Ottawa scores three late second period goals to down Smiths Falls

 

Ottawa, Ontario – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (11-6) scored three unanswered goals within a span of three minutes late in the second period to defeat the Smiths Falls Bears (5-7-2) 4-3 on Saturday night at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex.

With the game tied 1-1, Owen Cole scored two of the three late second period goals to put Ottawa in front 4-1 heading into the third period.

Alex Way and Anthony Ieradi scored two late goals to bring the Bears within one. Smiths Falls could not complete the comback after a couple of prime opportunities in front of Joshua Ward who stopped 31 shots in the win.

The Jr. Senators winning streak now extends to six games. During their streak they’ve beat Navan, Carleton Place, Kemptville, Rockland, Pembroke and Smiths Falls.

Head Coach Martin Dagenais said that despite the win, it was one of Ottawa’s worst games of the season.

“I think the guys thought the game was over but you have to give Smiths Falls credit, they came out hard in the third and Joshua Ward kept us in third period, it was just way to close.”

From the box score, their were a lot of positives to take away from the Jr. Senators win. 16-year-old defenseman Alex Belanger scored his first career Junior Hockey goal and Owen Cole (2G) and Elie Boulerice (2A) had two points.

Dagenais says that they only played well in one of the three periods, “We have a lot of stuff to clean up, I thought we had a good second period but were very average in the first and the third period was really bad.”

The Bears two unanswered goals scored in the third were on the power-play, snapping Ottawa’s perfect penalty kill percentage in the month of October.

“We had a forward that cheated waiting in the neutral zone which is not something we want and the second one was a fluke. I didn’t think the PK was bad, we just made one mistake.”

Martin gives Assistant Coach Jamie Mayo the credit for their success on the PK.

“He’s the one that works with the PK guys and it make a huge difference when you can take four or five penalty’s a game knowing it’s going to be tough for the other team to score so it’s huge for us.”

Owen Cole was one of the reasons why Ottawa came away with the win against Smiths Falls after he scored two goals in the second period, setting a season-high for goals scored by an individual in a period.

“He was by far our top forward, it’s not even close,” said Dagenais on Cole’s game.

He is now riding a seven game point streak and has five goals and five assists since the start of October.

“Since the beginning of the month he’s improved so much. A lot of the credit goes to him because he works hard at every practice, he asks the right questions and he plays the right way, and when you play the right way you get rewarded,” said Dagenais as he praised Cole’s work ethic.

The Jr. Senators finished the week with a 3-0 record, beating Rockland on Wednesday morning, Pembroke on Friday and Smiths Falls on Saturday.

Ottawa is now on a six-game win streak and look to continue it when they host the Nepean Raiders on Thursday in  Casselman, Ontraio. Mason Detre will have the call inside the Jr Brisson Sports Complex at 7:30 on Hockey TV and mixlr.com/ojsradio

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