by Romano Di Franco
NAVAN, ON – The Nepean Raiders visited the Navan Memorial Centre to take on the Navan Grads. It was the fourth game of the pre-season for each team with Nepean entering the contest with a record of 2-1 while the Grads entered with a perfect 3-0 record.
The Raiders have registered a pair of wins over the Carleton Place Canadians while the Grads have defeated the Gatineau Flames and have two wins against Ottawa Junior Senators.
Luca Sandu got the start in the Raiders net while Coulter Taylor defended the goal for the Grads.
Navan opened the scoring a minute into the game on Cayden Faust’s first of the season. The goal came off an unlucky bounce behind the Raiders goal that Faust pounced on.
Tio D’Addario extended the Grads lead late in the period one-timing a pass from Nicholas Bennett past Sandu.
Luke Posthumus got the Raiders on the board with his second of the pre-season poking home a rebound off a Nolan Mozer blast from the point. Ryan Liverman had the other helper on the goal.
After 20 minutes the Grads were on top 2-1 and held a 15-10 shot advantage.
The Grads scored three straight goals to go up 5-1 on a pair of goals on a Noah Carpenter goal sandwiched between a pair of snipes by Owen Parsons.
The Raiders responded with a goal from Anthony Rivard whose point-shot found its way through a ton of traffic in front of the Grads goal and past Taylor to make it a 5-2 game.
After two periods the Grads had a 5-2 lead and had outshot the Raiders by a margin of 31-15.
Navan put the game out of reach in the third with a pair of goals by Nicholas Paone and Simon Singer. Paone’s goal came on the PowerPlay. The final score was 7-2 for the home team with the Grads having outshot the Raiders 43-23.
The Raiders conclude their pre-season schedule with a rematch against Navan on Sunday afternoon at the Nepean Sportsplex Steve Yzerman Arena for a 2:30pm puck drop.
