Game 45 – OJS Wins Rematch

Zachary Gravel - 3rd Star
Zachary Gravel – 3rd Star

By Romano Di Franco

The Ottawa Junior Senators defeated the Nepean Raiders in the end of their home-and-home series on Saturday night by a score of 7-2.

In the season series between these two teams, the team that has scored the first goal has gone on to win the game and Saturday night continued that trend. Leading the way for OJS was Ethan Mulhearn who opened the scoring with a pair of goals just sixteen seconds apart. His first at 4:15 of the first period came unassisted while the second at 4:31 came on helpers by Christophe Cote and Julian Recine.

Zachary Gravel answered right back just twenty six seconds later to close the gap to one goal. It was his first goal in a Raiders uniform and ironically it came against his old team.

Tucker McIntosh and Patrick Larkin traded goals in the early part of the second period but then it was all OJS the rest of the way as Maxime Blanchard, David Berube, Thomas Freel, and Conor Smart tallied goals to put the game out of reach.

Both teams went 1-for-6 on the PowerPlay as Ottawa outshot Nepean 48-16.

In an odd turn-of-events, Alex Rossides was tossed from the game at 6:21 of the first after he was assessed a 5-minute major penalty for Boarding and a game misconduct. He would eventually return later in the game as the penalties were reassigned to William Venne who then left the game and watched the rest of the game from the stands.

Tyler Laureault had himself another strong performance despite the score as he turned away 41 of the 48 shots he faced.

With one goal and one assist in the game, Gravel was named the third star. Ethan Mulhearn was named the games first star with two goals and one assist while Thomas Freel’s one goal and one assist got him the second star nod.