Ottawa, Ontario – The Ottawa West Golden Knights defeated the Char-Lan Rebels 6-4 inside the Barbara Ann Scott Arena on Thursday night to extend their winning streak to six games.
With the game tied at 2 in the second, the Golden Knights were able to score three unanswered goals from Stef Mellios, Jack Haymes and Daniel Goulet. Char-Lan would cut the deficit to two goals but Bobby Dempster would answer right to regain three goal lead by picking up his first goal of the season.
“It was on the power play and it was a breakout. I saw Stef (Stef Mellios) had the puck and I joined the rush, he made a nice pass and it just went by the goalie so it was nice to get the monkey off my back,” said Dempster after scoring his first goal.
The Golden Knights pick up their 12th win of the season and have tied the season series at one, but Dempster said it wasn’t their best performance despite the win.
“I think it could have been better. Second period was really good but we got a little sloppy in the defensive zone. Too many open chances in the slot for them so we gotta work that against Casselman on Saturday.”
Dempster also said that they got a little bit ahead of themselves, we had a three goal lead so I think we played down to their level so we can’t do that in the third period.
The positive thing is that Jack Haymes (2 G) and Sean Kearns (1 A) were able to extend their point streaks to seven games. J. Haymes has 5 G / 10 A during his time and Kearns also has 6 G / 6 A.
“Well you know that there line-mates out there and those two have been playing with each other for a long time now. So being able to work off each other, knowing the chemistry and history together. They know where to find each other and again there workhorses out their,” said Assistant Coach Spencer Asch-Jones on J. Haymes and Kearns play lately.
Stef Mellios was able to break his five game pointless drought by collecting one goal and two assists. He now has five goals on the season to go along with 12 assists. Michael Gallivan and Ryan Carroll also picked up two assists on the night. Will McEvoy made 30 saves for his seventh victory of the season.
The power-play once again capitalized in two occasions in the second period and went 2-for-6 on the night. The Golden Knights have also scored a power-play goal in eight consecutive games and are 16-for-45 (35.5%) between October 20th to November 14th.
“We’ve been working on it in practice. It’s just the chemistry they had, not from the practices or the season but a few players from last year or years past. They just know where each other are all the time and have good communication on the ice,” said Asch-Jones on the power play.
The Golden Knights were out-shot 34-28 in the game. Next game for Ottawa West comes Saturday night when they face off against the Casselman Vikings inside the Barbara Ann Scott Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:20. You can catch all the action on mixlr.com/owgkradio and Hockey TV.
