by Romano Di Franco
KEMPTVILLE, ON – The Nepean Raiders travelled down the 416 to visit the North Grenville Municipal Centre as they faced off against the Kemptville 73s for the fourth time this season. Both teams are coming off losses where they gave up a ton of goals. Kemptville lost 7-6 in their loss to Navan while Nepean lost 9-2 just 24 hours ago in a loss to the Cornwall Colts.
Luca Sandu (5-11-1, 4.54 GAA, 0.892 SV%) got the start in the Nepean Goal while Alex Musielak (1-1-0-1, 2.04 GAA, 0.945 SV%), occupied the goal for Kemptville.
It was Hunter Brazier, the leader in points and goals for Kemptville who opened the scoring with a shot from the high slot beating Sandu high over the blocker for his 17th of the season. The PowerPlay goal came on a 5-on-3 man advantage for Kemptville with Joshua Reid (Hooking) and Anthony Rivard (Boarding) both serving time.
Ryan Rutley made it 2-0 73s after stealing the puck in the Raiders zone and taking it to the high slot and snapping one again over Sandu’s blocker. Former Nepean Raider captain Coleman Bennett picked up his 20th assist on the goal.
Owen Hardy and Luke Posthumus each extended their point-streaks to five games after Posthumus won a faceoff in the 73s zone back to Luca Ricciardi who then fed Owen Hardy who snapped a shot from the left faceoff circle through the five-hole to beat Musielak. The goal came on the PowerPlay with Ryan Rutley in the box for Hooking.
Nicolas Papineau almost made it two goals in two games after a funny bounce off a stanchion sent the puck right into the crease with Musielak behind the net to attempt to play it but Kemptville defenceman Lorenzo Bono narrowly beat Papineau to the puck to clear it out of the crease.
After 20 minutes Kemptville had a 2-1 lead outshooting Nepean 14-9 in the process.
Hunter Brazier picked up his second of the game after stealing the puck in the 73s zone and going coast-to-coast beating Sandu to the far post with a sweeping move in front of the net. The goal came during a sloppy line change by Kemptville where they got away with seven players on the ice. Tyler Melvin, the other former Raider picked up his 14th assist of the season on the goal.
Gavin McDougall intercepted a clearing attempt in the Raiders zone and then rifled the puck from the point through traffic that beat Sandu to put Kemptville ahead 4-1. Coleman Bennett picked up his second point of the game on the goal. The 73s would make it 5-1 on the PowerPlay with Harris Hilfiker in the box for Hooking. Matt Thomas was credited with the goal.
Nepean’s best chance in the second period came on a three-on-one where Jordan Graham and Jacob Dupont attempted a tic-tac-toe but toe went awry.
Kemptville carried their lead into the second period intermission with a carbon-copy 14-9 edge in shots.
Nepean made a goaltending change to start the third as Joshua Branton came in to relieve Sandu.
Both teams had chances early in the third. First it was Kemptville defenceman Lorenzo Bono blasting a shot from the point that trickled through the Nepean crease and then Jack Matsukubo and Anthony Rivard had a two-on-nothing but Matsukubo fanned on the shot and Nepean came away empty. The third period’s only goal would come on a nifty move by Tyler Melvin who intercepted a puck in the Raider zone and took the puck in tight and backhanded a shot top shelf to make it 6-1 Kemptville final.
Ryan Rutley (1G) was named the game’s first star. Alex Musielak (25 saves on 26 shots) took second star honours while Raiders’ forward Owen Hardy got the nod as the game’s third star.
Luke Posthumus is named the Hardest Working Raider.
Nepean continues its busy January schedule with their third game in four nights as they travel to the Pembroke Memorial Centre to take on the Pembroke Lumber Kings on Sunday evening for a 7:00pm puck drop.
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