In the busy month of October, the Ottawa Junior Senators started off pretty well, but are on track to come out of spooky season with a great spot in the standings.
The Showcase
It already feels like forever ago, but OJS had a literal semi-successful weekend in Nepean, falling to the Smith Falls Bears 3-1 and beating the Renfrew Wolves 4-2.
The Jr Sens fell behind in the Saturday game after an uneventful first period and two goals from the Bears in the second. OJS captain Deklyn Campbell got his squad on the board during the second of their six powerplays of the game.
That ended up being the Jr Sens’ only goal of the game while the Bears managed to tack on one more.
The next day, Cameron Sheppard gets OJS on the board on their second of eight powerplays. It was the reigning EOJHL rookie of the year‘s first in a Jr Senators uniform.
A two-goal second period from Renfrew gave them back the lead but OJS came out of the second intermission with three more and came out with a 4-2 victory. Two of those third period goals came from Brody Molloy who recently overtook team captain Deklyn Campbell as the Jr Sens’ points leader with a point for each of his 13 games played.
Since then
The Junior Sens managed to tread water and split the schedule, keeping their .500 record from the showcase alive for the next two weeks, winning two of their four games between Oct. 9 and Oct. 18. In the third week of October, the tides changed and OJS picked up even more momentum. They won three games in a row on Oct. 21, 23 and 25 against Pembroke, Navan and Brockville.
On Oct. 17, in the game at home against the Cornwall Colts, forward Tristan Venne made his OJS debut, scoring two goals in a 6-1 win. Venne suited up for 20 games for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL last year but spent the majority of his time in the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) in a New-jersey Rockets uniform.
Since joining the Junior Sens, he’s only played five games but has almost twice as many points. Five goals and Four assists for a total of nine points, again, in only five games.
Defenceman Nate Ostridge was also called-up to the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL last weekend. You can read more on that here.
Spooky Season
With only two games left in October, on Halloween eve and Halloween day, OJS has the opportunity to overtake the Nepean Raiders for second place in the Yzerman Division. Nepean, despite having played three more games than the Junior Sens, only have three more points in the standings.
The Junior Sens are in Renfrew on Friday night for their second game against the Wolves this month, a rematch of the second game from the showase. The next day, OJS will be back home at Jim Durrell for their first showdown pf the season against the 3-7-1 Carleton Place Canadians for a Halloween showdown.
Our Inactivity Online
You might’ve noticed that our social media pages and this very website have fallen behind the past few weeks. Missing gameday or final score posts, not holding the highlight of the week contest for a while or being late on player announcements.
For that, we apologise. Our all-volunteer media team has been reduced this year and non-OJS events can affect their availability at any point. That being said, we are committed to being better heading forward.
However, we could use some help. If you’re subscribed to Working in Hockey‘s mailing list, you already know we’re currently looking for a Social Media Intern and a Broadcasting Intern. Those interested can reach out and send a resume to our General Manager at patrickmccallen27@gmail.com.
