67’s close out perfect weekend with 5-3 win over Bulldogs
Alec Belanger’s first OHL goal stood as the winner as the Ottawa 67’s closed out a 2-0 weekend with a 5-3 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs on Saturday.
After Kody Clark opened the scoring for the home team in this one, the Bulldogs scored three goals to take a 3-1 win in the second period. That didn’t last long as Marco Rossi scored twice, giving the rookie three goals in two games this weekend, to pull his team even. Less than a minute later, Belanger gave the 67’s a lead they would not give up. Tye Felhaber would add his league-leading 48th goal of the year to provide some insurance.
Mikey DiPietro, who set an OHL record with his 17th shutout on Friday night, stopped 24 Hamilton shots to pick up the win in goal.
The 67’s return to action next week when they visit the Oshawa Generals on Friday night before hosting them at The Arena at TD Place on Saturday, January 26th, at 3:30 p.m.
What they’re saying
Marco Rossi, 67’s forward
On coming from behind to win it…. ‘’I think we stayed cool because we know we can change the game in a very short time. We have really good character in this team, so we knew that we were going to come back and we stayed patient, so it was a really good character win for us.’’
Alec Belanger , 67’s defenceman
On scoring his first career goal…. ‘’I stepped on the ice, saw that Chico had the puck so I knew I had to get in there so he would give it to me, I just put it on net without really thinking. It ended up going in and it was probably the happiest moment for me this year. Hoef got the puck for me, it means a lot too because he’s really helped a lot this season.’’
Mario Duhamel, 67’s assistant coach
‘’It was a quick turnaround from yesterday. Our worst enemy was the quick goal we scored, making us think it would be easy for the rest of the game. We have to give them credit, they played really hard.’’ On how calm the team was even when they were down 3-1… ‘’The guys trust each other. We have great leadership, the leaders took charge on the bench. We knew we could come back, and the guys stepped up.’’
Game notes
– 67’s defenceman Hudson Wilson had a game-high four shots on goal.
– The 67’s outshot the Bulldogs 31-27 on Saturday afternoon.
– Marco Rossi (two goals), Tye Felhaber (one goal, one assist) and Sasha Chmelevski (two assists) all had multi-point games on Saturday.
– The 67’s were successful on their only powerplay opportunity of the afternoon, with Rossi’s first second-period goal coming with the man-advantage.
– Chmelevski was an impressive 11-for-13 in the face-off circle against the Bulldogs. The 67’s had a 33-25 overall edge in face-offs.
