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OHL Kingston Frontenacs

Fronts Can't Catch a W on the Road against the Steelheads

December 15, 2019 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Kingston Frontenacs News Release


The Kingston Frontenacs were back on the road for a second straight afternoon affair in Mississauga taking on a Steelheads team tied for the 8th and final playoff spot in the East Conference, though Kingston has a game on hand. It was the club's third game in three days and just couldn't generate enough offence in a 5-2 loss dropping them two points back for the East Conference final playoff position. Kingston going 0-5 on the power play was key in the loss as the Steelheads 17th ranked penalty-kill mitigated Kingston's attack.

After the loss in Hamilton yesterday, Kingston failed to pick up points on the Bulldogs (sitting 7th Conference standings), however, Mississauga lost as well 7-6 in Sarnia keeping the teams squared up at 22 points. After serving a two-game suspension, defenceman Jakob Brahaney returned to the Frontenacs line-up in a welcome boost for coach Foster's team. Christian Propp was back in goal after starting Friday in the 6-3 home win over Barrie. In the teams' last match-up, Propp made 16 saves on 17 shots during the third period backstopping a win over the Steelheads in Kingston on Nov 24.

Mississauga defenceman Thomas Harley returned to the Steelheads from Team Canada's World Junior camp being one of the final cuts. Unfortunate for Harley, but helped the Mississauga attack as the dynamic defencemen leads all OHL rearguards with 13 goals and joined Kingston's Brahaney in top-five for OHL defence shots on goal with both eclipsing the 100 shot mark.

The Steelheads came out hard in a dominating opening period firing six shots on goal in the first three minutes and held Kingston to minimal offensive zone time for most of the period. Shane Wright had appeared to score on Kingston's first shot almost six minutes in but was waived back after a video review determined the play was offside. Just over a minute a later, while continuing to pressure the Frontenacs defence, Duncan Penman put the Steelheads up 1-0 after beating Propp with a wrist shot from the slot. After being given a soft backhand pass, Penman cruised into a high-quality scoring chance and made no mistake giving the home side the lead and a healthy 8-0 shot on goal lead.

Kingston's first shot came after the midway point while on their first power play, but couldn't sustain any o-zone time and went on their first penalty kill at 14:13 on tough tripping call to Dawson Baker. For the second consecutive game, Kingston would score a short-handed goal to get on the board on their 3rd shot. Zayde Wisdom scored an unassisted goal after holding onto a bouncing puck on the Steelhead blueline before turning back to the middle of the ice and wired a wrist shot past Mississauga goaltender Kai Edmonds. The 1-1 goal was Kingston's 3rd shorthanded goal of the season and Wisdom's team-leading 18th goal at 15:35. They play was reviewed for an offside again, but it was confirmed a good goal this time.

Mississauga came right back less than a minute later on the same power-play scoring with eight seconds left in the penalty when Aiden Prueter took a nice feed and as he cut across the crease he extended his forehand around the sprawling Propp putting the home side back up a goal 2-1 at 16:09 and the teams would head to the 1st intermission with Kingston on a power-play called on Mississauga at 18:46.

After Kingston couldn't score on the man-advantage to start the frame and had another power-play early but again could not sustain any offensive zone time or high-quality chances on net. The missed opportunities on the power play became more an issue as Penman put Mississauga up 3-1 at 5:16 just after they had killed the penalty to Keean Waskurak. After a draw was won in Kingston's zone, the Steelhead defenceman quickly shot a fluttering puck towards the goal and it found its way through a maze of players for his second of the game.

Kingston penalty-killers did another good job killing off a Callens penalty at 7:58, but 18 seconds after the penalty ended it was 4-1 Mississauga after William Portokalis redirected a centring backhand pass by Martin. The helper gave Martin his 3rd point of the afternoon.

No more scoring in the second, but Justin Pringle and Waskurak would drop the gloves at 15:54 after a sequence seeing Washkurak take a borderline charge at Brahaney and a scrum ensuing with the two squaring off. Pringle was called for the instigator, surprisingly in that Washkurak had clearly dropped his gloves first. Pringle was also given a misconduct for his troubles. Dawson Baker and Liam Ham would get coincidental minors at 19:26 as they teams skated off to intermission four-on-four.

Thomas Harley would check Wright into the boards from behind after the forward had turned away from the big defender just after entering the Steelehard zone at 4:12. After a brief scuffle, Harley was given a penalty but Kingston couldn't get their second goal. Another powerplay at 8:41 saw the Frontenacs get a couple of good chances by Wright as they continued to try and get back in the game firing seven consecutive shots on Edmonds.

After Francesco Arcuri won a draw in the Mississauga zone, Maddox Callens chopped the puck to Dawson Baker who slapped a loose puck for his 13th of the year. Baker has been s. Callens and Arcuri both assisted on the 4-2 goal at 10:58 on Kingston's 12th shot of the frame.

The Steelheads were able to close the door after the Baker goal allowing only two more shots and the game ended in the 5-2 score after Preuter scored his second of the game with Propp pulled into an empty net. The win drops Kingston two points back of Mississauga for the final playoff spot in the East. The teams play each other again in Mississauga on Dec 29 in the third matchup of the year.

Shane Wright's 11-game point streak and six-game goal streak ended today with the close disallowed goal in the first. It was the second-longest active streak behind Ottawa's duo of Rossi and Garreffa(12). He had 11G and 6A in that stretch and the six-game goal streak was two games back of Peterborough's Nick Robertson's streak for longest in the OHL this season of eight(Pavel Gogolev of Guelph currently has a five-game streak). Wright has still managed to register a shot on goal in every game of the season.

The Frontenacs have one more game before the holiday break on Thursday, Dec 19 at 7 PM in Niagara to face the IceDogs. The next home game will be the first after the break on Dec 28 at Leon's Centre versus division rival Ottawa 67's. Tickets available at the box office or at Ticketmaster.ca.

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Ontario Hockey League Stories from December 15, 2019


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