RECAP | CASSELMAN 4, OTTAWA WEST 1 – Feb 12th 2018 (PREVIEW)
Ahead of tonight’s game against the Renfrew Timberwolves, the Ottawa West Golden Knights suffered a loss to the Casselman Vikings on Monday. The loss brought the Golden Knights to a 0-3-1 record since the start of February.
Tonight they look to get out of their little slump with a big game coming up against Embrun on Sunday.
Going back to Ottawa’s tough loss vs Casselman, Head Coach Steve Sundin thought the squad matched up really well against the league’s top team.
“I thought we played really well. We played a very experienced team that knows how to win and we took to many penalties” explained Sundin on their effort. “You can take too many penalties against teams like that and it costed us two goals”.
The Golden Knights jumped in front early in the first after Alex Wall scored a goal top corner over the blocker of Campbell, giving West a 1-0 lead.
For Wall, Sundin mentioned that he has been playing really good hockey over the last stretch “Yeah I thought Alex Wall played a good game and I gave him the second star of the night for a reason”.
Casselman’s call-up forward, Sean David then netted a goal with 3 minutes remaining in the first period to tie the game 1-1. The goal came on the power-play which was set up by Sebastien Plante after Wall took a penalty. It was tied 1-1 after one period.
With the score tied at one, Head Coach Steve Sundin mentioned after the game that the first and second period really made a big difference. The team could have been leading after one but took another penalty which costed them.
In the second period, Ottawa West allowed back to back goals from the Vikings as they went up 3-1. The third goal came from Drouin with three seconds remaining in the second, which seemed to suck the life out of the team.
“I told the boys to stick to the gameplan and let’s get that next goal” explained Sundin on his message going into the third. “We didn’t get that next goal and it was costly”.
The Vikings dominated the Golden Knights in the final frame. They outshot Ottawa 13-3 and closed the game with another goal at the 15 minute mark to take the game 4-1 the final score at the Barbara Ann Scott arena.
“I thought as a team we broke down. I gave them a system, we stayed with it for about 90% of the game” noted Sundin on his teams overall performance. “In the second period, we broke down and they scored and in the last minute of the second period, we broke down and they scored. That was the difference in the game”.
In Steve’s eyes, the loss to an excellent team in Casselman is also a positive because he liked the way the boys played.
“Yes we lost tonight but I liked the way we played” said Sundin. “I also liked the way we competed and listen Franco Gagnon hit the crossbar twice and Scrivens missed an empty net. We didn’t get any puck luck but a really thought overall, we had a good hockey game.
To Steve and the boys, he uses the old expression of “on to the next one, I’m worried about Renfrew right now”. As for a gameplan, Sundin would like the team to shoot the puck more, especially after being outshot 45-32 on Monday.
“Well when you’re in the slot you have to shoot the puck. They can’t pass it off to a guy in the corner. It’s not going to do anything because he’s in a bad position. If you in the slot, shoot the puck”.
The Golden Knights take on the Renfrew Timberwolves tonight at 7:15 inside the Barbara Ann Scott arena. Mason Detre and Zach McGibbon are on the broadcast.
