By: Mason Detre
Ottawa, ON – The Ottawa West Golden Knights suffered their first loss in the hand of the Westport Rideaus 5-4 on Thursday night inside the Barbara Ann Scott Arena. The Golden Knights also end their four game winning streak.
Westport jumped out to a 2-0 lead to start the game but Michael Gallivan tipped in Stef Mellios shot from the left point to cut the deficit to one goal.
Daniel Goulet and Sean Kearns each tallied 1G / 1A. Those points came in the second period when Ottawa West was trailing 2-1. Kearns picked up his first shorthanded goal to give the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead. Kearns extends his point-streak to four games while Goulet’s point-streak is at three and has five goals in his last three games.
“I think Goulet has been tremendous player. He’s stepped up pretty well and is looking good out there. He’s coming off a an injury that he suffered a couple months ago now. He’s been a good influence guy on the team”, said OWGK assistant coach Spencer Asch-Jones on Goulet’s success.
Asch-Jones also said that Kearns has been working his butt off over the last few games and had the pleasure of coaching him a few years ago in Midget AA. He’s the same type of style, small guy but he plays about one or two feet bigger than his size. Never gives in and is always hustling in every shift.
The game was tied at three heading to the third. Ric Shin got his third goal of the year by sniping it bar down on Westport’s goaltender Patrick Leaver to give Ottawa West a 4-3 lead. One minute after that, Avery Arnold was able to answer with a goal of his own to tie the game once again.
With 38.3 seconds left in regulation, Blake Kettyle got the pass from Sean James off a 3-on-2 odd man rush and Kettyle was able to find the glove side of the Ottawa West netminder Brent-Pledge Dickson to give Westport the lead and was able to get their 5th win of the season. Asch-Jones talked about his thoughts on the game.
“It was a tough game, we started off a little slow in the first period. Picked things up in the second and just unfortunate on how it ended in the third period. We take the lead 4-3 and unfortunately lost the lead late.”
Ottawa West was outshot by Westport 41-22 in the game. Brent Pledge-Dickson made 36 saves in his first loss of the year. Westport goes to 5-1 to start the year while the Golden Knights go to 4-1.
“We are also came off of playing a game Wednesday night. In the third period wining down, we just didn’t have enough energy coming along,” said Asch-Jones.
The Golden Knights next games is on Saturday night when they travel to Williamstown to play the Char-Lan Rebels. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:00pm. You can catch the game on mixlr.com/owgkradio.
Interview with Spencer Asch-Jones is listed below:
https://soundcloud.com/user-731035662/asch-jones-10319-post-game
