OHL Eastern Conference Playoffs - (7) Belleville Bulls Vs (2) Ottawa 67's Game 5 Review

OHL Eastern Conference Playoffs - (7) Belleville Bulls Vs (2) Ottawa 67's Game 5 Review.

On Friday night the Belleville Bulls traveled to the Nations Capital to face the Ottawa 67's in Game 5 of their very tight 1st round playoff match up. Coming in to game 5 every game in this series minus game 2 , where there was an empty net goal, had been decided by one goal, Three games have gone to over time. The series was tied 2-2.

On Friday Ottawa's big guns were their big guns and they defeat the Bulls 5-2 to take a 3-2 series lead. Game 6 goes Monday night in Belleville.

The Bulls did what they wanted to do and that was score early and take the 6838 fans in attendance out of it and at just over 5 minutes in at 5:18 Joesph Cramarossa scored his 2nd from Daniil Zharkov and Austen Brassard to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead. Things looked to be going the Bulls way, Ottawa had taken a penalty, their 2nd minor of the game. Belleviille looked great on their 1st chance doing everything but scoring. Some body scored but that somebody was Shane Prince shorthanded at 12:44 to tie the game. The first would end tied 1-1. Ottawa out shot the Bulls 11-8. In the 1st Dalton Smith layed a huge hit that rocked Daniil Zharkov and sent him to the quiet room for a check up. He returned.

The OHL has decided against applying supplementary discipline to Smith.
Smith caught Zharkov with his head down and rocked him with a solid check. Replays show Smith makes hard contact with Zharkov’s head with his raised arms. The Ref made the correct call — five for check-to-the-head and game misconduct.

Some others would argue that Zharkov had this coming, all series he has been doing his share of dirty work, but in a league that has made it clear it wants to rid its product of any kind of contact to the head or borderline legal hits to players in a vulnerable positions why was this hit to the head not punished ? Bulls rookie and 1st time offender Alex Carnevale got 8 games for a hit that was all shoulder but this one gets nothing ? Smith didn't have to raise his arms and it would have been a great hard hit, but he did. Smith plays a hard physical in your face game and is no saint . He is a repeat offender, I don't understand it ?

Shane Prince would score his 2nd of the night and 3rd of the playoffs from Cody Ceci and Mike Cazzola at 13:20. The 2nd ended with the home team up 2-1. Belleville had the lead in shots department 11-7 in the period.

At 9:27 of the 3rd Belleville tied the game 2-2 when Stephen Silas scored his 1st of the post season from Brendan Gaunce and Luke Judson. That was it for the Bulls as it was the 67's the rest of the way. At 12:26 Sean Monahan scored the game winner his 4th of the post season from Brett Gustavsen and Sean Callaghan. The OHL's regular season goal leader Tyler Toffoli got in on the fun lighting the lamp with his 4th from Monahan and Ceci. To round out the scoring it was Shane Prince with his 3rd of the game and 4th of the series from Toffoli in to the empty net at 19:02. Belleville would out shot the 67's 15-11 in the 3rd and 34-29 in the game.


Ottawa didn't not have any PP chances and the Bulls went 0/6. Belleville is now 1/26 in the series. The 67's with 2 have more shorthanded goals then Belleville has PP goals. The 67's are 2/15 with the man advantage in the series.

3 Stars - 1- 67's Shane Prince 2- 67's Sean Monahan 3- 67's Cody Ceci