Rookie netminder making the most of it as Frontenacs beat 67's in home opener

Royden Smith stopped 26 shots as the Frontenacs improve to 2 and 0 to start the OHL season

He may be just keeping the seat warm until Gavin Betts and Matthew Minchak return to action but rookie Royden Smith is taking full advantage of his time as the Kingston Frontenacs starting netminder.

With Betts injured and Minchak still at the Golden Knights training camp, the 17-year-old Smith has played in the two games to start the OHL season and coming out with wins in both.

The latest is a 26-save performance in a 3-2 overtime victory against the Ottawa 67's in the Frontenacs home opener on Sunday. It was much tighter than the 6-3 season-opening win in Peterborough on Thursday where Smith stopped 44 of 47 shots.

He says he was a little more relaxed against the 67's.

Head coach Troy Mann says Smith has been solid in net especially late in the game.

Smith spent much of last season in Wellington with the Junior-A Dukes. He was called up to the Frontenacs on a couple of occasions serving as a back up but never got into a game.

But during the time he was with the Frontenacs, Smith was able to pick up some pointers from coaches as well as Betts and Minchak.

The Frontenacs (2-0-0-0) needed just 92 seconds to open the scoring as Nolan Snyder wristed one past a surprised Jaeden Nelson for a 1-0 lead.

Ottawa applied the pressure in the second period and Conner Bewick's point shot was stopped by Smith but Theo Avila tipped in the rebound to tie the game at 1-1.

Four minutes later, one of the newcomers, Brody Cook, helped the Frontenacs regain the lead as he finished a one-timer off a pass from Tomas Pobezal.

Mann says Cook and others have gotten off to good starts.

The 67's (0-0-1-0) continued to pressure the Frontenacs as they were looking for the equalizer. With Aleks Misiak in the penalty box for tripping, Andrew Laurin fired a one-time of his own from the high slot to tied it up at 2-2 with 2:27 left in regulation.

Misiak did make up for his costly penalty in the extra frame as he took a feed from Pobezal down the wing and wristed it by Nelson sending the 3,288 in attendance at Slush Puppie Place home happy.

It will be busy for the Frontenacs next weekend with three games in three days starting Friday night at home against the Sarnia Sting.

Puck drop is at 7 pm and you can hear Jim Gilchrist with the call on Upper Canada Fuel and Burner Frontenacs Hockey on New Country 98.9.

Story by Ken Hashizume