By: Dante De Caria
Ottawa, Ontario – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (31-12-2) recorded their third comeback win of the season, defeating the Kanata Lasers (22-21-5) 4-2 on Wednesday night at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex.
The Jr. Senators were down 2-0 late in the first period and scored four unanswered goals, tying the game before the first intermission and taking the lead in the second period.
Kyle Jackson scored his rookie leading 15th goal of the season to bring Ottawa within one and Elie Boulerice scored his 16th to tie the game at the one minute mark of the first frame.
Adrien Bisson fired a point-shot through traffic and into the net for the lead just five minutes into the second period. That is his first game-winning-goal this season, as it gave Ottawa a 3-2 lead.
The Jr. Senators now take a 4-0 season series lead against the Kanata Lasers. All four meetings have been decided by two-goals or less, while two of the four have ended in a shootout.
Ottawa has had to comeback twice since the start of last week after they picked up a comeback win against the Kemptville 73’s at the CCHL’s Winter Showcase.
Asst. Coach Jamie Mayo said that you need to keep your composure in order to comeback in games.
“It’s tough. Emotions ran high in the first period for both players and coaches. I think that once we got that first goal under out belt that everyone composed themselves a little bit better and then responded with our play on the ice. You have to keep your composure and we didn’t do a good job with that in the first period.”
The Jr. Senators thought they had their first goal in the opening period, but it was disallowed due to a delayed offside. Kanata goaltender J.P Tourigny came out of his net and cleared it to center. Faisel Alsaif grabbed the puck at center ice and shot it into the net with Tourigny out of the goal, but Ethan Manderville was still in the attacking zone.
“It was the right call. You can’t score on a delayed offside but we were still far to emotional on the bench and that took us away from what we needed to do and what we needed to focus on.”
“I think it calmed everyone down once we tied it at the end of the first period. We were able to execute the way we can,” added Mayo.
Kyle Jackson, for the second straight game, recorded four points (1G/3A). He now leads all CCHL Rookies in points with 35 and has 12 points over his last six games.
“Jacko (Jackson) is unbelievable. He was probably our best forward tonight and he’s been one of our best forwards in the last month. What he’s been able to do in this league as a 16-year-old, I haven’t seen in a very long time. North Bay (OHL) certainly has a quality find.”
Darcy Walsh scored his league leading 26th goal of the season. Both Bisson and Boulerice had 1G/1A. Ottawa’s power-play went 2-6 and are now 9-for-31 on the man-advantage since the break (29%).
Ottawa improves their record to 6-1 since the break (31 GF / 13 GA) and extend their winning streak to three games.
The Jr. Senators have two more games this week. They’re back in action on Friday on the road in Brockville and on Sunday night in Pembroke.
