By Matt Wilson
Ottawa, ON – The Ottawa Jr. Senators had an extremely busy past 7 days as they took on the Rockland Nationals, Navan Grads and the Cornwall Colts, losing two out of the three games.
Rockland 4, Ottawa 1
On Wednesday night the Rockland Nationals traveled to the Jim Durrell Sports Complex to take on the Jr. Senators for the final meeting between the two teams this season. Rockland came out on top in large part due to a three goal 3rd Period.
Colgate University commit Simon Labelle opened the scoring for the Nationals with a wrist shot that beat OJS goaltender Felix Schnell, but Ottawa battled right back and Tucker McIntosh beat Nats goaltender Jack McGovern with a shot top shelf off of a rebound just over 2 minutes after Rockland opened the scoring to tie the game up at one heading into the 3rd period.
Rockland opened the floodgates in the 3rd scoring three goals including two more goals from Labelle to complete the hat trick, as well as an empty netter to seal the deal and head home with a win.
OJS Head Coach Martin Dagenais was back behind the bench and thought Ottawa had a really good start.
“I loved the start” said Dagenais. “In the 1st 20 minutes I thought we gave them nothing, even in the 2nd period we got some good chances and they got some good chances but both goalies were really good, in the end a few bad bounces and a penalty in the 3rd period changed the game”
Ottawa 5, Navan 0
On Friday night the Ottawa Jr. Senators traveled to Navan for the 3rd and final time this season and easily defeated the Grads 5-0 to get back in the win column.
Ottawa dominated the opening frame in terms of pace as well as firing 11 shots at Grads goaltender and Western Michigan University commit Alex Aslanidis but he stood tall between the pipes.
The 2nd Period was a different story for OJS as Christophe Cote had two goals, Julien Recine had his 1st as a Jr. Senator, Ethan Mulhearn continued his career year with his 18th of the season and OJS u18 forward Finnegan Killmurray scored his 1st CCHL Tier One goal to give Ottawa a very comfortable 5-0 lead after 40 minutes and a lead they would never look back from.
Acting Head Coach Jamie Mayo thought the team really liked the teams effort all around.
“First of all I thought Landsy (Bryan Landsberger) was excellent in net” said Mayo. “He made a lot of key saves when it was 0-0 and he allowed us to get our feet wet and to get our special teams going, we were able to capitalize on a few of their mistakes and get a few lucky bounces, but in the end we deserved full marks for that win”
Christophe Cote was named 1st star of the game after recording two goals and an assist in the win.
“That game felt good” said Cote. “I finally snapped the streak of a couple games not having any goals or points even though I think I have been playing pretty well, that game just felt good”
Cornwall 2, Ottawa 1 F/OT
The final game of the week took place Saturday night as the Cornwall Colts traveled to Ottawa for the final time this season to take on the Jr. Senators and Cornwall went home with a 2-1 OT victory.
The story throughout this game was penalties as both teams had 8 opportunities on the power play and there were 10 different minor penalties called in the 1st 20 minutes of this game alone. Ethan Mulhearn and Matthew Toporowski had the lone goals of the 1st Period for each team both on the power play and they turned out to be the only goals during regulation time.
In the extra frame it only took 18 seconds for the Colts to end it as Charlie Skinner slid one past Bryan Landsberger to give Cornwall the win. Rico DiMatteo was deservedly given the games 1st star stopping 38 of the 39 shots he faced from Ottawa.
The Jr. Senators next game is an extremely important one as the Pembroke Lumber Kings travel to the Jim Durrell Sports Complex tied with Ottawa in terms of points in the standings with 59 but ahead of OJS in the standings with two games in hand. You can listen to the game on mixlr.com/ojsradio and watch it on Hockey TV starting at 7:15 pm.
