Ottawa, Ontario – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (43-16-3) defeated the Hawkesbury Hawks (37-19-5) 6-2 on their final game of the regular season, Wednesday night at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex.
The Jr. Senators scored four unanswered goals late in the game after two lead changes early on. The Hawks scored first, and tied it in the second after the Jr. Sens took the 2-1 lead. Conor Smart’s first of two on the night was the game winner, as it gave OJS the 3-2 lead late in the second period.
Kyle Jackson scored his first career hat-trick, Conor Smart scored twice and Elie Boulerice tallied three-points in the win.
“It was fun to see Conor smart play, and Kyle Jackson getting the hat-trick and Bouly (Elie Boulerice) doing what he does best. I know we only had three guys score our six-goals but I thought we got a lot of chances from different players,” said Martin Dagenias on how everyone contributed to the teams win.
Dagenais rested Darcy Walsh, Adrien Bisson, Colin Marshall, Owen Cole and Danny Pion for Wednesday’s game. With them out of the lineup, he called up prospects Alex Rossides, Mark MacPhee, Ranvir Gill and Brandan Bays.
“All of our AP’s were going hard. Hawkesbury is a good team and I think it was a good experience for these young players, too.”
Jackson now finishes the season with 24-goals and 54-points in just 51-games. In the second-half, the 16-year-old forward recorded 14-goals and 32-points in 22-games.
“For him to finish the regular season with a hat-trick two days after being named the Rookie of the Year is the cherry on top for him,” said Dagenais. “Our expectations will be super high on him when it comes to the playoffs.”
The Jr. Senators finish the season with 40+ wins for the fifth straight year, 200+ GF for the 10th straight year and 80+ points for the seventh straight season. Ottawa also ends the second-half 18-5-1, which is an improvement on last year, as they went 17-4-3.
The Jr. Senators will start their best of seven Quarter Final against the seventh seed Kanata Lasers at home on Sunday March 17th at 3:30 p.m. Ottawa has a day-off today, practice Friday and are doing a video session on Saturday in preparation for game one.
