Two leave Strathroy for Jr.C

[ohaguru]

Mount Forest Confederate
By Mike Wilson


The Mount Forest Patriots are making it known to the Western Jr. C league that they are “in it to win it” this year.

The Pats made two blockbuster moves on Tuesday, signing goalie Mathieu Ouellet and forward Riley O’Connell.

Both players were playing with the Strathroy Rockets of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (Junior B) prior to signing with the Pats.

The 20-year-old Ouellet, who hails from Whitby, has a record of three wins, 10 losses and two ties and a 2.97 goals against average this season with the struggling Rockets. He also played last season with Strathroy, where he had a record of 21 wins and 17 losses and a 3.34 GAA. He spent 2013-14 with the Coburg Cougars of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (Tier 2 Junior A), where he had a record of eight wins and three losses with a 2.72 GAA.

O’Connell, also a 20-year-old Whitby native, was in his first season with the Rockets. In 20 games he tallied 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points. He is also a disciplined player, only having two penalty minutes this season.

Last season with the Pelham Panthers of the GOJHL he had 23 goals and 30 assists in 48 games, and a total of four penalty minutes.

“We are extremely excited about the signing of Ouellet and O’Connell,” said Patriots president Derek Bridgwater. “It’s been a long time since anything like this has been done in our organization.”

Bridgwater credited the hard work of the executive, as well as coaches John Antonopoulos and Trent McClement on getting the deal done.

“Both John and Trent did a fantastic job of working to get these guys here,” he said. "Trent in particular did a lot of the legwork in this deal."

Antonopoulos told the Confederate that with the signing of Ouellet and O’Connell, the Pats now have a top tier goalie and added firepower up front.

“I would say that with Ouellet we now have the best goaltender in the league,” said Antonopoulos. “And with O’Connell, who led Strathroy in scoring, we get added firepower up front to complement our top players.”

Bridgwater said that both Ouellet and O’Connell will be at practice tonight (Wednesday), and both are expected to debut this Friday night when the Pats travel to Hanover to take on the Barons (puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. at the P&H Centre). Both are also expected to dress this Saturday when the Pats host the first-place Walkerton Hawks (puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. at the Mount Forest and District Sports Complex).

[Oglethorp]

I had heard about this earlier in the week but was waiting to confirmation from the Strathroy Rockets. As with the previous defections this season the team is tight lipped although these players profiles have vanished from the team website. Other defectors have just had their pictures taken down from the west wall. I am thinking that this is going to be a hard one for the Rockets to try to put a positive spin on. The current GM must be pulling his hair out over the frequency of these types of events and the falling attendance at home games. It might just be time put the pointed end of the logo at the bottom of the game jerseys for the balance of this season. On a positive note rumours are that Nick Griffin may come out of retirement to bolster the team roster to 19 players not including affiliates

[Port hockey1]

Hmm, RG said the goalie was happy in Strathroy and that it was highly unlikely that he'd want to leave.

For a kid to pull a 180 like that, things must be getting worse down there.

And saying it was for the extra year is bogus, IMO. You don't see all the 20 year olds leaving the other bottom teams, so to me there's a lot more to it.

BTW: Strathroy must have the worst luck in the league. I've never seen so many players leave a team for work, etc, over several years.

[flyers2011]

Well well isnt that interesting. I thought the goalie was happy ? Whats your thoughts on the latest rockets to leave rg ?

[RocketGirl]

I never specifically said that Mat wouldn't leave, I said it'd be difficult to get him, Laberge, and Gubbels out of Strathroy to go to St Thomas. I had said that on Oct 14, 2 games into our skid. I didn't think that Mat would leave, but it's now 5-6 weeks later and he's doing what he, and Riley, feels are best for them.

Yes it sucks, I liked Mat and Riley was one of my favourites, but we will continue. I have complete faith that Gubbels can handle the job and hey, last year we traded our captain and the team went on a hot streak, so who knows what this could do.

[brad 36]

very interesting indeed

[RecKing]

Not to mention that Mount Forest also picked up Ty Jackson (former Jr. B - Lambton Shores and Elmira). Whether it's players' dissatisfaction or just dangling carrots it appears that Strathroy will be greatly affected. Hard to replace netminders at this time of the season.

[Oglethorp]

It doesn't appear to be a difficult decision to leave Strathroy these days. I doubt the road will get any easier for this team in the weeks ahead.

[RocketGirl]

Really? No comments about last night's big win over LaSalle? It was a great game, the best we've played this season.

I was actually behind our bench for the 3rd period, which I don't do, and I could hear the boys pump themselves up after a goal or hit or a big save by Gubbz.

Hopefully theverything boys keep it up!

[Oglethorp]

Well since you asked...... last nights game was as good an effort as the Rockets put out in London. The keys to the game were the tenacity of Nick Griffin and the league penalty minute leader stayed out of the box. It goes to show that hard work and disciplined play can beat talent. That said, anyone who thinks the Rockets are stronger now that O'Connell and Oulett have left needs to take off the rose coloured glasses. Lasalle looked like a team expecting to be handed 2 points by a deflated team. That didn't happen, the Rockets rose to the occasion and out hit, out shot, out worked and out scored the Vipers. I don't imagine the bus ride back to LaSalle was fun. Gubbles made many highlite reel saves on the night to secure the win. Battisti, not so much. The rockets hit a couple of posts and a crossbar as well, so the damage could have been worse. A well deserved win for Strathroy but a well deserved loss for LaSalle. LaSalle will be ready for Chatham on Wednesday night and Strathroy is back in London where they have played their best hockey this year. Both should be good ones to see.

[flyers2011]

definatley not Lasalle's best game, they were getting beat to the puck all the time, they did not adapt to the small ice at all, couple bad defence giveaways that ended up in the back of the net and poor goaltending from Battisti's resulted in the loss. The linesman were awful in this game couple blown offsides and highsticks.

[Caledonia Fan]

Big win for Mount Forest against number one Walkerton
Riley O' Connell 2G 2A
Ty Jackson 2G 1A
Mathieu Ouellet stopped 42 of 46

[RocketGirl]

So it's not that we played an extremely good game, LaSalle didn't play well, that's why they lost? You know who you're starting to sound like.....

[flyers2011]

Never said strathroy didnt play well, they obviously did 75% of the battles they won. But also wasnt lasalle at there best. Kudos to the rockets for playing a good game

[Oglethorp]

So it's not that we played an extremely good game, LaSalle didn't play well, that's why they lost? You know who you're starting to sound like.....

It was a combination of both Strathroy playing well and LaSalle not playing well. As noted the team that played better won the game.

[ohaguru]

Strathroy seems to have Lasalles' number and would be an interesting first round match up , but highly unlikely. One game without the two that left and 6 goals scored is interesting. Having Griffin back and O'Connell out sounds like the team was much more energized. Next couple weeks before the Christmas break there are a lot of key match ups with vital points on the line for those wanting 6,7,8 positions.

[Oglethorp]

2-1-1 isn't what I would call having a teams number. The division is very tight this year and as we have seen any team seems to be able to beat anyone that doesn't show up to play on any given night. Nothing will be cast in stone but 6,7,8 or 9th are definitely up for grabs this year. In a best of 7 the best team usually wins and when you match goaltending, defence forwards and coaching against Strathroy,LaSalle comes out on top in all categories, especially if or when Veres returns.

[Oglethorp]

Tonight should be an interesting match up against the London Nationals. Just 2 weeks ago the Rockets embarrassed the Nats 4-0 and got full value from the London residents on the Rocket roster. This time they will have to do it without Riley OConnell (5 pts in 3 games) and Mat Oulett who played in all 3 matches against London so far. We will see if the Rocket brain trust decides start Dane Gubbles after a stellar performance against LaSalle on Saturday or will this be debut of Dan Davies. Nick Griffin did not play 2 weeks ago so he could add to the Nats misery tonight with another strong performance.