Ottawa: 4 – Navan: 1
In their fist game at Fred Barrett Arena since their win in the CCHL finals in 2022, the Junior Senators made sure to provide some nostalgia, last night, triuphing over the Navan Grads in a convincing win. OJS now sits with a respectable 6-3-0-1 record.
The game also saw Forward, David Deschatelets, score his fist goal in junior hockey, potting the last insurace goal of last night’s game.”It’s a relief,” said the Ottawa native, “I’ve been thinking about (my first goal) for a while and I’ve had some good opportunities so far. Hopefully this will open up the floodgates.”
After an inexusable 5-1 loss against the Brockville Braves on Friday, the Jr Sens desperately needed to get rid of the bad luck they’ve faced on the road so far this season.
After two OJS powerplays in the first half of the first period, Dax Kenney oppend up the scoring thanks to a blue line to blue line stretch pass from fellow rookie Jordan Perrier sending him off on a breakaway where he sent the puck right over Navan goaltender, Edouard Blais’ right shoulder. That pass marks Perrier’s first point in the CCHL.
Keeping their foot on the gas, Ottawa had to fight off a lot of Navan chances as the shots evened up 9-9 in the first period. With less than a minute and a half before the first intermission, Clément Valette popped in his sixth goal of the season off of a Cédrick St-Pierre rebound. That makes three games in a row with a goal for Valette.
Early in the second, OJS got their sixth powerplay opportunity of the game, finally capitalizing on one. After a nice umbrella passing play, rookie, Kairui Gardner, got the puck on his forehand and placed the puck top shelf to give his team the 3-0 lead. About ten minutes later, Deschatelets made it 4-0 by sending a one-timed shot courtosey of a perfectly placed Valette pass.
Josh Scully seemed poised for the shutout, havign stopped 23 shots up until some chaos and confusion in front of his net caused the puck to bounce from stick to stick, ending up in the back of his net. Navan frorwad, Mathieu Paris was creditied with the goal with less than three and a half minutesd left in the game. The score would stay that way, 4-1 for Ottawa.
The Grads took a total of 53 penaty minutes in the game, including two, ten minute misconduct penalties. One of which came as a result of Navan defenceman, Shayle Simons, dropping the gloves against Jr Sens defenceman Owen Trainor after some action next to Blais’ net.
The Jr Sens are back on the road next Friday, this time in Hawkesbury to take on the Hawks before coming back home to Jim Durrell to host the Smiths Falls Bears. Both games are scheduled for 7:30pm.
