National Capital Region Junior Hockey Report: Week of September 14
Covering the first week of the Gatineau Olympiques and the end of pre-season for the Ottawa 67's.
With the first week of CHL hockey just under way there isn't too much to cover this week. However, the Olympiques have already played the first two games of the regular season. As a side note for all the hockey stats nerds out there, the WHL is now the second CHL league to track individual shots joining the Q. The OHL is the last holdout on the "fancystats" front.
For a primer on these teams and their young players to watch out for take a look at last week's NCR Junior Hockey Report.
Without much further ado, let's review the week that has been:
Gatineau Olympiques
The Gatineau Olympiques are already two games into a 68-game long season. Currently they are sitting at a 1-0-0-1 record placing them fourth (of six teams) in the West division. Their three-points puts them only one point behind first, second and third place.
The first game of the season took place last Friday at home against the 2013-2014 QMJHL Champions, the Val-d'Or Foreurs. Gatineau could not keep up as the ended up chasing the puck for most of the game. Despite that, with a little puck luck the Olympiques were leading 2-1 until half way through the game when the Foreurs tied it up. Alain (currently leading the team in shots) and Jonathan Bourcier had the two goals for Gatineau. The score remained 2-2 until the shootout when Gatineau couldn't get one past Etienne Montpetit. The final score was a 3-2 loss in the shootout.
Less than 24 hours later, the Olympiques were back at home playing against Rouyn-Noranda. Despite the fatigue of a back-to-back, Gatineau put on a show and took control of possession for most of the game. The final score was in Gatineau's favour, 4-2. Draft-eligible Alexandre Landreville scored the first two goals of the year for Gatineau. Alexandre Alain and Yakov Trenin, two fellow draft-eligible players, scored the other two goals for the Olympiques; these are two players you need to pay attention to this year.
The Olympiques have a few days off and will be traveling for its next two games this week. On Friday Gatineau will be playing at Blainville-Boisbriand and then on Sunday they have a matinee in Victoriaville.
News came about late last night as 2015 Draft Eligible Olympiques forward Mitchell Lundholm has been injured and will be out for the season. That's going to hurt his draft stock quite dramatically. He could potentially be a risky late round pick. As he only scored seven points last season with Sherbrooke, it's hard to say with the limited data we have on him.
Ottawa 67's
The Ottawa 67's are looking quite strong as they head into the regular season at the end of the month. They have been perfect in the pre-season, going 3-0, with a number of goals from all of the team's top talent.
On Friday night the 67's were in Smiths-Falls playing a home game away from home against the Kingston Frontenacs. In net was rookie tender Leo Lazerev who made 41 saves in regulation. Down by two the 67's managed to tie up the score thanks to goals from draft-eligible Dante Salituro and young 16-year-old Nathan Todd. It was in the shootout where Lazerev did not allow a single goal against which gave the 67's the win.
On Sunday Ottawa was on the road in Belleville for a matinee game against the Bulls. Goals came from all over the ice with a final score of 7-4 for Ottawa. 67's goals were scored by Travis Barron, Sam Studnicka, Mike Vlajkov, Artur Tyanulin, Travis Konecny (x2), and Dante Salituro. Ottawa's goalie Olivier Lafreniere made 35 saves.
The 67's now have almost two weeks off as they look towards the start of the regular season. The team will be playing its first four games on the road with it's first home game here in Ottawa on October 10. Ottawa's season begins on Friday, September 26 in Kingston.