by Romano Di Franco
NEPEAN, ON – The Nepean Raiders hosted the Ottawa Junior Senators at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena in a Sunday matinee. It was the third meeting of the season for the two teams. The last meeting was a 14-4 drubbing for OJS coming back from a 4-2 deficit.
The Raiders are coming off a 5-3 loss to Hawkesbury and have been competitive in their recent contests.
The starting goalies were Zachary Bowan (0-0, 0.00 GAA, 1.000 SV%) for Ottawa while Connor Shibley (5-9-1, 5.17 GAA, 0.861 SV%) was in net for Hawkesbury.
Julian Recine got things started for OJS with a wrist-shot from the top of the left face-off circle. Shibley had traffic in front of the net and was unable to track the shot. The goal came with Alex Bergeron in the box for Hooking and gave the Junior Senators the 1-0 lead.
Vincent Velocci made it 2-0 tapping home a cross-ice pass in the Raider zone from Phillippe Jacques at the far post.
After 20 minutes, Ottawa took a 2-0 lead to the dressing room outshooting Nepean 17-6.
The teams traded goals in the second period. It was Phillippe Jacques for Ottawa and Zachary Lefebvre redirecting a Jack Hillier pass in the slot for Nepean. Lefebvre’s team-leading 15th of the season came with Simon Isabelle off for Highsticking. Coleman Bennett had the other helper. His 20th assist leads all 2002-born defencemen across the CCHL.
The Raiders came close to making it a one-goal game when Tyler Melvin had a wide-open-net blast stopped by Zachary Bowan who managed to get across the crease and stick out a pad to absolutely rob Melvin of his 11th of the season.
After two periods Ottawa held a 3-1 lead. It was an even period on the shot counter with both teams tossing 13 shots on goal giving the advantage thus far to Ottawa at 30-19.
The teams exchanged chances in the third but it was Owen Hollingsworth who would bring the Raiders to within one. He poked a loose puck in front of the OJS net through the five-hole of a diving Bowan who tried unsuccessfully to smother the puck.
The Raiders pulled Connor Shibley for the extra attacker but it was Thomas Freel who would ice the game with an empty netter.
The game ended with the Junior Senators barely escaping with a 4-2 win after outshooting Nepean 41-23.
OJS notched the first two stars with Phillippe Jacques (1G | 3A) named the game’s first star and Jake Code (2A) the second star while Raider netminder Connor Shibley (37 SV on 40 shots) earned third star honours.
Zachary Lefebvre (1G) was named the hardest working Raider.
The Raiders are back at it Wednesday night as they host the Carleton Place Canadians at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena for a 7:30pm puck drop.
