The Nepean Raiders split back-to-back contests with the visiting Smiths Falls Bears on Sun. and Wed.
Smiths Falls emerged victorious 4-2 in a physical contest on Sun. Bears’ forward Mitchell Larabie’s two goals were the difference, with an empty netter sealing the deal.
The Raiders’ Colin McCaughey and Bears’ Brett Humberstone were each ejected at the end of the game, after dropping the gloves late in the third. It was McCaughey’s second straight game with a fight.
Nepean managed to finally crack G Bradley Dobson on Wed., with a 3-1 triumph. New acquisition Silas Mattawashish had the game winner in the second frame.
“Sunday was a good game as well but I thought today we were better on the penalty kill. Nothing new, but they capitalized on Sun. and made us pay (two powerplay goals) and today we were stopping them,” said Raiders’ head coach Darcy Findlay.
“Silas scored a big goal, he was a puck hound, all over the ice. He was just a presence, all over the ice, great zone time. He was just a veteran player out there. Good on him, to help the guys get going and give us some offence.”
Liam Soulière turned aside of 54 of 58 shots in the two games while his Bears’ counterpart, Dobson, stopped 58 of 62.
Olivier Gauthier continued his strong Dec. with an assist on Wed. He now has 10 points in seven games. Antoine Belisle also has eight points in that stretch while Noah Rowe has seven.
The Raiders will finish their 2017 with a Fri. afternoon matchup with the Hawkesbury Hawks.
“Friday’s a big test. I thought we played them really well there a couple weeks ago and unfortunately just fell behind with a couple seconds left. Five on five I think we always play really well against them, there powerplay is very good and capitalizes and scores a lot of goals,” said Findlay.
“We’re going to have to go out and take pride and play the way we have I think we’ll be just fine. We’re not that far behind, I’ll say not so much the past couple weeks but that three week stretch or so, we’re still in it.”
(Image: IceLevel.com)
