By: Mason Detre
Carleton Place, Ontario – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (24-22-2) dropped their second consecutive game to the Carleton Place Canadians (39-6-5) 3-2 on Sunday afternoon inside the Carleton Place Arena.
Tucker McIntosh scored his 7th goal of the season back in the first period. He has three goals in his last four games. Most importantly, David Berube would extend his point streak to four games (3 G / 2 A) by picking up an assist.
The game was tied at one heading to the 3rd period when Carleton Place was able to take advantage in the first five minutes. Cameron Patton hit the post at the side of the net and was able to slide the puck in the net, but the goal was credited to Brett Thorne to give the Canadians a 2-1 lead.
“I don’t know, it’s tough because right after the first period, the guys were maybe too comfortable and we knew that they would come out strong,” said Dagenais on the first five minutes of the second and third periods where his club was very tentative. “The guys were not ready for that, the first 4-5 minutes were tough. I thought in the second half’s of the second we battled back, but again we played in our zone in the first 4-5 minutes in the third.”
Ayo Adeniye would pick up a tripping penalty with 5:32 to go in regulation to put Ottawa on the powerplay. Ottawa would capitalize after Alsaif shot the puck wide from the midpoint, the second shot from Thomas Freel at the side of the goal was stopped by a diving Devon Levi until Christophe Côté pots home the open net for his first goal as a Jr. Senator to tie the game at two.
“I thought Cote was good” added Dagenais. “I think he needs to make a few adjustments in his game. His shifts are too long, turns over pucks, but he works. You can go to war with a guy like that because he works his butt off and that’s how he scored that goal.”
With the game tied at two, Mark MacPhee would pick up a slashing penalty with 2:32 left. Caleb Kean would beat OJS goaltender Felix Schnell on the left side of the net. It would stand to be the game-winning goal for the Canadians.
Ottawa goes 1-4 in the season series against Carleton Place this year.
“It’s just inexperience, Mark is playing well and is working hard, but penalties will cost you against a good team,” said Dagenais. “I didn’t really see how they score and couldn’t tell what happened on the PK. We gave a little too much room on the side, but at the end of the day, that penalty was avoidable and that’s what cost us the game at the end.”
Felix Schnell made 23 saves of 26 shots for only his 4th loss this season.
Both Ottawa and Carleton Place went 1-for-6 on the man advantage on Sunday afternoon. Carleton Place outshot Ottawa 26-22.
Next game for the Jr. Senators will go on Thursday night inside the Benson Centre when they play the Cornwall Colts. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm on the Jr. Senators Broadcast Network at mixlr.com/OJSradio.
