Spitfires look to contain 67's

The Ottawa 67's are looking for consistency from their Canadian world junior hopefuls when they take on the Windsor Spitfires on Friday Night Hockey.

Forward Tyler Toffoli and defenceman Cody Ceci were both named to Canada's selection camp roster on Monday after impressive starts this season. Ottawa head coach and general manager Chris Byrne isn't anticipating any let-down from two of his top players as they perform in league play before the world junior camp.

"I think it's a great feather in the cap of those guys and we expect them to play hard, the same way for us from here on in until camp as they have this season," he said. "When they get (to Canada's selection camp) their concentration and focus is on making Team Canada. That's the expectation we have."

Catch Toffoli, Ceci and the 67's as they host the two-time MasterCard Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires on Rogers Sportsnet at 7 p.m. ET

Standing in Toffoli's way will be overage goaltender John Cullen, who will make his first start since being pulled after allowing four goals on 17 shots in one period against Niagara on Friday.

Can the Spitfires slow down Toffoli and the 67's offence?

Toffoli enters the game second in league scoring with 47 points in 24 games this season. He tied for the league lead a year ago with 108 points. Toffoli is one of junior hockey's top marksmen and will pose a challenge for Spitfires head coach Bob Boughner and his team.

"You almost change your game-plan on the road," Boughner explained. "Instead of loading up two lines, I think you have to be three lines deep without getting the last change. You have to make sure you have a good, responsible defensive forward on each line."

Byrne is used to seeing opposing teams devise plans to take his top forward out of the game. Whether on the road or at home, Toffoli will often see the other team's top defensive pairing.

"He's scoring and doing things that he's doing typically by playing against the better defencemen on other teams and I think he's done a good job of finding open spots and getting open looks," Byrne said. "It's his job to get open and it's not like a secret when we play teams. If he has five or seven good looks at the net, he's going to score some goals so I think other teams obviously try to get that number down as low as they can and also know that at a certain point in the game, on the power-play, he is going to get a good look at the net."

How important will it be for the Spitfires to play strong systematically?

The Spitfires are a young team that is learning as they go along this season. As is the case with young teams, the Spitfires are making mistakes, but Boughner is happy with some of the progress being made. In facing a team as potent as the 67's, eliminating mental lapses will be important.

"A team you can't fall asleep on," Boughner described. "You can't afford to have two or three bad shifts a period because they're a team that can obviously capitalize and put it in the back of the net."

Boughner is planning a more north-south approach with his game-plan and cautious play with the puck to avoid turnovers. His team will clog the middle of the ice so that "if they're going to get something, give it to them from the outside," he said. "That's a team that's probably one of the scariest teams offensively in the league."

Can the 67's return to their early-season form?

Although still a contender for the Eastern Conference crown this season, the 67's aren't the same team lately as they were to begin the season. Ottawa went 5-4-2-1 in the month of November after going 10-3-1-0 out of the gate.

"We're not playing our best hockey right now," Byrne acknowledged. "For us, our concentration is getting back to playing a better style and playing better in our own zone and doing a better job without the puck. Whether it be Windsor or any other team we play in the next little while, our focus is on a large percentage how we're playing and what we're doing and a smaller percentage on dealing with other teams."

Ottawa's second loss of the season came in Windsor on Oct. 2, which was the team's third game in three days. The 67's led 3-0 heading into the second period, but wound up losing 4-3 in overtime on a goal by Alexander Khokhlachev.

"I don't use or make that excuse," Byrne said when asked if his team ran out of gas in their previous meeting. "We have our schedule set out early in the summer. We know exactly when we're going and where we're playing. That's the way the league's set up so you have to be ready for it, deal with it and be available to play great three games whenever you play them."

How much will special teams influence the outcome?

Ottawa's power-play is clicking this season, while Windsor's is struggling. Both teams have room for improvement on the penalty kill with a percentage below 80.

"We've won some games on our power-play," Byrne said. "(The penalty kill) is a point of emphasis this week… definitely an area we want to be better at going forward this year."

Similarly, the Spitfires spent a lot of time this week working on special teams. Boughner prepared his power-play by presenting various degrees of pressure to having the first and second unit competing in time trials to see which could score quickest.

"I've let the reins off a bit and basically said, 'listen, we've got five, they've got four. Get creative, get movement and if it means the guy from the half-wall ends up on the goal line, I don't care,'" Boughner said. "I just want to see movement and I want to see shots."