67’s knock off high-flying Wolves for first win of season
One sentence likely sums up today’s game for the Ottawa 67’s: That’s more like it.
Eight days after a rusty 67’s squad dropped their home opener 5-2 to the Peterborough Petes, Ottawa flipped the script on Saturday afternoon, with a 5-2 win over the Sudbury Wolves, who went in atop the Eastern Conference, winning three of their first four games.
“We were much better today, but you can’t really compare it to last week, because we hadn’t practiced for two weeks,” said Head Coach Dave Cameron. “The execution will get better, but I liked our buy-in, I liked our work ethic, I liked our compete level.”
The Ottawa bench boss pointed to finally having his full team together for a week of practice (for the first time since early September) as the reason for the improvement.
“We had a great week of practice, and it showed.”
Jack Dever led the way offensively, with a pair of goals including the winner, but the early story was Nic Whitehead. A second-round pick of the 67’s in April, and with his grandfather Paul in the stands, the Florida native got the Barber Poles started with his first Ontario Hockey League goal 6:18 into the second period, after local product Nathan Villeneuve opened the scoring for Sudbury in the first.
It was a big moment for the youngster, in just his second OHL game. Some advice from trusted sources was a big help, however.
“It feels unbelievable. My dad called me before the game, and just said ‘relax and enjoy yourself, work hard,’ but Dave gave me a nice message before the game,” Whitehead said. “Just to be relaxed and trust the process, and today I got lucky.”
Whitehead pointed to his teammates, Charlie Hilton and Josh Brady, both of whom notched their first OHL points with assists on the goal.
From there, it was Dever taking over. The 18-year-old found the twine on a beautiful backhand shot, over the shoulder of Jakub Vondras, for his first of the season. Not done there, Dever — who scored two goals all of last season — found the twine again early in the third, on a quick slot shot.
“I feel like I’m a lot more confident, coming into my second year,” said Dever of his career-best game. “I know what to expect, I’m up to speed obviously, and I put in a lot of work over the summer, just working on my shot, and lots of stuff. It helped a lot.”
Cameron agreed with his second-year forward’s sentiment, praising the work he did over the offseason.
“Great hockey IQ, great speed never out of position,” said the Coach. “We challenged him, this summer, to work on his shot, and he did that. Now his shot has gotten to where he can score goals that he scored today.”
In the dying minutes of the third, 2024 NHL Draft-eligible defencemen Frankie Marrelli, and Henry Mews traded goals to put the 67’s up 5-1. The Wolves answered with a late marker from Landon McCallum, but Max Donoso closed the door in goal, securing his first victory of the season with 19 saves.
The 67’s have a quick turnaround, visiting the Kingston Frontenacs on Sunday afternoon at 2:00pm.
Game Notes:
- Jack Dever’s multi-goal game was the first of his OHL career.
- Local product Kaleb Lawrence made his 67’s debut, after being acquired via trade from the Owen Sound Attack earlier in the week. The overage forward, and LA Kings prospect had a couple of solid scoring chances, and threw every bit of his 6’7 230lbs frame around for Ottawa.
- Chris Barlas added two assists, and now has points in consecutive games.
- The 67’s haven’t lost to the Wolves since November 19, 2021: a 4-2 defeat in Sudbury.
