by Romano Di Franco
The Nepean Raiders travelled to the Bob Hartley Sports Complex for their first game of the 2026 portion of their season. They visited the Hawkesbury Hawks.
For the starting goalies, Otsirakatste Brant got the start in goal for the Nepean Raiders and Dylan Michelow was in net for the Hawks.
Although there were no goals to report, the first period was filled with some great chances by the Raiders and the Hawks. This even included a wonderful scoring opportunity for Jack Yates who missed on a wide open chance.
Despite being outshot 13-8 in the first peeriod, Otsirakatste Brant was perfect in the first period stopping every shot he faced in that period alone.
It was a high scoring second period as the former Brockville Brave Vital Dinis got the Hawks on the board first assisted from Edward Downey and Andrew Genest. Nepean then scored twice in the span of forty seconds. Anthony Bertrand and the former Hawk himself in Spencer Thompson each scored for the Raiders. The Hawks then scored two goals on their own from Edward Downey and Jeremy St. Louis for his first career CCHL goal.
The third period was all Hawkesbury as Matthew Itzkovitz, Carter Graves and Michael Minchello scored the goals for the Hawks to make it a 6-2 final.
For the three star selections, for his one goal and two assist performance Edward Downey nabbed the first star of the game for the Hawkesbury Hawks. Spencer Thompson who scored his second goal of the season against the Hawks got the second star and finally Vital Dinis with his one goal and one assist effort was given the third star for the Hawks.
Nepean’s next game will take place on Sunday, January 4th when the Ottawa Junior Senators visit the Raiders at the Sportsplex for a 2:30PM puck drop.
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