game as we should be, but we came back after that and we scored some goals,” said Ekberg.

67’s head coach Dave Cameron spoke highly of goaltender Ryder Fetterolf’s first playoff game.

“I thought he battled nerves early on. I thought he was one of the young guys that battled originally on but played through it and I think he was like all the other guys that battled I thought were really good,” said Cameron.

Cameron also spoke on what he wanted his rookie to know going into Game 1 with pressure on them.

“There’s nothing you could say that gets them over, it’s like pressure, you can’t practise pressure. You have to really experience it, and you can’t slice it and dice it throughout,” said Cameron.