by Romano Di Franco
NEPEAN, ON – The Nepean Raiders hosted the Renfrew Wolves Wednesday evening at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena. Both teams are coming off wins over the Carleton Place Canadians.
It was the fourth meeting of the season between the two teams with the Wolves having come out on top each time.
The starting goalies Will Craig (13-5, 2.71 GAA, 0.920 GAA) for Renfrew for Carleton Place while Nathan Loisel (2-3, 5.05 GAA, 0.875 SV%) was between the pipes for Nepean.
Former Raider Tyson Tomasini opened the scoring with his 17th of the season. The goal came at close range after a feed from Tyson Phare from behind the net.
Tyler Melvin responded with his 9th of the season splitting the defence before rifling a shot over the glove hand of Craig. Coleman Bennett got the play started deep in his zone sending the puck to Zachary Lefebvre who dished off to Melvin.
The period ended at the score tied at 1-1 with the Raiders having the slight edge in shots at 12-11.
The teams traded chances in the second and then traded goals as Anthony Rivard gave the Raiders the lead tapping in a Coleman Bennett pass at the goal mouth. Bennett made a dandy move to get around Renfrew D-man Trent Scullion and found an unchecked Rivard for his third of the season to send the Raiders up 2-1. Samuel Beaulne got his 14th assist on Rivard’s PowerPlay goal. The lead was short-lived when Samuel Willits tied the score at 2-2 beating Loisel low blocker-side from the slot.
After 40 minutes the teams were knotted with two goals-a-piece. Each team had a PowerPlay goal and an even-strength goal. The Raiders again outshot the Wolves 15-11 to take an overall 27-22 lead.
There was just one goal in the third period as Brendan Hill got the game winner. The Raiders pulled Loisel for the extra attacker and they buzzed the Renfrew goal but came away empty and the game ended with the Renfrew Wolves on the good side of a 3-2 score.
Nepean was outshot in the third period 12-8 but finished the game with a 35-34 advantage.
Brendan Hill (1G) was named the game’s first star for his game-winning goal, Nathan Loisel (31 SV on 34 shots) got the nod for second star while Samuel Willits (1G) was named the game’s third star.
Tyler Melvin (1G) was named the hardest working Raider. His 9th goal of the season was Nepean’s first of the game.
The Raiders are back at it Friday as they visit Hawkesbury to take on the Hawks at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex for a 7:30pm puck drop.
