Ottawa’s rookies made it two straight wins in the 2008 rookie tournament with a 7-5 victory over Toronto’s rookies in Kitchener on Sunday evening. Jessie Winchester buried two goals to lead the Senators. Ilya Zubov collected his second straight two-point game with one goal and one assist.
Toronto jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the early stages of the first period. The first marker, just 21 seconds into the game, came from the stick of Dale Mitchell. Chris DiDomenico netted the second Toronto goal, a deflection goal at 4:58.
Winchester put the Senators on the scoreboard with a power-play tally 9:25 into the period. Ilya Zubov fed a crashing Winchester from the deep right corner. Winchester moved in from the left faceoff circle and slammed home the puck past Michael Ouzas. Alexander Nikulin also assisted on the marker.
Zubov wasn’t done in the period, as the winger stole an outlet pass inside the Maple Leafs’ zone and snapped it past Ouzas into the upper left corner of the net to knot the game at 2.
The momentum carried over into the second period for the Senators, who took the lead just 58 seconds into the middle stanza when Jim O’Brien fired a shot from the top of the circle past Ouzas. Peter Regin and Ben Wright assisted for on the tally.
Winchester struck again for his second power-play tally less than two minutes later. Defenseman Mattias Karlsson skated in toward the crease from the high slot and backhanded a pass to Winchester, who was crashing the net on the left side. Winchester tapped it home to extend the lead to two goals.
Karlsson found the back of the net midway through the period with a wrist shot from the left point that found its way through traffic and slipped past Ouzas.
Ottawa changed netminders to open the third period, putting Kevin Desfosses between the pipes. 22-year-old Benoit Doucet notched Ottawa’s sixth goal of the night. Doucet faked left and right before beating Ouzas with a scoop shot. Peter Regin collected his second assist of the night and Pierre-Luc Faubert also assisted.
Zack Smith added a shorthanded empty-net goal, unassisted, with 45 seconds remaining in the period to cap the scoring for Ottawa. Toronto wouldn’t go quietly as they added two power-play goals in the final 1:20 to make it a 7-5 final.
Ottawa had five players (Winchester, Zubov, Nikulin, Karlsson and Regin) finish with two points on the night.
The Senators finish the 2008 rookie tournament against the Pittsburgh Penguins rookies on Monday at 2 p.m.
