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67's spoil Battalion Pink in the Rink night with OT win

Brandon Coe with first OHL goal as Troops fall to 3-2-2 on the season

Mathieu Foget capitalized on a costly turnover in front of the Battalion net as the Ottawa 67’s snuck by the North Bay Battalion 4-3 in overtime during Pink in the Rink night.  

"It was a funny game in the sense that we were always coming from behind,” stated Battalion head coach Stan Butler in his post-game media conference. 

“They got a jump on us early and we fought back and finally tie it 3-3, that was a big goal by Brazeau now you are into overtime and you are looking for that bonus point and we make kind of a sloppy play and unfortunately it ended up in our net."   

It was a back and forth game but the 67’s made quick work of the Battalion in overtime scoring in the opening 25 seconds. It is the second Battalion home overtime loss of the young season as they fell in extra time to the visiting Soo Greyhounds.  

However, the Battalion outshot the visitors and out-chanced them, but in the end, the speedy 67's took advantage of Battalion mistakes to get the extra point.  

Butler says it's disappointing as the Troops dropped their fourth straight and second in overtime in the past four games.  

“We have to continue to work hard and not get frustrated,” said Butler. 

“I always believe if you stay with it and work hard and you don’t go away from what you need to do then usually you can sort it out.”

The Ottawa 67s’ got on the board first when Mathieu Foget got a backdoor pass that he one-timed past Julian Sime which made it 1-0 visitors on their first power play of the game.  

Troops responded shortly after as Daniel Walker whipped a shot over 67's goalie Olivier Tremblay off a face-off win by Patrick Brown which evened things at 1-1.  It was a good period for the fourth line of Walker-Brown-Forhan which was hard on the forecheck as a unit in the opening frame. 

The Battalion nearly took the lead around the 16-minute mark as Luke Burghardt mimicked a Connor McDavid rush as he split the defence and somehow shot while falling back on his rear. Tremblay got a piece of it to spoil the potential highlight reel goal attempt.  

It stayed that way until the middle of the second as Kody Clark, son of Wendel Clark, scored a goal his father would be proud of as he cut to the Battalion net on a rush and went top shelf on Sime for a 2-1 Ottawa lead.  

Late second, the Battalion even things up as Luke Moncada takes a check against the wall by the blue line and makes a nice chip pass to Brandon Coe who beat Tremblay short side for the first round pick's first OHL goal which made it 2-2 just past the 17-minute mark of the second period. 

Early third Justin Brazeau looks to give the Troops the lead as he cut in on the left wing, drove to the net and tried to go wide on Tremblay who stretched out to make another key save for the visitors.  

Mid third period the 67’s regained the lead as Graham Clarke walked into the slot, and went bar down on Sime which made it 3-2 67’s.  

The Battalion respond again, this time on their seventh power play opportunity as Dineen walked around the perimeter and then fed a quick pass into the slot where Justin Brazeau tapped it home to even things at 3-3 at 14:07.

The game also marked the debut for Battalion 2017 2nd round pick Simon Rose who took a regular shift and saw some time on the second power play unit.  The change sent local product Eric Allair into the stands Thursday night.  Kyle Potts was out of the lineup serving his first of four from a slash late in the Petes game Sunday.  


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Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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