The 67s show a little fight, but are still closed and shut out by Steelheads

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Steelheads 3, 67’s 0

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In his time as head coach of the Ottawa Senators, Dave Cameron gained an appreciation for Marc Methot’s night job.

Just 14 games in his first season in the same position with the Ottawa 67, Cameron sees Methot’s second coming in 67 defender Jack Matier. Cameron has said, however, that he would like Matier to show a worse streak of Occasionally.

Well the coach got what he asked for after his stalwart on defense scored the second fight of his career in the Ontario Hockey League and earned retribution for a hit from the blind side with a unanimous decision over the Mississauga winger. Steeleheads, Max Dodig.

Unfortunately, the rest of the 67 did not have the same fight in them and the Steelheads closed them out every turn, skidding to a 3-0 victory in the Arena at TD Place on Friday night before a crowd of 3,075 in the crowd. season. how the 67 honored the Canadian forces.

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And the weekend will only get tougher when the 67s head immediately to Oshawa, their weekend base for games Saturday afternoon in Hamilton and Sunday night in Oshawa.

Matier does all the little things night after night, anchoring a fairly young group of blueliners with the balance of someone well beyond the Ontario Hockey League’s 70 regular-season games in what should be his third full season at the league.

You can also rattle the boards at the Civic Center, your reputation for doing a hip checkup starting to resonate with the league.

Against the Steelheads, his best job might have been on the death penalty, at one point leaping into battle along the boards at the end of the Steelheads, taking on three opposing players as he kills valuable seconds off the clock, then returns to his position in right defense with relative ease.

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He also had opportunities in the power game.

The problem was, Mississauga played as complete a game as any team against the 67 this season, shooting 35-19.

After a goalless 20-minute start with tight control, Mississauga broke the ice with a 1:21 James Hardie goal in the second period.

Six minutes later, Luca DelBelBelluz made it 2-0.

Seven seconds after that, Matier showed his temper after Dodig ran him over on the Steelheads’ blue line.

Matier righted himself quickly and caught Dodig inside the 67 line and let him have it.

The 67 seemed to take a leap after the fight, but it didn’t last, and Mississauga’s Owen Beck put the game out of reach by scoring 8:11 in the third period.

“(The fight) is still part of the game,” said Matier, who came to training camp in September 2019 as the first-round pick of the 67 that year, number 21 overall. “It was just a matter of the heat of the moment. I didn’t see it coming and I didn’t get a chance to prepare.

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“At the time, I was just trying to do something… give us some energy.

“As he gets older, he becomes more confident in his physical game. And being physical means being difficult to cope with. I want to be that. “

Matier was anything but a normal rookie two seasons ago. The expectations were those of any rookie trying to get into a championship-caliber lineup. Even Matier thought they would see him in and out of the lineup as he watched and learned.

That was until the long-term early injuries of Nikita Okhotyuk and Merrick Rippon weakened things along the blue line, so Matier chimed in every night, and it wasn’t long before he showed the poise of a veteran. .

And we are not talking about a change here and a change there. Matier was getting great minutes and winning every minute.

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By the end of the season, he had appeared in 56 games, counting nine assists while posting an even more striking plus-11.

That stellar rookie season was enough for the Nashville Predators to select Matier in the fourth round (124 overall) of the 2021 National Hockey League draft.

Had there been a 1920-21 season, it is unknown how high his shares might have risen.

Anyway, he’s well on his way to becoming a closing NHL defender, a And you’re going to have a physical presence and the ability to take care of yourself.

“One day he will play in the NHL, against the best forwards,” Cameron said. And I’m not saying I want to get the bully thing back.

“But I love competitive hockey. I want to see if my team is compromised. “

Matier comes honestly for his talents. Father Mark Matier capped an excellent three-year career with the Soo Greyhounds with a Memorial Cup championship in 1993 under head coach Ted Nolan. He also did a couple of seasons with the Cornwall Aces of the American Hockey League before departing from the British Super League of Ice (Hockey).