By: Dante De Caria
Ottawa, Ontario – The Ottawa West Golden Knights (15-7-1) defeated the Alexandria Glens (10-11-2) 6-1 on Thursday night at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena.
It’s the Golden Knights first victory against Alexandria since November 30, 2017. They are now 1-1-1 against Alexandria this season with the final meeting set for January 25th, 2019.
After the Glens took a 1-0 lead early in the first period, the Golden Knights answered with six unanswered goals for the win. Ottawa West extends their winning streak to two-games.
Golden Knights Head Coach Steve Sundin says the key to victory was to fore-check hard.
“We (OWGK) totally dominated and they listened to me because the boys realized that once we get down low we’re tough to handle. We cycled the puck well and our fore-check was outstanding.”
Sundin said that this performance was based off the team wanting to get a win against Alexandria after losing the first two meetings.
“They’re (Glens) are right behind us in the standings and now we’re tied 3-to-3 in points (1-1-1), so that’s a huge two-points for us and we need to keep this going.”
Kyle Corrigan scored his first career CCHL Tier 2 goal and followed it up with his second of the game after scoring on a penalty shot – beating Nicolas Rousseau five-hole. That put the Golden Knights up 4-1 mid-way through the second frame.
“Before the end of every practice we do shootouts and I’ve seen him pull off some good moves. I looked at him and looked at the rest of the guys on the ice and thought he would be good at taking the penalty shot and he proved me right,” added Sundin.
Corrigan says that getting the monkey off his back with the first goal was a great feeling but getting his second goal felt even better.
“I knew for sure I was going to go five-hole and they (Ottawa West) were really fired up afterwards and you could just see we controlled the rest of the game,” smiled Corrigan.
“He’s very well liked in the room and the boys were just happy for him and they got the puck for him,” noted Sundin.
The Golden Knights out-shot the Glens 25-4 in the second period and 50-20 overall. Ottawa has now recorded 50 or more shots four times this season. They improve to 9-3 in November, having outscored opponents 52-to-35.
Ottawa West’s penalty-kill improved to a league-best 91.3 % after the Glens man-advantage went 0-3. The Golden Knights’ PK is now 48-for-49 this month.
“Bush and Gallivan,” chuckled Steve Sundin on why his penalty-kill is so effective. “They are unbelievable and you saw it again tonight. Gallivan is like Mark Stone (Ottawa Senators Forward) – he strips pucks and he uses his feat so well. He just gets the job done.”
It was Michael Gallivan’s first of two-goals on the night that turned out to be the game-winning-goal. He gave Ottawa West a 2-1 lead with 30 seconds remaining in the first period, scoring his first career short-handed goal.
Justin Jamer extended his point-streak to a Golden Knights season high five-games (3G/6A) after tallying two assists. Nolan Marshall also recorded his first two-goal game of his career and has 6G/5A over his last seven-games.
With 11-minutes to go in the third period, both teams took place in a full-line brawl. Six players were given misconducts. Ottawa West and Alexandria combined for 162 penalty-minutes.
17-year-old defenseman Bobby Dempster made his Ottawa West Golden Knights debut, playing on the first pairing with Daniel Stratis. The Nepean Raiders sent him to their affiliate (Ottawa West) to further his development.
Ottawa West will look to continue their winning ways against the Perth Blue Wings on Friday. The Golden Knights lost their previous matchup against Perth in early October. Dante De Caria will have the call on mixlr.com/owgkradio.
