by Romano Di Franco
The Nepean Raiders visited the reigning Bogart Cup Champion Navan Grads in their brief two game road trip. Nepean came into this game fresh off a 6-2 loss to the Smiths Falls Bears. On the other hand, the Navan Grads came off a see-saw game against the Pembroke Lumber Kings in which they won 5-3. For the starting goalies, it was Otsirakatste Brant who came in relief in the last game got the start in goal for the Raiders. For the Grads, Kian Hodgins made his sixth career CCHL start.
The Grads got on the board first when Wake Purdy fired one glove side on Brant to make it one zero for the Grads. Sebbie Johnson and Colin Holmes got the assists. It didn’t take long for the Nepean Raiders to draw this one even. Peter Freel jammed home the rebound off of the faceoff to tie the game at one a piece. It was Peter Freel’s twelfth goal of the season and his third against the Navan Grads. David Taylor and the hometown boy in Tyler Smith assisted on the goal. Navan regained the lead when Sebbie Johnson scored on a mad scramble in front of the net. It was his 27th goal of the season.
Despite the Navan Grads outshooting Nepean 13-11, Otsirakatste Brant was great in goal making eleven saves in that period.
The second period began when the over ager in Dylan Pollock capitalized on a remarkable feed from Mikayil Kahriman. It was Pollock’s eighth goal of the campaign and Kahriman now has points in back-to-back games. After that, the Grads regained the lead on a solo break-away goal from Kiki Brown. That goal came twenty two seconds after Pollock’s goal. Navan made this game a two goal lead when Shaan Kingwell netted home his twentieth goal of the season. Approximately, one minute after Kingwell’s goal, Nepean made this a one goal game again when Peter Freel scored his second goal of the game. It was his thirteenth goal of the year and his fourth against the Grads.
Although the Grads outshot the Raiders 15-13, Otsirakatste Brant once again kept the Raiders in the game.
Navan scored the first two goals of the third period from Wake Purdy and Sebbie Johnson. Nepean made things interesting when Zack Freimuth fired a shot glove side on Kian Hodges to cut the Grad’s lead to 6-4. It was Freimuth’s second goal of the year as well as his second goal against the Navan Grads. Navan closed out the scoring on an empty net hat-trick goal from Sebbie Johnson.
For the three star selection, with two goals and one assist Wake Purdy was given the game’s first star, for his four point performance, Sebbie Johnson was handed the game’s second star and with his two goal work ethic, Peter Freel earned the game’s third star for the Nepean Raiders.
Nepean’s next game will take place on Saturday, February 8th when they visit the Renfrew Wolves at the myFM Centre. For the second straight year, the Raiders will win their season series against the Wolves including two blowout wins for Nepean back in October.
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