by Romano Di Franco
HAWKESBURY, ON – The Nepean Raiders traveled to the Robert Hartley Sports Complex to take on the Hawkesbury Hawkes in CCHL action Friday night.
The Raiders are coming off a see-saw battle with the Renfrew Wolves on Wednesday evening at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena that saw them come up just short losing 3-2 despite outshooting the Wolves 35-34.
It was the fourth meeting of the season between the two teams with the Hawks the victors in each game.
The starting goalies were Nathan Loisel (2-4, 4.79 GAA, 0.879 SV%) for Nepean while Matthew Tovell (1-0, 1.03 GAA, 0.889 GAA) was between the pipes for Hawkesbury.
Bradley Horner opened the scoring 53 seconds into the game for the Hawks with his 2nd of the season. The goal came from distance with traffic in front of Loisel to make it 1-0 Hawkesbury.
They made it 2-0 a few minutes later when Tyler Samodral beat Loisel with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot.
Tyler Melvin cut the lead in half late in the period with a nifty move around Hawks D-main Reid Oliver. He sent a pass tape-to-tape to Zachary Lefebvre at the side of the net. Lefebvre’s shot was blocked but Melvin was in perfect position to deposit the rebound past Tovell. Samuel Beaulne had the other helper on the goal that made it 2-1 Hawkesbury.
After 20 minutes it was Hawkesbury with the lead on the scoreboard and in shots at 10-7.
Mark Cooper restored the Hawks’ 2-goal cushion with a 4-on-3 PowerPlay. He slapped a rebound off the back boards past Loisel from point-blank range. The Hawks led at this point 3-1. The Raiders thought they had scored when Jake Coleman directed a shot at Tovell after intercepting the puck in the Hawks’ zone but his celebration proved to be too early.
The second period would come to a close with the Hawks up 3-1. They outshot Nepean 17-3 to take the overall shot lead at 31-10.
Kerfalla Toure made it 4-1 on a 2-on-1 putting home a pass from William Gendron.
The Raiders had a 5-on-3 PowerPlay when Toure took a 10-minute Unsportsmanlike Misconduct and Josh Spratt was sent off for Tripping. Nepean pulled Loisel for the extra attacker with 15 minutes left in the period to try and capitalize on the man-advantage but despite some chances the Raiders came up empty.
They would strike again moments later after Chase Campeau circled the Hawks zone and sending a pass to the mouth of the crease that Costa Touliopoulos tapped past a diving Tovell. The Raiders had pulled to within two cutting the Hawks lead to 4-2.
The Hawks put the game out of reach after a give-away in the Raiders zone to Thomas Cusson who deked around Loisel and put it just past Loisel’s right pad.
The game ended 5-2 with the Hawks outshooting the Raiders 42-22.
Mark Cooper (1G) was named the game’s first star, Rylee Hlusiak (2A) got the nod for second star while Raider Costa Touliopoulos (1G) earned third star honours.
Tyler Melvin (1G) was named the hardest working Raider.
The Raiders are back at it Sunday as they host the Ottawa Junior Senators at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena for a 2:30pm puck drop.
