Dealing a Killer hand
By DON BRENNAN, SUN MEDIA
Brian Kilrea shuffled his deck and laid down a winner last night at the Civic Centre.
Three lines split the scoring as the 67’s trumped the first-place Belleville Bulls by a 6-3 count. The two losses the Bulls have to go along with their six wins have both been to Ottawa. The win improved the 67’s record to 5-4.
“Some times it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Kilrea said of his line tinkering. “Tonight it worked.”
In revamping his forward combinations, Kilrea moved 19-year-old winger Adam Zamec to the first unit alongside Logan Couture and Corey Cowick, while sliding overager Thomas Kiriakou to the third line between Jon Carnevale and Thomas Nesbitt.
The Ryan Martindale-Mike Latta-Tyler Toffoli unit — the team’s and arguably one of the league’s best to date — remained intact.
Couture led the way last night, scoring twice. Latta had the winner, his fifth goal of the season, while Toffoli, Kiriakou and defenceman Sean Ryan had the others.
Kilrea gave all his lines some power play time, including a fourth unit that consisted of Cody Lindsay, Pieter Schinkelshoek and Riley Sonnenburg.
Nesbitt lost three teeth in the first period but refused to call it a night.
Kilrea called it the best home game the veteran winger has had in his three years as a 67.
“I can’t say enough about Thomas Nesbitt,” said Kilrea. “With him coming back and playing, I think it lifted the whole team.”
Chris Perugini stopped 17 shots, including a one-timer from Stephen Silas in the first period and a Matthew Tipoff breakaway in the second, for his fifth win of the season. Ottawa fired 42 shots at Belleville’s Philipp Grubauer.
The 67’s hit for the cycle to break open a tie game in the third, scoring once at even strength, once on the power play and once short-handed.
LATTA NETS WINNER
Latta snapped a 3-3 tie 66 seconds into the third period, taking a pass from Toffoli and driving to the net. Couture expanded the lead with a hard wrist shot on the power play at 3:21 of the third, and Kiriakou converted a nice setup from Nesbitt with Ottawa short a man at 13:22.
“We’ve played nine games now and I think we’ve played well in eight of them,” said Kilrea, the lone poor showing coming in Kingston and a 5-1 loss to the Frontenacs Wednesday. “And Kingston had something to do with that.”
Toffoli opened the scoring with his third of the season, a quick shot inside the post at the nine-minute mark, but Ottawa’s first lead lasted just a minute and a half. Perugini and defenceman Brian Birkoff failed to complete a short pass, allowing Cory Tanaka to set up Eric Tangradi for the equalizer.
Ryan then scored his first of the season, sneaking a point shot through a crowd in front of Grubauer that trickled just over the goal line, with three and a half minutes left in the opening period.
Logan Couture gave the 67’s a two-goal lead 19 seconds into the second when he made no mistake with a nice pass from behind the net by Corey Cowick. But again the Bulls came back.
First, Montreal Canadiens prospect P.K. Subban beat Perugini with a good wrist shot to the goalie’s glove side, just inside the post.
Then, in the last minute of the second period, Orleans native Shawn Lalonde tied the game with a short-handed breakaway goal, making a nice move on Perugini before sliding the puck in for his third of the season.
The teams meet up again in Belleville Monday afternoon.
