by Romano Di Franco
OTTAWA, ON – The Nepean Raiders took on their cross-town rivals the Ottawa Junior Senators at the Fred Barrett Arena on Saturday night. It was the fourth meeting of the season between the two teams. Ottawa leads the season series two games to one after the Raiders skated away with a 4-2 victory in their last contest back on December 18.
Jaden Cholette (0-0-0-0, 4.20 GAA, 0.902 SV%) was in goal for Nepean while Connor Shibley (15-6-0-2, 2.30 GAA, 0.921 SV%) got the start between the pipes for Ottawa.
Wil Murphy opened the scoring for Ottawa as he banged home a rebound after Cholette stopped a point-blank shot from Lucas Staresinic. Zachary Losier made it 2-0 on a 2-on-2 rifling a blast from the left faceoff circle.
After 20 minutes OJS had outshot the Raiders 17-6.
Vincent Velocci had the lone goal in the second period. He banged in his own rebound after Cholette stopped the wrap-around attempt.
It was another big shot count by Ottawa as they pelted Cholette with 16 shots to Nepean’s 6.
Andrew Utero made it 4-0 with a shot from the slot through a ton of traffic. Cholette never saw it as Utero registered his third point of the night.
The shots in the third were 14-8 in favour of Ottawa as they skated away with their third victory of the season over Nepean.
Andrew Utero (1G | 2A) was named the game’s first star. Wil Murphy (1G) nabbed the second star and Nicolas Papineau captured third star honours.
Jaden Cholette (43 saves on 47 shots) is named the Hardest Working Raider with a pair of assists.
Nepean closes out their February schedule with as they host the Smiths Falls Bears for the final time this season at the Nepean Sportsplex – Steve Yzerman Arena for a Sunday matinee with a 2:30 pm puck drop.
Be sure to Subscribe, Like and Comment on the official Nepean Raiders YouTube channel and catch every goal.
