by Romano Di Franco
CARLETON PLACE, ON – The Nepean Raiders travelled down Highway 7 to the Carleton Place Arena to take on the Carleton Place Canadians. It was the fifth and final meeting between the two teams. The Raiders have taken three points from the Canadians sporting a record of 1-2-0-1 in their previous meetings with.
Carleton Place is 3-2 in their last five games and battling Smiths Falls Bears for top spot in the Robinson Division. Smiths Falls currently lead by one point with one game in hand. The Raiders sit in sixth in the Yzerman Division.
Luca Sandu (6-15-1, 4.62 GAA, 0.890 SV%) started in goal for Nepean while Joe Chambers (11-7-0-1, 3.14 GAA, 0.891 SV %) got the start between the pipes for the Canadians.
Carleton Place got off to a good start scoring five minutes into the first on a goal by Carter Pilon. The home team then took advantage of a double-minor to Nicholas Larkin (High Sticking) midway through the first scoring on both halves of the penalty to go up 3-0. They outshot Nepean 14-6 in the period.
Derek Hamilton scored a pair of goals in the second period to chase Sandu from the Nepean goal. Joshua Branton came into the game in relief and gave up one goal to Mathieu Fehr to give Carleton Place a commanding 6-0 lead despite Nepean outshooting them 11-10.
Josh Reid came as close as the Raiders would come after hitting the crossbar.
Gino Colangelo closed out the scoring with his 12th of the season to make it a 7-0 final.
Derek Hamilton (2G | 3A) was named the game’s first star. Brandon Walker (1G | 2A) was the second star and Joshua Branton (15 saves on 17 shots) captured third star honours.
Joshua Reid is named the Hardest Working Raider with a couple of good scoring chances in the game including a crossbar.
Nepean’s next game is against the Kemptville 73s at the North Grenville Municipal Centre on Friday night for a 7:30pm puck drop.
Be sure to Subscribe, Like and Comment on the official Nepean Raiders YouTube channel and catch every goal.
