By Ellie Hazelwood:
The Ottawa West Golden Knights are the strongest and best team in the EOJHL, despite their playoff first round loss.
The Golden Knights had 70 points in the regular season, winning 32 games out of the 44 they played.
Strong players make for a strong team, and all of the Knights have a huge amount of skill.
The team had the best save percentage in the league between their two goalies, Dustin Riff, and Carter Overhoff. Riff had a save percentage of .947, and Overhoff had a .930. Both of them had games where they held strong net presences, helped the Knights stay in it, and stole the win for the team.
The defence core assisted the goalies by making break-out passes, blocking shots, clearing the puck, and getting rid of screens (players on the opposing team, blocking the goalie’s vision). Defencemen: Seamus Lockhart, Joel Mullen, Noah Jones, Carter Pilon, Brennan Miller, Antonio Zito, and Jonathan Curti helped the goalies when needed.
Not only are the Golden Knights a strong defensive team, but they are a strong offensive team too.
Will McCulligh had 70 points in 44 regular season games, Thomas Dickey had 92, and Justin Murdoch had 59. They were the Golden Knights’ top three forwards, and contributed all they could to make sure the team was the best in the league.
All of the other forwards: Connor Cole, Dom Lemieux, Griffin Bird, Max Shewfelt, Sam Stano, Dylan Murdoch, Johnny Sammon, Jason Ward, Connor Weido, and Gavin McCarthy work hard, and fight the battle to make the Golden Knights better.
The Knights work hard, and don’t let anything bring them done. They are a great comeback team, fighting with their all until the buzzer sounds. Their biggest comeback was in their playoff series, as it was 2-0 and 3-1 for the other team but they came back, and pushed game seven. The Golden Knights doing this, shows their resilience, and never giving up is a big part of becoming the best team.
Good coaches make for a strong team. Head coach Steve Sundin, and Assistant Coaches Matt Soubliere, Jack Parker, Connor Dickey, Marco Peloso, Matt Stringer and James Cole guide the team with leadership, intelligence, and confidence.
The players being skilled is not the only thing that makes the Knights the best team, but the fact that the whole team is filled with kind people, adds chemistry between the players, making them work better together.
The team who treats everyone that helps them, as part of the family.
When I joined the Golden Knights as their volunteer journalist, all the guys, and the staff immediately started treating me like another one of their teammates.
I went on the Mom’s bus trip with them, and ended up falling asleep on the way back, because it was late, and my body was exhausted. The guys were all worried about me, they looked out for me, and even woke me up when we got back to our home arena. The coaches and staff were also making sure I was not hungry during the ride, that was I was on the bus, and had everything I needed. That is something a team would do for their teammate. People say a team is like a family, I definitely felt, and still feel like, I am part of that family.
This was not the only display of them treating me this way. McCulligh and Shewfelt would wave or cheer with me, after they scored. Justin Murdoch would sit down beside me before the period started, after intermission, just to check in on me. McCulligh joined him once too. They were looking out for me once again. It felt so nice to have people who don’t know me that well, care like that. They did not ask questions, or need to know what was wrong, but they cared, and that is special. It is hard to find the quality in people.
Nothing is more attractive, loveable, and makes fans look at you like the best team, than when you are kind. That is what makes the Golden Knights the best team, more than any amount of skill could.
