OHL Eastern Conference Playoffs - (7) Belleville Bulls Vs (2) Ottawa 67's Game 3 Review

OHL Eastern Conference Playoffs - (7) Belleville Bulls Vs (2) Ottawa 67's Game 3 Review

In the playoffs when teams are down like the Belleville Bulls were to the Ottawa 67's two games to none,  they look forward to coming home and turning it around,  Belleville did just that winning 4-3 in OT on Sunday afternoon.   The win cuts Ottawa's series lead to 2-1.

Game 3 in the most important game in a 7 game series.  If the series is tied , it gives the winner a lead in the series,  if the team that wins game 3 is already up 2 games like the Ottawa 67's were coming in.  it gives that team a stranglehold on the series, and on the other side if your a team down 2 games like the Belleville Bulls were, you have to win game 3 to have any chance to claw your way back in to it. 

In Belleville they don't have $1 hot dogs (they should), they have $2 cowbells and they know how to use them.  The Yardman doesn't get lots of credit for being a loud building every night, mainly because its not. But when motivated it can be and today the 2509 in attendance were super motivated.  There was a strong group of Ottawa fans at the Yardman and you could hear them.  To be honest they brought the best out of the Yardman faithful and the atmosphere was the best its been in Belleville in a long time.

The 1st period was scoreless with Belleville out shooting the 67's 13-8.  It didn't take long for the tone of the game to be set, at 0:54 Micheal Curtis and Mike Cazzola each headed to the sin bin for slashing.  After every whistle sticks got high, and someone took a face wash.  It's easy to see that a strong dislike for each other is building in this series.

Belleville's version of the "Russian Rocket" Daniil Zharkov scored his 1st of the post season to open the scoring at 1:00 mark of the 2nd. The lead was Belleville's first in the series.  The crowd was already fired up from some great music selections from the Bulls DJ, and the Zharkov goal really got them going.  Unfortunately the Ottawa 67's also like Gun and Roses and scored the next three goals.   Tyler Graovac at 5:09 tied the game.  Next it was Brett Gustavsen scoring his 2nd of the series from Nicholas Foglia and Cody Ceci at 5:50.  Sean Monahan scored his 3rd a shorthanded beauty from Tyler Toffli and Bratislava Slovakia native Michal Cajkovsky putting the 67's up 3-1 after 40 minutes.  The visitors had the edge in shots 14-11 in the 2nd.

The 3rd started kinda flat for the Bulls and Ottawa was looking like they were ready to cruse to a 3 games to none series lead, when at 4:43 with Joseph Cramarossa in the sin bin Belleville's Micheal Curtis scored his 2nd of the series on a shorthanded break a way, after breaking up a play at his own blue line.   The goal brought the building and the Bulls bench back to life, all of a sudden it was the Bulls bringing the play to the 67's.  At 5:41 Jake Worrad tied the game on a long shot that Petr Mrazek got a piece of and the puck literally trickled across the goal line.  Carter Sandlak wearing a full cage and Jason Shaw picked up helpers on the goal.  Belleville out shot Ottawa 15-13 in the third.

In overtime the Belleville Bulls ended it real quick when Kingston native Jordan Mayer found the back of the net at 0:14 with his first as a Bull in the post season from Adam Payerl and Shaw.  Belleville had the only shot in OT. and out shot Ottawa in the game 40-35

This game lived up to the hype and was just as good as the first two held in Ottawa.  Both Malcolm Subban and Petr Mrazek played well.  Subban faced 35 shots and made 32 saves in his 1st career OHL playoff victory.  Mrazek made 36 saves on 40 shots.  Mrazek's best work in the game was after the Bulls tied it up 3-3, Belleville was pushing to end it in the 3rd and he shut the door forcing the game to OT.

Both Clubs went 4/4 on the PK.  And in the series so far Ottawa's PP is 1/12, and Belleville's  PP is 0/13. We knew Belleville was a good penalty killing team and bad power play team, but Ottawa's PK has been very strong looking just as dangerous offensively at times as they do 5 on 5. This game had a nasty edge to it and was very entertaining,  Game 4 goes Tuesday in Belleville,  Lets hope we can #packtheyard. 

3 Stars 1- Bulls  Jake Worrad  2- Bulls Michael Curtis  3- 67's Tyler Graovac