by Romano Di Franco
BROCKVILLE, ON – The Nepean Raiders faced off against the Brockville Braves on Thursday Night at the Brockville Memorial Centre. The Raiders have been on fire lately winning four of their last six.
They were in tough against the Braves who are in first place in the Robinson Division.
Connor Shibley (7-11-1, 0.870 SV%, 4.85 GAA) got the start between the pipes for Nepean while Brandon Abbott (11-6, 0.915 SV%, 2.48 GAA) got the start in the Brockville goal.
After opening the scoring in each of their last two games, the Raiders gave up the first goal this time after Jack McDonald beat Shibley along the ice with traffic in front of the net. They made it 2-0 when Luke Tchor beat Shibley through the five-hole from the high slot. The Raiders were trying to kill a 5-on-3 PowerPlay for Brockville after Coleman Bennett (Boarding) and Samuel Beaulne (Tripping) were sent off.
The Braves made it 3-0 on another PowerPlay goal with Adam Cater in the box for High Sticking. Trent Ledrew added another goal for Brockville and that chased Connor Shibley from the game to be relieved by Nathan Loisel.
After 20 minutes the Braves were up 4-0 outshooting the Raiders 13-8 in the process.
The second period was a lot calmer than the first with the teams trading goals. The Raiders scored in the first minute of the period after Jordan Graham tapped home an Owen Hollingsworth pass at the mouth of the crease. Coleman Bennett was in on the action picking up his team-leading 25th assist of the season.
Ryan Bonfield got his second of the game this one unassisted to restore the four-goal Brockville lead.
After 40 minutes the Braves had a 5-1 lead and outshot Nepean 15-7 in the period to take an overall 28-15 lead in shots.
The third period was all Brockville as they added another three to make the final 8-1 Braves.
Luke Tchor (3G) was named the game’s first star, Trent Ledrew (1G | 1A) got the nod as second star. Raiders D-man Coleman Bennett (1A) was named third star.
Jordan Graham (1G | 0A | 1F) was named the hardest working Raider going just one assist shy of the Gordie Howe hat-trick.
The Raiders are back at on Friday night as they travel to the Rockland CIHA Arena 1 to take on the Rockland Nationals for a 7:30pm puck drop.
