Da Costa Shines in 6-5 Win

SensChirp September 11, 2011 0

The Ottawa Senators rookies continued their winning ways and improved their record to 2-0 with a 6-5 win over the rookies from the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Sens will now close out the tournament on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Heading into camp, the battle for the second line centre position figures to be one of the most intriguing storylines.

Just two games into the Sens Rookie camp and you can see that the battle is already under way.  Stephane Da Costa scored three times in the middle frame and was one of the best players on the ice this afternoon.  One of his competitors for the second line pivot position will be Mika Zibanejad and he also looked quite good in this one.

The first round pick had a goal and two assists and made the play of the game on his first period assist to Andre Petersson.

Obviously you don't want to put too much into this Rookie games but it's nice to see guys like Da Costa and Zibanejad excelling on this stage.  Both guys are going to make things very interesting in the main camp.

This was also my first chance to watch David Rundblad and I was very impressed.  There are definitely going to be some growing pains on the defensive end but he is an unbelievably talented and confident player.  It's still very early but he looks like a guy that's ready to play at the NHL level

Also liked what I saw from Jared Cowen this afternoon.  He's always going to be a guy that is known for what he can do in his own end of the rink but he's looked quite comfortable and confident handling the puck and didn't hesitate to jump into the play when the opportunity presented itself.

Which players impressed you this afternoon?