Ottawa, ON – The Ottawa Jr. Senators took to the ice in front of a home crowd for the first time since March 7th, 2020, and rode out a 5-2 win over their Yzerman Division rival Nepean Raiders on Saturday night.
Massimo Gentile got the party started with his first CCHL goal midway through the opening period as he crashed the net and roofed a rebound, following a great zone entry and forecheck from Julian Recine and Braxton Ross.
In the second, shades of the opening stages of Friday night’s contest loomed over Ottawa as they conceded two goals in 2:56 and found themselves down late in the middle frame. On a late powerplay, Philippe Jacques’ backhand pass to the slot found captain Thomas Freel who set up Simon Isabelle at the left post to tie the score with only three seconds to go in the period.
With the score knotted up at the halfway point to go in regulation, the puck found its way onto the stick of Edward Moskowitz who made no mistake to give Ottawa the lead as they never looked back from there. Just over a minute later, William Desmarais stood tall, stopping a breakaway off the ensuing faceoff off the stick of Carter Vollett.
“I thought he (Desmarais) was outstanding tonight,” said General Manager and Associate Coach Jamie Mayo. “I think the work he’s been doing with our Goaltending Coach, Stéphane Levere has been fantastic. He made some really key saves. It’s not so much how many saves he makes, it’s the saves at certain times in the game, and the breakaway was one of the points that gave us life.”
The momentum shifted in favour of the home side as Thomas Freel in desperation backhanded a Recine pass into the back of the net to double the lead. Philippe Jacques later found the empty net with a seeing-eye backhand shot from his own zone. The shorty marked Ottawa’s second shorthanded goal in as many games.
“We had our best period in the third,” added Mayo. “We’ve got to clean up the shift lengths, we had many guys well over a minute tonight. They’re getting acclimated to new systems, so it’s going to take a little while, but also, that’s what a great week of practice does. We’ve got two huge games coming up against two really good opponents (Carleton Place and Navan) and practice is going to be a key to getting the guys accustomed to how we want them to play and hopefully we can put four more points on the board.”
William Desmarias made 18 stops for his first CCHL victory, while Ottawa native Connor Shibley was spectacular stopping 36 shots.
Ottawa was 1-for-5 on the man advantage while Nepean went 0-for-3.
The Ottawa Jr. Senators return to the ice on Wednesday as they entertain the new look Carleton Place Canadians with puck drop scheduled for 7:20 PM. Catch all the action with Davide Disipio and Mason Detre on the Jr. Senators Broadcast Network at Mixlr.com/OJSradio and on Hockey TV.
