Erie Otters Weekend in Review

by Josh Newhart

First of all let me introduce myself to the ITO family, I am the new beat writer for the Erie Otters for ITO. I have been a season ticket holder of the Otters for the past 2 seasons and an avid follower since 2001. I hope that i can help people get to know more about the Otters team and history.

This past weekend the Otters traveled to Owen Sound and Brampton for a 3in3. The Otters have struggled a lot this year. It seems like we play pretty bad on the road but, I have been pretty impressed with the new look otters since the trades of Greg McKegg, Derek Holden, Brett Cook and Tyson Teichmann. Dane Fox and Troy Donnay have really showed me what the Otters have been lacking this year. Troy Donnay plays very well to his size, he moves play to the outside and blocks shots. Cook and Holden both acted like they were ready to be out of Erie and didn't want to make the plays. Dane Fox has Scored a few for the Otters and has a lot more potential, he does the things that Greg didn't, he goes into the corners and hustles the whole game. Greg never played any defense for us, after he was drafted it was like he had done everything he had wanted and his game got lazy. I haven't yet seen Jimmy McDowell play yet because the Otters we're not at home this weekend. I can give you a better report on him next weekend. Now to the games!

The first 2 games on the weekend were against the reigning OHL Champion Owen Sound Attack.The Otters were out played in both games by a solid Attack team. 3-1, 5-0 were the final scores of the 2 games. The rats only scored one goal in the two OS games, scored by our leading scorer Dane Fox. These two games lacked something from the Otters, I think having Johnny McGuire out day to day with the hand injury has taken away our physical game. I was looking forward to a 2 fight weekend from Johnny as well. He and Zweep make for a good one. Lets only hope he can be healthy for this upcoming weekend.

The final game of the 3in3 was in Brampton, our first of 2 meetings with Brampton this season. I listened to this game on the radio with Paul Roper calling it. Dane Fox and Tyler McCarthy both sat out with an illness, i'll get a report next week on what the problem was. The game started out great, Sondre Olden opened the scoring with his 6th of the season 12 minutes in. Ramis Sadikov looked stellar to start the game but fell apart in the last 10 minutes of the first. Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Sam Carrick scored at 15:29 to tie the game at 1. Shortly after, Philip Lane scored a goal from an odd angle that beat Sadikov. Last season Sadikov would have made that save, his confidence is gone this year. The 3rd Brampton goal came just 1:37 later in the first, scored by Mitchell Porowski. I knew at this point the game was over so i turned off my radio and just followed the game on my iPhone. The only other Otters goal was a weird goal, Liam Maaskant scored one from 60 feet out to cut the lead to 3.

Overall this weekend was another bad one for Otters fans but, it seems better days are on the horizon. New acquisitions, the draft, and next season are coming fast. Lets only hope we are better next weekend at home!