The Casselman Vikings welcomed the Ottawa West Golden Knights to the J. R. Brisson Complex on Sun., Jan. 21, in the CCHL2. The Vikings welcomed back one of their former stars, Sean David (23), as an affiliated player and he made an immediate impact scoring a hat trick. The Akwesasne native played three games this past weekend for the Vikings and scored three goals and one assist. Courtesy Lauwer photo
Jeff Moore
Record Staff
CASSELMAN – The Vikings played three games this past weekend. The Vikings welcomed the Richmond Royals to the J. R. Brisson Complex on Thurs. Jan. 18, in the CCHL2, and took the game 5-0.
Vikings 7 Knights 1: The Vikings welcomed the Ottawa West Golden Knights to the J. R. Brisson Complex on Sun., Jan. 21, in the CCHL2. The Vikings sat all by themselves comfortably at the top of the Martin Division, nine points ahead of their closest rival, the Ottawa Canadians. The Knights sat in fourth place one point behind the Embrun Panthers for third place and five points ahead of the Alexandria Glens in fifth place.
The two teams battled to a scoreless first period but the Vikings outshot the Knights 10-2. The Vikings opened the scoring when Sean David snapped one home from Ethan Wensink and Gabriel Rousselle just 1:25 into the second period to take a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings made it 2-0, when David scored his second of the game from Wensink at 7:45, and 3-0 at 9:20 when Jason Cossette slid one home from Oliver Brunet and Joseph Heath. David completed his hat trick at 10:33 from Carter Malette and Wensink to give the Vikings a 4-0 lead.
The Knights got on the board at 12:53 but the Vikings answered again when Cossette scored his second goal of the game from Brady Cloutier and Sebastien Plante and took a 5-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Vikings continued their assault on the Knights as Jonathan Yaremko swatted one home from Shane Spencer and Danyk Drouin at 4:30 of the third period to make it 6-1. The Vikings added another goal at the 13-minute mark as Brunet scored on a power play goal from Plante and Cloutier.
The Knights had no answer as the Vikings took the game convincingly 7-1 and moved to 11 points ahead of the Canadians in second place. Picking up the win in the Vikings’ goal was Nick Campbell making 21 saves on 22 shots.
Vikings 9 Rebels 1: The Vikings travelled to the Char-Lan Recreation Centre in Williamstown to take on the Rebels on Sat., Jan. 20, in the CCHL2. The Vikings sat at the top of the Martin Division with 60 points and seven ahead of the second-place Ottawa Canadians. The Rebels were coming off a big 4-3 win over the Embrun Panthers but sat in the ninth seed and out of the playoff picture.
The Vikings opened the scoring just 1:36 into the first period when Brendan Doherty slapped one home from Sebastien Plante and Samuel Labre to take a 1-0 lead. The Vikings made it 2-0 when Ethan Cahill blasted one to the back of the net from Kyle Millett at 15:21 and the Vikings took the 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Vikings made it 3-0 when Brady Clouteir fired a onetimer from Doherty and Plante at 4:42 of the second period. The Vikings kept the pressure on and Ethan Wensink scored the Vikings’ fourth goal of the game at the seven-minute mark from Cloutier on a power play.
The Rebels got one back with just 1:43 remaining in the middle frame but the Vikings took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission. The Vikings made it 5-1 at 5:10 of the third period as Plante pounded one to the back of the net from Doherty and Cloutier.
The Vikings added four more power-play goals: at 9:11 as Wensink scored his second of the game from Jonathan Yaremko and Plante, at 11:01 as Danyk Drouin slid one home from Joseph Heath and Andrew Black, at 11:58 when Jason Cossette sniped one from Drouin and Heath, and with 1:43 remaining as Heath snapped one home from Oliver Brunet to make it 9-1.
The Vikings took the game 9-1, picking up their 30th win of the season and moving nine points ahead of the Canadians. Picking up the win in the Vikings’ goal was Nick Campbell making 14 saves on 15 shots.
Up next: Thurs., Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m., Vikings vs. Alexandria Glens, J. R. Brisson Complex, Casselman; Sat., Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., Vikings vs. Aeros, Centre 76, Athens.
