Has Kingston's rookie goalie taken up residency in the heads of the Ottawa 67's?

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The Kingston Frontenacs' rookie goalie, Royden Smith, frustrated Ottawa 67's shooters again on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, at the TD Place arena, making 44 saves in a 3-1 Kingston win.

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After scoring seven goals in their previous game, the Ottawa 67’s appeared ready for another crack at Royden Smith.

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But once again, the 17-year-old Kingston Frontenacs rookie goalie set them down swinging.

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To get to where they want to go this season, the 67’s are going to have to get past the Frontenacs — and figure out a way to solve Smith.

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To date, they are 0-3-1 versus their closest rivals, and Smith has won all four games while stopping 134 of 140 shots.

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On Wednesday, he turned back 44 shots as Ottawa fell 3-1 in front of a “school day” crowd of 7,108 at TD Place.

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It was the Frontenacs’ fifth straight win — a streak that began with a pair of Rivalry Week victories over the 67’s — and their eighth in the last nine games, moving them into a CHL Top 10 ranking for the first time.

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Kingston (12-5-0) now sits first in the OHL’s East Division, while the 67’s (9-5-2) are in third place with the Brantford Bulldogs (11-5-1) sandwiched in between.

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Is Smith in the heads of 67’s shooters?

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Maybe, conceded 67’s assistant coach Norm Milley.

“Back when I played, I know when you faced a goalie that was hot it felt like there was just nothing you could do to get one by him,” said Milley, a former scoring star with the Sudbury Wolves whose 17-year pro career included cups of coffee with the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning. “When that happens, you just need to get some traffic at the net, get a lucky goal, lucky bounce.

“We had a lot of Grade A chances today. We had a lot of players in some prime real estate to score some goals, but hats off, their goalie played real well.”

The 67’s outshot the Frontenacs 12-5 in the first, 17-6 in the second and 16-13 in the final frame, but Smith, who received a “C” rating on the NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list, refused to wilt.

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Spencer Bowes erased a 1-0 deficit off a scramble 25 seconds into the middle period, and the game appeared to be headed to overtime until Brock Chitaroni and Brayden Krawczyk took back-to-back penalties with 4:07 left in regulation time.

Ottawa killed off the first but couldn’t survive the second as Alex McLean scored with 38 seconds to play.

Aleks Kulemin, a projected first-round pick, iced the victory with an empty-netter.

“I thought we did a lot of real good things today,” said Milley. “In the third period, we took a couple penalties we wish we didn’t take. So we’ve got to continue to learn from that. The outcome is not because of those penalties, because we did a lot of good things and we could have scored some goals. But those penalties cost us in the end.”

Milley didn’t dispute the referee’s call that put Krawczyk in the box, but he did question the winger’s decision on the play.

“We can’t put ourselves in that situation late in the game,” he said. “Maybe you don’t run a pick, maybe you just stay on the right side of them. I know the speed of the game, and everything happens fast, but that’s a part of our game where we talk about the process. We’ve got to continue to learn and grow from that, and we’ll learn from it.

“It’s a tough way to learn, losing a game, but we’ll learn from it.”

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