Barber Poles welcome Spirit to Capital Territory
The Ottawa 67’s (15-21-3-5) wrap up their season series with the Saginaw Spirit (22-19-1-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m. inside The Arena at TD Place. You can still get great tickets right here. If you can’t make it out, you can catch all the action on Rogers TV or CHLTV, and you can hear Kenny Walls’ call on 580 CFRA.
Everything you need to know about your afternoon at TD Place can be found here.
After snapping a long losing streak with a big win on Saturday afternoon, the Barber Poles come into Sunday’s action feeling good about themselves. They went toe-to-toe with the red-hot Kingston Frontenacs, using a big third period to secure a 5-4 victory in front of the largest TD Place crowd of the season.
Captain Luca Pinelli scored a pair of goals, as did Nic Whitehead, who took home the game’s first star with four points. Matthew Souliere notched his first career goal in the win.
The Spirit had a chance to rest on Saturday following their narrow loss to the Fronts on Friday night. At the end of the first period, they held a 4-1 lead, but Kingston marched their way back, taking a 7-6 shootout decision.
While Saginaw has relied heavily on Michael Misa, one of the top prospects available in this summer’s NHL Draft, they also have others who can cause serious damage, such as Kristian Epperson, Zayne Parekh, and Calem Mangone.
The Spirit claimed the only other meeting of the year, beating the 67’s 5-2 on January 2nd.
By the numbers
Ottawa 67’s | Player | Total |
Goals | Luca Pinelli | 26 |
Assists | Matthew Mayich | 25 |
Points | Luca Pinelli | 43 |
Power play goals | Luca Pinelli | 14 |
+/- | Will Gerrior, Shaan Kingwell | +2 |
Saginaw Spirit | Player | Total |
Goals | Michael Misa | 38 |
Assists | Michael Misa | 43 |
Points | Michael Misa | 81 |
Power play goals | Michael Misa | 9 |
+/- | Kristian Epperson | +35 |
Keys to the game
- Build
After a great performance on Saturday, the 67’s need to build on that and string efforts like that together.
- Safe
There’s nothing wrong with making the safe play. Silly turnovers can come back to haunt you.
- Physical
Be hard on the forecheck and force mistakes. Nothing bad has ever come of laying a good, clean body check.