By: Mason Detre
Ottawa, ON – The Ottawa West Golden Knights (2-0) defeated the Renfrew Timberwolves (1-2) on their second game of the season at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena 7-2. They’ve outscored their opponents 16-to-3 in the first two games of the year.
The Golden Knights were up 4-2 heading into the third period. Michael Gallivan scored his second of the year after he tipped Whiteduck’s shot from the point, Sean Kearns got his 1st power play goal in the first, and Daniel Goulet would score two goals in the second period.
Ottawa West would put the Timberwolves away with three unanswered goals in the third period. Head Coach Steve Sundin talked about Daniel Goulet’s first career CCHL Tier 2 hat trick.
“Yeah that’s huge. Goulet was with the Nepean Raiders for Training camp and he hurt his ankle, but I thought he had a terrific game. He’s a big lad, is strong on his feet and has a great shot. If Danny goes to the net hard, he’ll probably score 20-30 goals and maybe more.”
Ric Shin also collected his first two goal game of his career, he only scored five goals in 37 games last year as an 16-year-old.
“Played a very great game, he had a very good camp with Nepean. I thought he was going to make that team. Then he went to Navan, and Marty Abrams (Head Coach of Navan Grads in CCHL Tier 1) really liked him. He also almost made that team, but I didn’t really like him at Centre. Jonboy (GM Craig Smith) and I talked about moving him to the right side and it payed off. He got two nice goals. One off the post and in, the other one was he just beat the goalie five-hole on Dellaire.”
Michael Gallivan also collected 1 G / 3 A in his first career four-point night. William McEvoy also did great between the pipes in his first start as a Golden Knight. He made 35 saves on 37 shots and only giving up two goals. Sundin also phrased the goaltending performances in the two games to start the year.
“The goaltender is the best I’ve seen. McEvoy was great, he got second star and deserved it. Renfrew is a young hockey club, they came out you pretty hard. There going to be good down the road. McEvoy kept it very simple and made the big stop when he had too. There was a lot of traffic in front of him because we have a very young defensive core and they make mistakes so McEvoy picked them up.”
For the second consecutive game, the Golden Knights power play was 2-for-6 on the night making them 4-for-15 on the power play in two games to start the year. Steve Sundin mentioned that they didn’t practice their power play to start the year but says there clicking.
“I just think that the familiarity with the players, that’s because they played together in minor hockey. I thought we were going to the net hard and were getting pucks through from the point. Power plays are really simple, you get the puck to the point, get the puck to the net and you get traffic,” said Sundin.
The Golden Knights will look to extend their winning streak on Friday night when they travel to the Winchester Community Centre to take on the Winchester Hawks. You can catch the game on mixlr.com/owgkradio with puck drop scheduled for 8:15pm.
