Sens End Rookie Tournament On Winning Note, 2-1 Over Habs – Hockeybuzz.com (blog)

A great goaltending performance and a pair of goals from an unheralded source part of the Ottawa Senators rookies over Montreal Their Counterparts 2-1 to close out the London rookie tournament.

The Senators tied for first with Pittsburgh, both finishing with 2-1 records after the Pens missed Their chance to stay perfect and fell to the Leafs 6-2 on Sunday evening. Ottawa’s lone loss came at the hands of the Penguins.

Matt O’Connor made 46 saves for the win, while Francis Perron scored bothering Ottawa goals, the first one driving to the net deflect a puck past Zach Fucale after a shot / pass from Max McCormick. His second one was prettier, as he deked around a Habs defenseman and beat Fucale with a nice wrist shot on the power play. Fucale was almost O’Connor’s equal in a goaltending duel, making 42 saves of his own.

Dryden Hunt was the lone Canadien to beat O’Connor, who played the whole game and fared much better than on Friday night When he played the second half and allowed three goals on 23 shots.

The Senators have either been first or tied for first in every rookie tournament since 2008, not that anyone is counting.

Notable standouts from this tournament include Max McCormick, Who has the fiery runaway freight train attitude in a smallish piece, and Ben Harpur Who has shown a physical side. Randy Lee Suggested Harpur would be in the mix for a call-up this season Because of his Ability to play the left or right side, and That portability to play the body.

This summer’s first round pick, Thomas Chabot, made some errors That you would expect from a first year player, but overpriced Showed an portability to recover from Those and not let it Affect his game going forward. He might get an invite to stick around and play an exhibition game but Will certainly be late back to Saint John before too long Because there is no need to rush him at this point in time.

Now the players will await the announcement of who will be invited to stick around for the main

training camp Which will begin later this week, and Who will be late home Immediately. Players getting invited will joint the veterans and report for physicals and the always enjoyable testing on Thursday, and on-ice workouts will begin on Friday.

It is expected That nearly 60 players will be invited to camp, and will be split into three groups to make it functional. They willhave just three days before 40 of them will take to the ice for a split squad game against Toronto, with one game here and one in TO A week from today.