Ottawa, Ontario – Owen Cole scored the overtime winner in the final two minutes of the extra-frame – giving the Ottawa Jr. Senators (27-11-2) a 3-2 win over the Navan Grads (13-23-7) on Saturday night at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex.
Cole received a pass from Taylor Egan at the bottom of the left circle and fired it over the shoulder of Navan goaltender Alex Wisco for the overtime winner. Cole now leads the team in game-winning-goals with five scored this season. He say’s that he was at the end of his shift and give’s credit to Egan for a great pass.
“Egan came in with the puck and made a good move going wide. I planted myself on the side of the net and he made a good pass to me and I went bar-down, so it feels good.”
Ottawa is now 3-0 in overtime this season. Prior to Cole’s overtime winner on Saturday – Elie Boulerice had scored overtime winners against Rockland and Navan. Overall in extra-time, the Jr. Senators are 5-2 this season.
The Jr. Senators were leading 2-0 after two period’s of play. Bailey Brant scored his first of the season and Conor Smart netted his 11th and his second in as many games. The Grads made it a one-goal game heading into the second intermission before tying it up with a short-handed goal in the third period.
Ben Badalamenti took Zack Hoffman’s pass behind the Ottawa defense and fired it over goaltender Francis Boisvert, tying the game at two. It was just the Grads third short-handed goal scored this season.
Cole say’s it was a character win for Ottawa after the third period setback, “It was tough to comeback, especially after spending six of the last seven minutes killing penalties, so it was a setback but a character win for sure.”
Ottawa Jr. Senators Head Coach Martin Dagenais also said that it was a setback for them.
“We had our top players on the ice and they were not getting the job done on the power-play. Guys were holding onto the puck to long and Adrien Bisson didn’t play the two-on-one to well, so that’s how they got the break-away. But just a lack of urgency, that PP1 has to be better.”
Dagenais later added that the Jr. Senators hit six posts and that they missed a lot of two-on-ones where they couldn’t finish.
Ottawa now leads the season series 3-1 with their next match-up against Navan set for February 16th at home. They’ll meet for the sixth and final time this season on March 1st in Navan.
The Jr. Senators will play four times this week starting on Tuesday against the Kemptville 73’s at the North Grenville Municipal Center. Ottawa is at home on Wednesday against Brockville and Friday against Hawkesbury. They’ll finish off the week in Nepean on Sunday.
