Ottawa, Ontario – The Ottawa Jr. Senators (8-6) scored first and did not look back, coming away with a 5-2 win over the Kemptville 73’s (6-6-2) on Saturday night at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex.
The Jr. Senators extended their winning streak to a season high three straight games, winning the first of five games against the 73’s.
Darcy Walsh gave OJS the 1-0 lead in the first period. Noah Rowe cleared the puck away from the Ottawa net and Walsh carried the puck down the ice and fired a hard wrist-shot bar-down for his 10th goal of the season. The Jr. Senators record when scoring first is now 8-4.
Ethan Manderville’s second of the season gave Ottawa the 2-0 lead going into the second intermission.
After Luke Jefferies put the 73’s within one in the third, Brady Caruso scored a controversial goal to give the Jr. Sens a 3-1 lead. Andrew Remer was pushed into the goaltender, causing Nick Bond to fall onto the ice, leaving Caruso with a wide-open net.
That was the big turning point of the game as Ottawa went on to scored two more times before Kemptville added one more later on.
Ottawa Jr. Senators Head Coach Martin Dagenais says that the third goal was the difference maker in the game.
“You could sense that they were getting energy after they scored their first one (2-1), it’s the type of game that you feel you deserve but you just can’t score goals. Their goalie made a few crazy saves and we got three in a span of five minutes.”
Dagenais also picked Adrien Bisson as his player of the game. He scored the contest fourth goal for his second of the year and was key defensively.
“Well its just his consistency on the backend. You need your best defenceman to play his best and I thought he did. He was a rock. He scored a nice goal so it’s nice to see him get rewarded for his hard work.”
Adrien Bisson also mentioned that playing on back-to-back nights is not easy but he felt the team got better as the game went on.
“We started off a little rough. We were a little tired from our last game (Carleton Place on Friday) but we got in a groove and we started using our defensemen more and that’s just our team getting more and more experienced,” said Bisson.
The Ottawa Jr. Senators are now 8-6 after beginning the season with a losing record and playing .500 hockey or less until this week. Bisson says it’s just about this team getting more confident.
“It’s really good to see that (playing confident). Our young guys are stepping up, our vet’s are stepping up and the team is really getting together good it’s paid off on the scoreboard.”
With Walsh’s 10th goal of the season, he now leads the CCHL in goals with 10 and points with 19. He also stretches his point streak to eight games. Owen Cole also extended his point streak to five games. Francis Boisvert has now won his last five starts.
Ottawa’s next game is Wednesday, October 17th at 11:30 a.m., when the Jr. Senators host the Rockland Nationals in the second annual school-day game. Mason Detre and Dante De Caria will be on the call on Hockey TV and mixlr.com/ojsradio.
