By: Mason Detre
Rockland, ON – The Ottawa Jr. Senators had their three-game winning streak snapped by losing 3-1 to the Rockland Nationals.
Ottawa would take a too many men penalty to start the game, leading to the first goal from Vincent Labelle. The goal came just 2:47 into the game.
Ottawa had their first power-play attempt late in the first, where a pass from Owen Cole missed Tucker McIntosh at the middle point and Gunnar Smith cut his way down the right side and was able to shoot the puck over the blocker of Landsberger to make it 2-0 Rockland.
“Good start in the first three to four shifts and then made a mental mistake early on with a too many men penalty. Two d-man went on and one changed. It fired them up scoring that power-play goal and then we gave them the second goal, said Ottawa’s Head Coach Martin Dagenais in the first period.
Rockland was still leading 2-0 when Dagenais decided to pull Bryan Landsberger for a 6-on-4 power play with 7:53 left in the third. They were not able to capitalize after Cole Hudson made five big stops on the penalty kill. When it was 6-on-5, Simon Labelle would seal it with an empty-net goal.
Zachary Gravel was able to break the shutout by scoring his 7th of the season.
“I honestly thought we worked really hard but we just didn’t execute much. Our structure was iffy and was able to get some good looks in the end and their goalie was really good” said Dagenais about his team’s performance.
The shots in the were equal at 27. It marks the second time this season that the Jr. Sens equal shots to another opponent and are 1-1 when the shots are equal.
Bryan Landsberber was able to make 24 saves in the loss.
The next game for Ottawa goes tonight when they visit the Kanata Lasers in the Kanata Recreational Complex – Tom Flood Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm. You can catch the game on mixlr.com/ojsradio. Josh Primeau will have the call of the game.
