by Romano Di Franco
BROCKVILLE, ON – The Nepean Raiders were in Brockville to take on the red-hot Braves who entered the game on a six-game winning streak. It was the fourth meeting between the two teams and Brockville is a perfect 3-0. It marked the first of three games in three days for Nepean.
Nathan Loisel (4-8-1, 0.885 SV%, 4. 61 GAA got the start in the net for Nepean while Sami Molu (13-5, 0.922 SV%, 2.34 GAA) got the start between the pipes for the home team.
The Braves opened the scoring with a PowerPlay goal. After Ryan Liverman was booked for High Sticking Justin Dauphinais one-timed a pass from Jack McDonald behind Loisel.
The Raiders best chance came on a mini-breakaway by Chase Campeau. He tried to deke Molu but was stopped.
The period ended with the Braves ahead 1-0 as the Raiders were outshot 11-6.
The Braves went up 4-0 on goals by Lucas Culhane, Colin Elliott, and Owen Belisle. Louis Chabot took a Tripping penalty to put the Raiders into a Penalty Kill situation but it was Owen Hollingsworth getting the short-handed goal to put the Raider on the board. The play was started when Tyler Melvin stole the puck from xxx and went in on a 2-on-1 and sent a saucer pass to Hollingsworth who made no mistake burying the puck by Molu.
The Braves got that one back after Nicolas Lariviere’s point-shot beat Loisel five-hole to make the score 5-1.
After 40 minutes, the Braves had a comfortable lead after outshooting Nepean 21-9 in the period.
Ryan Bonfield made it 6-1 Brockville before Anthony Rivard got his sixth of the season one-timing a Jordan Graham pass from behind the net into the yawning cage to make it 6-2. Nolan Mozer had the other helper.
The Braves got one more, Jack McDonald’s seventh to make the final score 7-2.
Jack McDonald (1G | 4A) was named the game’s first star, Colin Elliott (1G | 1A) got the nod as second star. Raiders forward Owen Hollingsworth (1G) was named third star.
Tyler Melvin (1A) was named the hardest working Raider. Honorable mention to Nathan Loisel who made a season-high 50 saves on the night.
The Raiders are in action again with just 24 hours rest. They face their cross-town rivals Saturday night at the Jim Durrell Sports Complex as they take on the Ottawa Junior Senators for an 8:30pm puck drop.
