Barber Poles aim to extinguish Firebirds in Flint

The Ottawa 67’s (14-14-2-5) have reached the penultimate game of their OHL-high nine-game road trip, which will send them to Flint for a matchup with the Firebirds (16-17-1-1) on Friday night.

You can watch all the action on CHL TV, or hear Kenny Walls on the call on 580 CFRA. Please note there will be no Rogers TV broadcast for this game.

Ottawa fought hard last night in Saginaw, but ultimately dropped a 5-2 decision to the Spirit, who did some window-dressing late in the contest, scoring a pair of empty net goals to seal the deal. The Barber Poles got their offence from Nathan Amidovski and Brady Stonehouse.

Will Gerrior has scored nine goals in his past seven games, and Chris Barlas was working on a career-long point streak, reaching six games, but it was snapped in Saginaw.

Flint has dropped their past two games to the London Knights and Windsor Spitfires respectively, two of the top teams in the Western Conference. On New Year’s Eve, the Firebirds found themselves down 5-0 in the first, but came roaring back to make it a one-goal game late in the third. They couldn’t finish the deal, however, and fell 6-4 after an empty netter from Liam Greentree.

Former Kingston Frontenac Christopher Thibodeau leads the way for the Firebirds in the points department.

It’s the first meeting of the season for these two teams. Each team enjoyed an overtime victory last year.

By the numbers

Keys to the game 

• Shots

The 67’s will want to get the puck on goal as often as possible, and test the goaltender.

• Be engaged

Be locked in and ready to go right from the start, and stick with the program until the final buzzer.

• Outwork them

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. The Barber Poles are plenty talented, but they need to be the harder-working team every night.