by Romano Di Franco
NEPEAN, ON – The Nepean Raiders closed out their November schedule as they hosted the Navan Grads on Wednesday night. It was the second meeting between the two teams with the Raiders taking the first contest 4-3 on a Nicholas Larkin overtime goal.
Navan came into the red-hot. They are currently on an eight-game win streak and are looking to go perfect in the month of November. The Grads were tied with the Ottawa Junior Senators atop the the Yzerman Division with a record of 16-5-2. Nepean is coming off an impressive 5-3 win over the Rockland Nationals.
Braedyn McIntosh (13-4-1-1, 2.48 GAA, 0.912 SV %) got the start between the pipes for Navan while Luca Sandu (3-5, 4.26 GAA, 0.898 SV%) was in goal for Nepean.
Nepean got off to a quick start opening the scoring at the 2:46 mark of the first after Braden Potvin scored on a wrap-around goal after taking a pass from Shane Moodie in his own zone. Jacob Dupont got the other helper.
They would add another less than a minute later. It was Owen Hardy taking a 100 foot pass from Nicholas Larkin and taking the puck from the right side to the front of the net before tucking it past McIntosh for his third of the season.
Owen Parsons would get one back for Navan beating Sandu through the five-hole on a breakaway.
After 20 minutes the Raiders were up 2-1 despite being outshot 12-9.
Navan took it to Nepean in the second period scoring three-straight goals. It was Joseph Ianniello with a pair of goals followed by Owen Parson’s second of the game to make it 4-2 Navan. Parson’s second goal came on the PowerPlay with Shane Moodie in the box for Holding.
This time is was Nepean who were back on their heels but responded after Anthony Rivard pocketed his first of the season. The goal came on a play that started in the Nepean zone with Harris Hilfiker going D-to-D to Coleman Bennett. Bennett took the puck coast to coast and went around the net before finding Rivard on the far post. Rivard took a couple of swipes at the puck and deposited the second attempt into the vacated left side.
The second period ended with the Grads out in front 4-3 outshooting the Raiders 14-9 to take an overall shot advantage at 26-18.
Devon Savignac got the insurance goal with under seven minutes to go deflecting a pass from Tio D’Addario past Sandu from inside the blue paint.
The Raiders pulled Sandu for the extra attacker but failed to close the gap and gave up an empty-netter to Cayden Faust and the Grads skated away with a 6-3 win that was a lot closer than the score would indicate. The Grads ended the month of November with a perfect 9-0 record.
Joseph Ianniello (2G | 1A) was named the game’s first star. Owen Parsons (2G | 1A) earned the second star while Owen Hardy (1G) captured third star honours.
Anthony Rivard is named the Hardest Working Raider picking up his first goal of the season.
Nepean will take to the ice again in two days time as they travel to the Brockville Memorial Centre to take on the Brockville Braves for a 7:30pm puck drop.
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