67’s weekly: we’ll take those
When you play three games in three days and you walk away with six points, you’ve had a pretty good stretch.
When you do it without the player who led your team in goals and points going into the weekend, the player who was in sixth in team goal scoring ahead of Friday night, and you’re down to 11 forwards and five defencemen, it becomes an even bigger feat.
Through three games, the Barber Poles took an overtime victory over the Peterborough Petes, beat the Barrie Colts 5-4 in a shootout, and closed out the weekend with a 4-3 win over the North Bay Battalion, giving themselves a plus-two goal differential.
Pulling themselves to wins proved challenging nevertheless, with 4-1 leads in their road games in Barrie and North Bay withering away in pushes by hungry opposition. It’s not really a concern, however; what mattered was the two points.
“We took some bad penalties,” said 67’s Assistant Coach Norm Milley. “The players recognize that, and we gave them a chance to get back into the game. Overall, we’re really happy with the effort and compete level. We’ll take those three wins.”
With Head Coach Dave Cameron away at the World Juniors, Milley has moved to the middle of the bench, performing extra duties.
“It’s a great learning experience,” he said. “I did a little bit two years ago when Dave was the Head Coach for Canada, but it’s the first time this year. You always get a little nervous when you’re going back there.”
Managing the bench, Milley has made a concerted effort to roll his lines and get creative in search of offensive production, especially on the power play, where without Luca Pinelli and Filip Ekberg, the Barber Poles are missing their top two goal scorers.
His personality has stayed largely the same, as he tries to continue to be the most authentic version of himself he can be.
“If I want to change who I am as a head coach, it changes my relationship with the players, and it’s only short term,” Milley said. “I want to still be the same person I am, so there’s no alter ego. They know me as Norm, this is who I am, and this is what I’m gonna do, and that’s it. There are no surprises.”
In all positions, right down to the equipment staff, the 67’s needed people to step up over the weekend, and that’s exactly what happened.
One of the most noticeable examples was Caden Kelly, who scored a trio of goals on the road, setting a new single-season high with eight, and moving into fifth on the team goal-scoring list.
“He has been really good,” Milley said of the 18-year-old. “He’s been good for the last couple of weeks, especially in practice. You can see his confidence is getting up there. I’m really happy for him. He’s playing a simple game, he’s getting pucks in deep, he’s been doing a lot of good things. He’s been playing physically so we’re really happy for him to finally get rewarded with some goals. And I’m sure he’s feeling pretty good about himself right now.”
With their record pushed to 13-11-2-4, the Barber Poles have pulled themselves into a playoff spot, now holding down the seven seed in the Eastern Conference.
“It feels great to look at the playoff picture and see our logo there,” Milley said. “We’re finally starting to get on the other side of it and our guys have stuck with it. It’s nice to see our team have fun together.”
With the Christmas break on the horizon, the Barber Poles have just two games left to play before some time away. On Thursday night, they’re in Peterborough, and on Friday, they’ll face the Kitchener Rangers at the Aud.
Milley is hoping to see his group fight right until the end, and cash some more valuable points into the bank.
“We know [the Petes] play hard,” he said. “They have a young team that works extremely hard, they’re well-coached, and they play a disciplined game. Their rink is a different place to play, with smaller corners, a little bit tighter, and less room to work. We know we have to just really play our game and compete.”
