Locke scores three in Ottawa victory
OTTAWA Corey Locke scored three goals, including the winner at 17:45 of the third period, to power the Ottawa 67’s to a 7-5 victory over the Battalion on Friday night in the opener of the Ontario Hockey League teams’ best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal.
Locke, who also had an assist, got loose down the left wing and charged to the net to put the puck over Battalion goaltender Kevin Couture 39 seconds after Ottawa rookie defenceman Brodie Beard tied the free-scoring affair 5-5 on a screened shot from the right point.
Mark Mancari added a shorthanded empty-net goal, his second score of the game, at 19:19. Rodney Bauman also scored for the second-seeded 67’s, who saw goaltender Lukas Mensator credited with 43 saves.
Rookie Patrick Sweeney’s second goal of the game, at 15:36 of the third period, gave the Battalion a shortlived 5-4 lead after the teams battled to a 4-4 tie through the opening 40 minutes.
Wojtek Wolski, Nick Duff and Ryan Oulahen had the other goals for the seventh-seeded Battalion, which got 24 saves from Couture.
Wolski posted the Troops to a 1-0 lead on the power play 50 seconds into the first period when he collected the rebound of a shot from the left point by Martin Lojek and stepped free of the sprawling Mensator to slip the puck home.
With Battalion defencemen Rob Smith and Duff in the penalty box serving minors, Mancari tied it at 4:22, rifling his own rebound into the net with assists to Julian Talbot and Locke, the two-time OHL scoring champion.
Bauman put Ottawa ahead 2-1 at 10:36 from the lip of the crease to Couture’s right after Peter Tsimikalis fed him the puck from the side of the goal.
Couture made several huge saves in the period, notably against Mancari, Bryan Bickell and Brody Todd, all on close-in chances. Couture pokechecked Bauman to deny his threat after the Ottawa attacker broke past the defence in the 17th minute.
At the other end, Adam Henrich, Chris Clayton and Kamil Kreps enjoyed the best scoring chances denied by Mensator.
The teams combined for a five-goal flurry in a span of 7:25 in the first half of the second period.
Sweeney and Duff triggered the outburst by scoring 22 seconds apart to vault the Battalion into a 3-2 lead. Sweeney took a pass from Howie Martin and beat Mensator from the slot at 2:31, and Duff delivered a seeing-eye shot from the left point at 2:53 after Jamie Fraser won a faceoff to Mensator’s right.
Locke scored 30 seconds later on a two-on-one rush to tie it 3-3 before putting the 67’s ahead with a power-play goal at 7:32. Mancari fed the puck from the right-wing corner to the onrushing Locke, who one-timed it past Couture from the deep slot.
Oulahen pulled the Troops even at 4-4 when he deflected Phil Oreskovic’s shot from the right point past Mensator at 9:56.
The Troops, who had a 19-8 advantage in third-period shots, almost took the lead when Wolski set up Brock McPherson on Mensator’s doorstep, but McPherson shoveled a shot wide despite appearing to have the goaltender at his mercy.
Sweeney put the Battalion ahead for the last time when he beat Mensator cleanly from the slot after Martin did yeoman work in the right-wing corner to work the puck to the front. Tyler Harrison had the other assist.
Just 1:30 later, Beard set the stage for Locke’s heroics, scoring after Matthew Albiani won a faceoff to Couture’s left that followed the Troops inexplicably being whistled for a hand pass in their own zone.
Michael Vernace, Eliott McCormick, Geordie Michie and Robert Heickert did not dress for the Battalion.
Danny Battochio, Tyson Aitcheson, David Halasz and Brad Hartley were scratched for Ottawa.
The Battalion hosts Game 2 of the series at 2 p.m. Sunday.
BATTALION NOTEBOOK: Attendance was 5,257 The Battalion, which lost a series opener for the first time in club history, has a won-lost record of 5-1 in curtain-raisers The Troops won three and tied one in four regular-season meetings with Ottawa … Battalion defenceman Erik Schwanz was run into the boards to Couture’s right and left the game at 4:19 of the second period without returning Ottawa was 2-for-5 on the power play, while the Troops went 1-for-5 … Duff, who scored his first goal since being acquired in a trade from the Kitchener Rangers on Oct. 21, played his first major junior postseason game. Duff was with the Memorial Cup winners last spring but didn’t see playoff or tournament action In addition to Sweeney, Battalion rookies Oreskovic, McPherson and John Seymour made their OHL playoff debuts Martin, acquired in a trade Sept. 30 from the Sudbury Wolves, also saw his first playoff action Smith, signed as a free agent from the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen on Oct. 17, had 12 playoff games with Calgary over two years Clayton and Henrich are the Troops’ active leaders in playoff games with 21 each … Mensator received an assist on Mancari’s empty-netter.
