Music: {allcanada} Graovac scores 3, 67's rout Otters for 1st win

Saturday, September 29, 2012

{allcanada} Graovac scores 3, 67's rout Otters for 1st win

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Tyler Graovac had a hat trick for the Ottawa 67's on Saturday as they collected their first win of the Ontario Hockey League season with an 8-1 rout of the Erie Otters.

Graovac scored all three of his goals by the 8:07 mark of the first period as he gave the 67's a very early 3-0 lead to work with. The third goal came on a short-handed breakaway.

"It was a good start for sure," said Graovac. "I wanted to come into this game and bring some momentum for the boys and I thought I did that. I'm just kind of sick of losing."

Remy Giftopoulos had two goals and an assist for the 67's (1-3-0) and Brett Gustavsen had a goal and two assists. Sean Monahan and Connor Brown completed the scoring for Ottawa, who outshot the Otters 41-23.

Another Conner Brown scored as well, but he was wearing an Erie (1-3-1) jersey.

Jacob Blair made 22 saves for the win. Oscar Dansk stopped 33 shots for the Otters.

Ottawa led 3-1 after the first period and 5-1 after the second. The 67's scored two goals 29 seconds apart in the opening six minutes of the second.

Ottawa finished the game 1-for-3 on the power play while the Otters went 1-for-7. Erie also failed to capitalize on an extended five-on-three early in the third period.

Elsewhere in the OHL, it was: Oshawa 5, Belleville 2; Plymouth 6, Sudbury 2; Sault Ste. Marie 3, Saginaw 2; Barrie 4, Mississauga 1 and Sarnia 2, Owen Sound 1.

At Ottawa, Graovac opened the scoring 28 seconds into the game and would give the 67's a 3-0 lead with two more goals at 3:40 and 8:07.

Brown scored a power-play goal at 14:28 to get Erie on the board and make it 3-1 heading into the second period.

Monahan and Giftopoulos scored 29 seconds apart in the second to give Ottawa a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Gustavsen scored for the 67's at 2:51 of the third peirod and Giftopoulos added his second of the game, by way of the power play, at 11:36.

Brown scored at 15:02 to round out Ottawa's offence.

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Generals 5 Bulls 2

At Belleville, Ont., Boone Jenner scored twice and Daniel Altshuller stopped 22 shots as Oshawa (3-1-0) downed the Bulls (2-2-0).

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Whalers 6 Wolves 2

At Plymouth, Mich., Tom Wilson and Rickard Rakell each scored twice and Gianluca Curcuruto chipped in with three assists as the Whalers (1-0-2) defeated Sudbury (2-2-0).

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Greyhounds 3 Spirit 2 (OT)

At Saginaw, Mich., Nick Cousins scored the winner three minutes into overtime, to go along with two assists, as Sault Ste. Marie (3-1-0) edged the Spirit (1-1-2).

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Colts 4 Steelheads 1

At Barrie, Ont., Zach Hall scored twice and Mathias Niederberger stopped 32-of-33 shots to lift the Colts (3-2-0) over Mississauga (2-2-0).

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Sting 2 Attack 1

At Owen Sound, Ont., JP Anderson made 28 saves to earn the game's first star while Connor Murphy's second period stood up as the winner as Sarnia (1-2-1) slipped past the Attack (3-1-1).