Jaxon Cover made his first NHL uniform debut look like a statement night.
The Ottawa Senators’ first-round pick, selected 32nd overall this summer, led the way Saturday in Gatineau as the Senators prospects edged the Toronto Maple Leafs prospects 4-3 in overtime at the Prospect Challenge. Cover finished with a goal and two assists, and his biggest moment came after Ottawa had already climbed back into the game late.
Down 3-2 with under four minutes left, the Senators needed a spark. Cover helped create it, linking up with Kasper Halttunen and Eksild Bakke Olsen on a clean passing sequence before Bakke Olsen buried the tying goal with 3:28 remaining in regulation.
Then Cover took over for good.
He grabbed the puck behind his own net, drove the length of the ice, chipped it in off the boards, lifted the defender’s stick and snapped home the winner top shelf. It was an end-to-end finish that sent Ottawa home with the overtime win and, by his own account, gave him his first overtime goal ever.
Cover wasn’t done piling up chances, either. He rang a one-timer off the crossbar, and he also had an assist taken away on a missed call after a 3-on-0 rush with Djibril Toure.
Timofei Obvintsev stopped Toure initially, but Obvintsev’s body clearly rolled into the net with the puck. In a meaningful game, the play would have gone to review and been ruled a goal.
So, unofficially, Cover had a four-point night against the Leafs in his first game in an NHL uniform.
Halttunen also made his mark, finishing with a goal and an assist of his own. His scoring touch showed up early, but he also had a costly lapse.
With the game tied 2-2 and Ottawa on the power play, he appeared to run out of gas at the end of his shift. He stayed on the ice, looked too casual after Christian Kyrou fed him a drop pass, and Borya Valis jumped on the turnover for a shorthanded breakaway.
Valis scored to give Toronto the lead and seemed to have swung the game.
That advantage didn’t last.
Halttunen’s mistake was erased by Cover’s late heroics, and the young forward’s game still stood out. He was dangerous throughout and showed off a heavy shot. The fact he wears No. 68 - the number worn by the fourth-best scorer in NHL history - says plenty about the confidence in his game.
Ottawa native Jackson Parsons also played a key role for the Senators, turning in a sharp performance in goal and rescuing the defence after a handful of rough giveaways and missed assignments.
The two Ottawa goals from Halttunen and Landon Hookey came in nearly identical fashion, both wrist shots from the same spot near the left wing dot that beat Obvintsev low to the far side, just above the pad.
And while the night featured plenty of young talent, the lasting image belonged to Cover. In a game full of players who have been around elite hockey forever, it was the player who didn’t start skating until he was 13 who ended up stealing the spotlight.
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