By: Davide Disipio
Ottawa, ON – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (21-13-2) were able to rally in the third period to squeak out a 5-4 shootout win over the league-leading Carleton Place Canadians (28-3-5) on home ice.
After a back and forth first period, on the tail-end of a power play, Ethan Mulhearn took a flip pass from Maxime Blanchard and cut cross-crease for his 11th of the season to beat Canadians starter Addison Lawrence with just under four minutes to play, to have the Jr. Senators on top 1-0 after the opening period.
Come the second, the Jr. Senators ran into some penalty trouble, and the Canadians tied the game with just under six minutes remaining courtesy of David Gagnon. The Jr. Senators showed great push back after the tying goal, where Ethan Mulhearn tallied his second of the game and 12th of the season just 50 seconds after the Gagnon goal, to have the Jr. Senators in the lead yet again after 40 minutes.
“We played hard and stuck to the (game) plan,” said Mulhearn who earned his second-two goal game of the season. “We got pucks deep, and on the net which was huge against a team like that (Carleton Place). We were down at the end and didn’t give up, and it worked out for us in the end.”
Early in the third, David Gagnon tied the game yet again with Jr. Senators starter Felix Schnell caught scrambling around after some failed clearing attempts. The Jr. Senators got a power play four seconds after the tying goal and took exception with Maxime Blanchard‘s fourth of the year which was a rocket from the point beating Lawrence over the right shoulder.
Over the next five minutes, the Canadians got goals from Cameron Patton, and Jake Code to take their first lead of the game with under seven minutes to go in regulation.
Then, with under four minutes to play, Brent Broaders was sprung all alone on a breakaway and was stopped by Lawrence, but the momentum of the Canadians backchecking defender took out the netminder to allow a centering pass from Broaders to hit Chris Piché and find its way in to tie the game at four.
“I thought our kids battled pretty hard,” said Jr. Senators assistant coach Jamie Mayo. “At times we were chasing the game a bit, Carleton Place is a very well-coached team, and they took it to us for long stretches.”
As overtime solved nothing, it took extra shooters in the shootout to decide a winner, as Brent Broaders went upstairs on Lawrence to win the game in the fourth round to secure the second point for the Jr. Senators to push the win streak to two games.
Felix Schnell stopped 35 of 39 to improve his record to 7-1-2. The Ottawa penalty kill went 3-for-5, and the power play was a game-changing 3-for-4, in the win.
“We did some little things right,” added Mayo. “Our power play was really effective, allowing us to stay in the game, and when it (the powerplay) scores three goals, you give yourself a good chance to win the hockey game.”
The Jr. Senators are back in action for a 4:30 pm puck drop at the Kanata Recreation Complex – Tom Flood Arena on Sunday afternoon to take on the Kanata Lasers. Catch all the action on the Jr. Senators broadcast network at mixlr.com/ojsradio and Hockey TV.
