by Romano Di Franco
NEPEAN, ON – The Nepean Raiders hosted the Pembroke Lumber Kings at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena on Wednesday night. Both teams are coming off shut-out losses in the Winter Showcase that took place the previous night.
This is the third meeting of the season with the teams having one victory each. Pembroke won 3-2 in the Shootout in their last match.
Ben Forget (7-16-1-1, 3.34 GAA, 0.901 SV%) got the nod in goal for Pembroke while Luca Sandu (4-9-1, 4.34 GAA, 0.896 SV %) defended the goal for Nepean.
The two teams traded goals early in the game with Pratt Stetson pocketing his seventh of the season while Luke Posthumus netted his eighth on a wristshot from the top of the face-off circle after a nifty backhand pass by Owen Hardy. The play started on a 100 foot pass from Jackson Barnes deep in his own end.
The teams then traded another pair of goals with Josh Pryzstal scoring on a 2-on-1 to beat Sandu high blocker side. The Pembroke lead lasted a mere 16 seconds as Anthony Rivard replied immediately for Nepean taking a dandy pass from Jordan Grahame and blasting it from the slot. Forget managed to get a piece of most of the shot but it bounded high into the air and trickled into the back of the net. Jacob Dupont picked up his fifth assist of the season on the play.
After 20 minutes the score was all squared up a 2-2 with Pembroke outshooting Nepean 15-12.
Sacha Trudel gave the Lumber Kings their third lead of the game on a spectacular sharp-angled shot threading the puck short-side high over the shoulder of a startled Sandu.
Luke Posthumus responded with his second of the game to tie things up again 3-3 burying a terrific Owen Hardy pass from the side boards to the goal mouth. Josh Reid registered his 12th assist on the goal.
The teams were not finished trading goals as Colin Vassallo intercepted an errant pass in the Raiders zone and went coast to coast on a breakaway and depositing the puck in the top left corner after showing some flashy moves. Jack Matsukubo gave Nepean their fourth tie of the game blasting a shot from an impossible angle past Forget. The goal came after Nicholas Larkin’s attempt went wide and bounced off the boards right Matsukubo. Jackson Barnes picked up his second assist of the game.
After 40 minutes the score was deadlocked at 4-4 after Nepean outshot Pembroke 15-14 in the middle frame.
Nepean got their first lead of the game after a steal in the offensive zone by Jordan Grahame who webt tic-tac-toe with Anthony Rivard and Jacob Dupont. It was Dupont’s fourth goal of the season and put the Raiders up 5-4.
With time dwindling, Pembroke pulled Forget for the extra attacker and Anthony Rivard may have saved the victory for Nepean as he knocked the puck away from a Lumber King who had a wide open net from point-blank range. Rivard then combined with Jordan Grahame for the empty net goal to ice the game for Nepean. Grahame’s empty netter insurance goal was his fourth of the season.
Luke Posthumus (2G) was named the game’s first star. Anthony Rivard (1G | 2A) picked up second star honours and Nick Donaldson (2A) got the nod as the game’s third star.
Jordan Grahame (1G | 1A) was named hardest working Raider.
Nepean’s next game is on January 14 at the Ma-Te-Way Activity Center as they face the Renfrew Wolves for a 7:30pm puck drop.
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