CROUCHING TAVARES, SNEAKING FRONTENACS (UPDATED)

The 67's Logan Couture did the Kingston Frontenacs' dirty work for them and their rivals from the 613 sort of threw it in his face.

First things first: The 67's lost their final game today to Sudbury, 6-4 and will face Belleville in the first round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs instead of third-place Mississauga. so all that excitement generated by sweeping those two games against John Tavares and the Oshawa Generals was all for naught -- especially when it relates to the Kingston Frontenacs.

On Saturday, Couture popped for four points, including two third-period goals in a 5-3 67's victory at the Civic Centre. That sustained Kingston's hopes of sneaking into fourth place and getting home ice for the first-round series against Oshawa, but that lasted only about two hours.

The Fronts lost their finale 4-3 to Mississauga, meaning Oshawa clinched fifth place while it was on the bus travelling for their game in Brampton today (which it lost, by the way, with Tavares scoring once for an even 72 goals on the season). C'est la vie and que sera, que sera.

In fairness to the Fronts, Mississauga's Andrew Loverock came off the bench with the score 2-2 early in the second and stopped 28 of 29 shots, so it's possible he simply stole the win. The extra home game Oshawa will get for the quarter-final probably isn't a huge advantage, but it's just funny and all too Fronts-like to go from hope to resignation so quickly.

Oh, and you-know-who -- described in the local press as Frank 'The Plank,' which seems "negative in nature" -- apparently faced 67's owner Jeff Hunt in a penalty shot showdown at Saturday's game. In the words of Truman Capote, that's nice.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.