By: Dante De Caria
Nepean, Ontario – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (30-12-2) captured their 30th victory this season, leaving the Steve Yzerman Arena with a 7-1 win over the Nepean Raiders (11-31-2) on Sunday.
The Jr. Senators scored seven or more goals in a game for just the third time this season. Two of the three have come against the Raiders while the other one was against the 4th place Rockland Nationals.
With the win, Ottawa ties Rockland for fourth (62 points) and move within three points back of the first place Carleton Place Canadians (65 points). Ottawa improves to 4-0-1 against Nepean with one more meeting left in the season series.
Darcy Walsh played in his 200th career CCHL game, Sunday. He entered the league with the Glouchester Rangers when he was 16 and was dealt to Ottawa prior to the 2016-17 campaign.
Kyle Jackson registered four-points (2G/2A), Ethan Manderville scored twice while Noah Rowe (3A) and Geoff Dempster (1G/1A) had multi-point game’s against their former team.
Jackson scores his 13th / 14th goals this season, and now has nine points in five games this month, giving him 31 points in 34 games this season.
“He’s working harder defensively,” said Ottawa Jr. Senators Head Coach Martin Dagenais on Jackson’s recent play. “If you’re going to battle in the Defensive-Zone, then you’ll spend more time in the Offensive-Zone, and if you’re winning battles in the Offensive-Zone then you’ll stay there.”
Ethan Manderville’s two-goals is just his first multi-goal game of the season. He finished the weekend with three goals in two games after going his previous eight games without a goal.
“He went to the net hard. We want him to go to the net and find ways to score those dirty goals. He does not need to be on the perimeter all the time,” said Dagenais.
The Jr. Senators finish the week 3-1 after wins against Kemptville, Hawkesbury and Nepean. Next week, Ottawa will play three times, with games against Kanata, Brockville and Pembroke.
Dagenais said he is pleased with their overall play this week and says that he didn’t have to motivate his team to play the 12th place Raiders.
“We want to make sure they’re ready for any type of opponent. We know that Nepean is a young team and last in our league but they’re still a Jr. A club. There are a lot of good players on the other side, they’re well coached and we know that they were going to work hard.”
In the final six minutes of the game, Jr. Senators forward Owen Cole went hard into the boards and had to leave the game early. Raiders forward Josh Shimizu hit Cole as he dove to keep the puck in the attacking-zone. Head Coach Martin Dagenais said it’s an upper body injury and the timeline for his return is unknown.
The Jr. Senators are back in action on Wednesday January 23rd, 2019 when they host the Kanata Lasers at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex.
