by Romano Di Franco
The Raiders got down early but fought back in the third as they lost a close one 3-2 to the Smiths Falls Bears on Sunday afternoon.
Reid Russett opened the scoring for the Bears with his 15th goal of the season and Noah Adams followed with his 10th seven minutes later to make it 2-0 and that is the way it stayed until the third period when Tyson Tomasini scored his 11th of the season unassisted to cut the lead in half.
The Bears restored their two-goal lead when Adams potted his second of the game. Nepean closed the scoring at 19:27 when Evan Boucher taillied his team-leading 21st of the season assisted by Matt McQuade. The Raiders pulled Keenan Alnahas for the extra attacker but they ran out of time before they could get the equalizer and the game ended in a 3-2 loss for Nepean.
Tomasini’s goal came on the power play with Shawn Sloan in the box for Holding the Stick. The Raiders went 1-for-5 on the man advantage and killed off all four power play opportunities that the Bears had. Patrick Larkin was assessed a ten minute Check from Behind Game Misconduct in the second period.
Nepean was outshot by a 40-25 margin but finished strong in the third period outscoring the Bears 2-1. The Raiders had some quality scoring chances but Smiths Falls keeper Patrick Leaver made some spectacular saves en route to his first win of the season as he turned aside 23 of the 25 shots he faced for a 0.920 save percentage.
Alnahas, who got the start between the pipes, made 37 saves on 40 shots for the Raiders giving him a 0.925 save percentage on the afternoon. For his one-goal effort, Tyson Tomasini was named the game’s third star while Tate Leeson earned the second star honours with a pair of assists. Noah Adams who found the back of the net twice including the game winner was the first star.
The Raiders next game is Wednesday, March 4 as they host the Hawkesbury Hawks at the Nepean Sportsplex Yzerman Arena for a 7:30pm puck drop.
