Otters piece together impressive win
In a battle between the conference leaders in the Ontario Hockey League, the Erie Otters put together an impressive road performance to take down the Kingston Frontenacs 6-2 for their eighth straight win.
Alex DeBrincat came into the game with an OHL-leading 32 goals scored. He added to that total 5:10 into the game and gave Erie the 1-0 lead. The Otters had their work cut out for themselves on the penalty kill in the first period. One night after killing five penalties in Ottawa, Erie stalled the Kingston power play twice, including a four-minute double minor. Jordan Sambrook cashed in with his fifth goal shortly after to extend the Erie lead 2-0. The Frontenacs did get on the board with a power play goal goal at 17:05 from Ryan Verbeek, but with two seconds remaining in the period, Kyle Maksimovich buried a shot off a face off win by DeBrincat to get the Otters up two entering the break.
Kingston’s Cody Caron drew first blood 2:15 into the second period to cut its deficit back to just one. Once again, the Otters responded back to get their lead back to two. Darren Raddysh made it 4-2 with his second of the season at 6:08. The Otters stopped the back-and-forth scoring trend when Brett Neumann scored his second of the season at 16:29. Erie took its 5-2 lead into the second intermission.
The third period featured a defensive clinic from the Otters. Erie kept Kingston from finding the net in the final frame. Devin Williams finished the game with 23 saves. Mitch Byrne tapped in an empty net goal to put the final score at 6-2 for Erie. The win was Erie’s eighth-straight win, improving the team’s record to 27-3-1-0.
The Otters will return home for a two-game home stand next weekend. They’ll begin Friday night hosting the Sudbury Wolves at 7 p.m.
The Iron Workers Local Union No. 3 Iron-men of the game:
1) Alex DeBrincat – 1 G, 1 A
2) Kyle Maksimovich – 1 G, 1 A
3) Cody Caron – 1 G
