Ottawa, ON – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (16-3-1) split a mini two-game week with a defeat on home ice to the Navan Grads on Wednesday, followed by a decisive 5-2 win on the road in Cornwall on Thursday.
Wednesday – Navan 3, Ottawa 2
In the lone Wednesday night contest across the CCHL, the Navan Grads scored two goals late to come from behind and pick up the road to even the season series with OJS at a game apiece.
In a back and forth opening 20, both teams saw goals come off the board early, but that didn’t phase either side as Julian Recine and Alexandre Hogue exchanged first-period tallies.
Following a quiet, but entertaining second period, Thomas Freel opened the third by scoring his ninth of the season to have OJS up a goal until it all unraveled with three minutes to go. Ryan Burke notched the equalizer, then the winner with 32 seconds to go. The lead came at the best time for the Grads as it was their first of the game and didn’t look back from there to snap the Jr. Senators’ four-game win streak.
William Desmarais made 28-saves in the losing effort, while Ben West made 31-saves at the other end of the ice.
The Jr. Senators went 1-for-4 on the man advantage while the Grads went 1-for-2.
Thursday – Ottawa 5, Cornwall 2
Less than 24-hours after letting one slip away on home ice, the Jr. Senators pushed forward, rolling into Cornwall to take down the Colts in the lone Thursday night CCHL contest.
Edward Moskowitz got the scoring started four minutes into the hockey game, tipping home the Mabey point shot to give his squad up a goal early. Will McKinley tied things up three minutes later as he crashed the net and buried the cross-crease feed over the shoulder of starter Felix Schnell.
Before the period was over, the Jr. Senators found themselves shorthanded with Mark MacPhee pressing Matt Harvey at the red line, stripping the puck to send Thomas Freel on a breakaway who made no mistake for OJS’ league-leading ninth shorthanded goal of the year.
In the second, Wil Murphy put away what would be the eventual winner as he crept into the slot and beat netminder Alex Houston to make it 3-1, not only for the Colts to get one back off a faceoff win courtesy of Alex Fournier.
The Jr. Senators managed to get a couple of insurance markers in the third via the first CCHL goal from Tomislav Brennan and later from Mark MacPhee for a much-deserved bounce back and road win to finish off the week.
Felix Schnell made 14 stops in the win, while Colts starter Alex Houston turned aside 34.
The Jr. Senators went 0-for-4 on the man advantage while the Colts went 0-for-2.
The Ottawa Jr. Senators return to the ice on Wednesday to take on the Brockville Braves with puck drop scheduled for 7:20 PM. Catch all the action with Mason Detre and Davide Disipio on the Jr. Senators Broadcast Network at Mixlr.com/OJSradio and on Hockey TV.
