by Romano Di Franco
The Nepean Raiders played out the final game of their home portion of the season by welcoming the Kemptville 73s to the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena. Nepean came off a 4-1 loss to the Hawkesbury Hawks whereas the Kemptville 73s were shutout by Carleton Place Canadians 5-0. For the starting goalies, Otsirakatste Brant got the call in goal for the Raiders and Tristan Bennett got the start in goal for the visiting 73s.
The Raiders and the 73s had their defenses at their best in that first period. In fact, Brant’s best save he made in the first period was when a shot by Santino Canevari barley missed the goal with the puck barely trickling in behind the net.
Even though the shots on net were 11-7 in favor of Kemptville, Otsirakatste Brant and Tristan Bennett had been nice and tidy for each zone combined.
The scored remained a zero zero tie until one minute and nine seconds into the second period when Eric Sweetapple fired a shot from the point to make it 1-0 for the 73s. Alexis Beaulieu and Zachary Venance contributed to the goal. Emeile Trottier would score his 20th goal of the season on a lacrosse goal to make the score 2-0 for visiting Kemptville.
Nepean made things interesting when they scored on the second half to the double minor penalty to Owen Redmond for kneeing and it was Peter Freel tallying his eighteenth goal of the year. Tyler Smith and Liam Carroll drew the assists. The 73s would restore their two goal lead on a one timer from Mathieu Fehr which was his twelfth goal of the season.
The Raiders would outshoot the Kemptville 73s 11-9 in that second period.
This trend would continue in the third period with Nepean outshooting the 73s 14-11. This included on a shift with Zack Frimuth being chased by the 73s defense. The Raiders also capitalized a great feed from Carter Williamson to Dylan Pollock, but it was Tristan Bennett who closed the door.
For the three star selection, having made 31 of the 32 saves in the game it was Tristan Bennett that was named the games first star, with one goal and one assist it was Emelie Trottier that was awarded the game’s second star. Last, but not least with 28 saves in the game it was Otsirakatste Brant that earned the third star selection for the Raiders.
Nepean’s final game of the season will take place on Monday, March 17th when they visit the Brockville Braves at the Brockville Memorial Centre. Both teams have split the results in the season series. The Raiders will look to not only win the season series against the Braves for the second straight year, but also close out the season on a winning note.
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