by Romano Di Franco
NEPEAN, ON – The Raiders were back in action Sunday for a matinee game against the Hawkesbury Hawks. The Hawks came into the game in second spot in the Yzerman Division. They have a 3-2 record in their last 5 games with 14 goals to show in the span. The Raiders enter the game after a barn-burning 7-6 loss to the Renfrew Wolves and are 2-2-1 in their last five having scored 20 goals.
These two teams last hooked up on October 1 with Renfrew coming away with a 5-2 win on home ice. This will be the Raiders’ final visit to Renfrew as their next three meetings will all take place at the Nepean Sportsplex.
Newly signed Raider Jordan Provost (Pre-season: 0-1, 3.50 GAA) from the Ottawa West Golden Knights got the start in goal for Nepean while Dimitri Pelekos (3-1, 3.25 GAA) was in goal for the Hawks.
Hawkesbury opened the scoring at the 2:42 mark when Tyler Samodral snapped a shot from the slot through the five-hole to make it 1-0. Provost settled down and went on to block 9 of the 10 shots he faced in the period. The Raiders had three PowerPlay chances in the period and had their chances but were not able to capitalize. They killed off the only short-handed situation they had with Todd Northgrave in the box for High Sticking.
After 20 minutes the Hawks led in shots 10-7.
The Hawks extended their lead to 2-0 after Michael Andrews roofed a backhand from in close over Provost’s glove.
The game got a little rough a couple of minutes later. The Hawks, who already had a Goalie Interference penalty in the first, continued to try to get to Provost in the second. After the netminder slid to his right to clear a puck, Max Klenow fell onto Provost and took his time getting off him. Adam Cater came to his goalie’s aid and after trading cross-checks they dropped the gloves and went at it. Both players received five-minute Fighting majors and were ejected from the game.
Alex Bergeron had an excellent scoring chance after Coleman Bennet stole the puck in the defensive zone and sprung Jeff Taylor. Taylor’s beauty pass sent Bergeron in all alone for a short-handed breakaway that Pelekos took in the chest.
The Raiders got an unlucky break when Hawks defenseman Bradley Horner shot wide of the net from the extreme right side that deflected off the skate of Samuel Beaulne, past the right pad of Provost and into the net. That made the score 3-0 Hawks. With Coleman Bennet in the box for Interference, Jeremy Quesnel scored to put even more distance between the two teams. Three Hawks had crashed the net making it difficult for Provost to track the puck.
After 40 minutes, Hawkesbury had the 4-0 lead on the scoreboard and the 25-19 lead in shots.
The Hawks made it 5-0 after a 4-on-3 man-advantage with Ryan Liverman and Todd Northgrave in the box for Nepean and Jeremy Quesnel off for Hawkesbury. Michael Andrews scored his second of the game.
Jeff Taylor won the ensuing face-off at centre and Todd Northgrave passed it back to Samuel Beaulne who went coast-to-coast splitting the Hawks defense and getting hooked in the process. He was awarded a penalty shot and he made no mistake taking the puck in slowly making a couple of slick moves between going on the backhand and lifting the puck over a sprawling Dimitri Pelekos and giving the home-town crowd something to cheer about.
The shut-out-breaking penalty shot made the score 5-1 Hawks and was the first of the season for Beaulne.
Landon Brownlee scored to make it 6-1 Hawkesbury and that is the way the game would end.
The Hawks grabbed the first two game stars as Michael Andrews (2G) was named first star and Tyler Samodral (1G | 1A) got the nod as the game’s second star. Lone Nepean goal-scorer Samuel Beaulne was named the game’s third star.
Jordan Provost was named the hardest working Raider in his Nepean debut.
The Raiders are off Saturday and then back at it on Thursday November 11 at the Ed Lumley Arena as they visit the Cornwall Colts for a 7:30pm puck-drop.
