Ottawa Fury FC escaped Edmonton with a point from a scoreless draw Sunday night and, all things considered, will be pretty happy with it.

As the temperatures hovered around 30C at Commonwealth Stadium, Fury FC found itself down to 10 men in the 56th minute after defender Ryan Richter, making his Ottawa debut in the club's season opener after being loaned out by Toronto FC, was sent off on a questionable second yellow card.

Richter made contact with a countering Frank Jonke who went to ground and the Ottawa centre back was ejected, despite his protests. Richter's red card is also the first in club history.

Going down a man forced Ottawa to back off on the offensive push but played a solid defensive game in keeping the Eddies off the board. Still, Edmonton hit two posts behind goalkeeper Devala Gorrick late in the game, which left Eddies coach Colin Miller fuming at everyone from his players to the refs, while getting in a dig at the Fury along the way.

"It's the angriest I've been since I've been FC Edmonton head coach," Miller said following the game.

He refused to use the heat as an excuse and said it was unacceptable his players didn't push harder after Richter got sent off.

"We were totally not at the races here," he said. "We go a man up and it's not until we bring a 17-year-old (midfielder Hanson Boakai) in that we start to show a little life about us."

He said Fury FC looked like "a team waiting to get beat," while also taking a shot at the attitude of his own squad.

"We've got too many guys that think they've arrived," he said, while promising an intense training session on Tuesday. "If they don't want to run here they'll run on Tuesday."

Miller also went after the officials over what to Edmonton was a late hand ball, calling it "another very poor refereeing performance"."

Ottawa coach Marc Dos Santos said the heat was a factor for both sides.

"A big one," he said. "It was a factor for ... two teams that their major quality is their intensity. Maybe that was taken away from our game."

Losing Richter didn't help matters.

"(That was) very difficult," Dos Santos said. "It's humid, it's very warm (and) you're a man down playing against a very good team away from home."

The coach said his team secured the single point because they were willing to "suffer."

"At the end of the day we were able to suffer ... and we came out with an important point," he said.

Ottawa's first half saw the side more aggressive, owning the majority of the possession and getting the best chance of the first 45 minutes as defender Mason Trafford got a foot on a free kick but sent the ball off the post behind Edmonton keeper John Smits.

Gorrick continued his streak of playing time Sunday, having not missed a minute of action through the entire spring season. Recently acquired keeper Romuald Peiser didn't travel with the team, having only trained twice with his new club since arriving in Ottawa. He's not expected to play in Fury FC's first two matches.

Fury FC will return to training Wednesday at TD Place before playing its first-ever match at the new TD Place stadium Sunday against the New York Cosmos.

Ottawa will host Edmonton, with whom the Fury has quickly developed a rivalry as the lone Canadian clubs in the NASL, at home on October 18.

chris.hofley@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @chrishofley