Ottawa hockey fans got a split weekend at TD Place, and Sunday's result was a rough one to swallow despite a milestone from one of the 67's brightest young forwards.
A hat trick in a blowout
The Sarnia Sting beat the Ottawa 67's 10-3 on September 27, 2026 at TD Place. The lopsided scoreline masked a big personal moment for forward Filip Ekberg, who scored his first career OHL hat trick in the loss. It's the kind of achievement that would headline most nights, but with Ottawa on the wrong end of a seven-goal margin, it doubled as one of the only bright spots in an otherwise difficult evening for the 67's.
How the game unravelled
Sarnia set the tone early, scoring just 30 seconds into the game. Ottawa clawed back into it as the game went on, helped by Ekberg's individual efforts, but the Sting pulled away for good with a six-goal explosion in the third period to seal the 10-3 final.
Ekberg's night included a moment of bad luck too. One of his goals, a first-period power-play marker, was disallowed after Sarnia successfully challenged it for offside. He didn't let it rattle him. In the second period, Ekberg shook off a defender and rifled a shot under the crossbar to pull Ottawa within one goal early in the frame, a highlight-reel individual effort in a game the 67's would ultimately lose control of.
What Ekberg said
Asked about the grind of a back-to-back weekend, Ekberg kept it simple: "I mean we're definitely tired, but everyone has those games. You just have to do what you can to try and play good."
A split weekend for the 67's
Sunday's loss came one night after Ottawa beat Peterborough 6-3 on Saturday, meaning the 67's split their back-to-back weekend set. That kind of split, a strong road win followed by a lopsided home loss, is a familiar early-season pattern for a young team still finding consistency, and it's exactly the stretch where a performance like Ekberg's stands out even in defeat.
Ekberg's early-season numbers
Through two games this season, Ekberg had accumulated four points total, a mark the hat trick against Sarnia will have boosted significantly. The 19-year-old forward was a seventh-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2025 NHL Draft, and performances like Sunday's, even in a lopsided loss, are the kind that keep NHL scouts watching a prospect's development closely.
For Ottawa fans at TD Place, the takeaway from Sunday wasn't the final score so much as the player wearing an Ottawa sweater who refused to fade in a blowout. The 67's will look to build on Ekberg's momentum as the season continues.
Sources: Ottawa 67's (OHL official), Sarnia Sting (OHL official), RotoWire
