It was a good weekend for Ottawa sports teams. Though the Ottawa 67s continued to struggle on the young season, the Ottawa Senators and Ottawa Redblacks had great showings. Here is a recap of some of the great action this weekend for Ottawa teams.
At TD Place on Friday night, the hometown Redblacks helped warm up the chilly early fall atmosphere with a hot performance. The Redblacks, who have understandably struggled in their debut season, entered the Winnipeg Blue Bombers matchup with a 1-11 record on the season and a winless record against West Division opponents. While perhaps pre-game analysis would have predicted another loss, the Redblacks had been moving in the right direction lately, with a dramatic overtime loss against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and a tight game against the Montreal Alouettes pointing to proof of progress.
The 42-20 win ended a nine-game losing streak for the Redblacks and gave the local CFL team their first win since July 18th. Jonathan Williams scored two touchdowns and gathered 220 total yards, in what amounted to the Redblacks’ biggest offensive outburst of the season. Quarterback Henry Burris threw for 284 yards and completed 24 of 31 attempted passes.
The Redblacks have a difficult road ahead of them if they wish to extend the win into a streak; in Week 16 CFL action, they travel to British Columbia for a 10 pm EST matchup with the BC Lions on Saturday, October 11th.
In NHL preseason, the Senators won both games of a home-and-home series with the Montreal Canadiens, including a Friday night overtime thriller at Canadian Tire Centre. Freshly re-signed Bobby Ryan finished a nice power-play passing sequence to score Ottawa’s overtime winner on Friday night and give Robin Lehner the win in nets. On Saturday, Craig Anderson was solid in guarding the crease and the Senators again used their powerplay, including a bullet of a slapshot from Mika Zibanejad, to secure a 4-2 win and sweep away the Montreal Canadiens. Mike Hoffman made a good argument for his inclusion in the opening night lineup when the Senators travel to Nashville to face the Predators on Thursday, October 9th. So did Mark Borowiecki, if you’re a fan of rough and tumble hockey – he took on PK Subban and Brandon Prust in fights.
In other local sports news, Ottawa Fury FC drew 1-1 on the road in its NASL clash with the San Antonio Scorpions. Defender Ryan Richter scored his team’s lone tally. The team travels the New York to play the Cosmos next Saturday. The Ottawa 67s struggled this weekend, losing by a combined score of 19-5 in losses to the Oshawa Generals, Barrie Colts, and Owen Sound Attack. They have a chance to redeem themselves when they open their home schedule on Friday against the Niagara Ice Dogs.
In University sports, the Carleton Ravens men’s football team beat the Toronto Varsity Blues 53-32 to improve to 3-2 on the season. They next face Guelph on Friday night. The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, meanwhile, crushed the University of Waterloo Warriors 51-10 on Saturday afternoon. They will attempt to build on their 4-2 record as they travel to face the Windsor Lancers this Friday. In women’s soccer news, the Ravens drew 0-0 against Ryerson while the Gee-Gees won 2-0 against Toronto. The Gee-Gees win was the 200th regular season win for head coach Steve Johnson. The women’s soccer teams from both universities will face off on Saturday afternoon in what should be a fun matchup.
Title image courtesy of ottawaredblacks.com
Would you like to see your local sports team featured next week? Contact us today.
