OHL Erie Otters

Otters Use Shootout to Top Kitchener

October 11, 2014 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Erie Otters News Release


Erie, Pennsylvania - The Otters remained perfect in a 5-4 shootout victory, sweeping the weekend home-and-home with the Kitchener Rangers. Trent Fox scored his first OHL goal and Daniel Dekoning earned the win in his first OHL start.

Dekoning made a huge save on Ryan MacInnis less than 30 seconds into his first start of the season. With Kurtis MacDermid in the box for high sticking, though, Justin Bailey put a wraparound behind Dekoning to start the Otters off at a 1-0 deficit despite a huge shorthanded attempt by Dylan Strome and Connor McDavid. Just barely two minutes later, Bailey scored his second of the night to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead from MacInnis.

A huge defensive effort from the Otters prevented a third goal by the Rangers before Strome put the Otters on the board with three minutes to go in the period. Patrick Murphy picked up his second point of the home-and-home with the primary assist, and Quentin Maksimovich's secondary assist notched his first point of the season.

Alex DeBrincat wasted no time in tying things up to start off the second period with his eighth goal of the season at 1:49, the lone assist going to McDavid. A minute and a half later, Fox scored his first OHL goal with assists from Troy Donnay and Shaun Bily to give the Otters a 3-2 lead. Scrums broke out near the Rangers net at 4:46, resulting in fighting majors to Frank Hora, Liam Maaskant, Donnay and McDavid. Hora and Donnay also landed game misconducts, while Max Iafrate and Cory Genovese sat with 10-minute misconducts. McDavid had an additional two-minute minor for cross checking, putting Kitchener on the power play.

Kyle Pettit kept the Rangers from tying the game with a sprawling block, breaking up the play. Another scrum next to Rangers goaltender Matthew Greenfield sent MacDerimd to the box with a 10-minute misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct, while 20 seconds later DeBrincat's interference minor at 12:31 gave Kitchener the man advantage.

A rush into the offensive zone nearly put Erie back on the board with a short-handed opportunity, but Greenfield blanked the rush, sending the puck towards the Otters end. On the other end of the ice, Dekoning made an equally huge save, keeping the Otters ahead. Dekoning wasn't finished for the period, robbing Kitchener on a breakaway to close out the second.

Bailey opened up the third with the final goal of his hat trick to tie the game at three 32 seconds in. Iafrate went back to the penalty box, this time for high sticking. Strome took advantage of the man advantage, putting the puck in the back of the net to give the Otters a 4-3 lead with help from McDavid and Murphy. With 6:52 to go in the period, the puck trickled behind Dekoning, Darby Llewellyn tying the game at four.

Erie and Kitchener headed into overtime where the Otters had several great chances. Despite a power play for the Otters on a tripping minor to Logan Schmidt, the Otters were unable to find the back of the net.

With a shootout to decide the game, Erie sent out Strome who was stopped by Greenfield. Bailey scored to give the Rangers a 1-0 advantage, which McDavid quickly tied. Dekoning stopped both Llewellyn and Gustaf Franzen, and while DeBrincat's shot was unsuccessful, Mason Marchment put the puck behind Greenfield for the 2-1 lead for Erie. Dekoning blocked Brent Pedersen to finish out the shootout and secured the Otters' sixth win in a row, bringing the Otters' perfect start to 6-0-0-0.

While the game ended the trend of Strome scoring three assists a night, his two goals brought him to 18 points on the season, and increased his point streak to six games. McDavid brought his point streak to six games as well, and earned his first OHL fighting major. Dekoning made 34 saves in his first OHL start.

The Otters head to London Wednesday, October 15 before returning to Erie on Friday to host the Sudbury Wolves.

The Iron Workers Local Union No. 3's Hardest Working 3 Stars of the Game:

3. Connor McDavid - 2A

2. Justin Bailey (Kitchener) - 3G

1. Dylan Strome - 2G

Check out the Erie Otters Statistics



Ontario Hockey League Stories from October 11, 2014


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