by Romano Di Franco
CARLETON PLACE, ON – The Nepean Raiders travelled down Highway 7 to the Carleton Place Arena to take on the Carleton Place Canadians. It was the third meeting between the two teams. They have split the first two with Nepean taking the first game 7-3 and CPC taking the second game 7-2.
Carleton Place is 3-1-0-1 in their last five games and currently sit in third place five points back of the Robinson Division leading Smiths Falls Bears with three games in hand. The Raiders are 1-4 in their last five and occupy sixth in the Yzerman Division.
Gage Stewart (1-9, 3.31 GAA, 0.911 SV%) started in goal for Nepean while Joe Chambers (5-4, 3.69 GAA, 0.878 SV %) got the start between the 9:46 PM 2022-12-06pipes for the Canadians.
Carleton Place opened the scoring five minutes into the first on a goal by Derek Hamilton. It came after a shot by Cole McGuire missed wide but rebounded off the back boards and in front of the net. Stewart seemed to have smothered it but Carleton Place kept jamming at the puck and the goal gave CPC a 1-0 lead. Hamilton had rung one of the post minutes earlier.
Tyler Melvin had Nepean’s best chance of the period taking the puck from center ice and skating through the Carleton Place defense before having his shot from the slot stopped by Chambers. They had a few more chances on a PowerPlay after a Noah Kinloch-Varga Slashing penalty but were held scoreless. The man advantage carried over into the second period.
After 20 minutes Carleton Place held a 1-0 lead outshooting Nepean 14-8.
The Canadians scored three more goals in the second period to make it 4-0 on a pair of goals by Thomas Dickey period and a single by Brandon Walker.
Nepean responded with a goal of their own on a 2-on-1 with Jacob Dupont and Jules Facchini. Dupont used Facchini as a decoy before roofing the puck over Chambers. Luca Ricciardi got the Raiders right back in the game just a couple of minutes later with his fourth of the season after taking a nifty saucer pass from Luka Benoit and beating Chambers through the five-hole. Curtiss Sturgeon had the other helper.
At the end of the second period it was the Carleton Place Canadians up 4-2 on the scoreboard and holding a 26-18 advantage in shots.
Nepean pressed in the third period and it paid off with a pair of goals late in the period. First it was Nicholas Larkin with a blast from the point through a ton of traffic that Chambers never saw. Joshua Reid had the lone helper to bring the Raiders within one.
Curtiss Sturgeon got the equalizer moving the puck skate to stick before depositing the biscuit into the vacated right side.
60 minutes was not enough to settle anything and the five minute OT saw both teams have chances but neither could put the game away and the teams would go to the shoot-out.
Round 1
NEP – Curtiss Sturgeon GOAL
CPC – Matteo Disipio GOAL
Round 2
NEP – Jack Matsukubo GOAL
CPC – Derek Hamilton GOAL
Round 3
NEP – Tyler Melvin (AP) shootout attempt on #1 Joe Chambers MISS
CPC – Cole McGuire shootout attempt on #30 Jaden Cholette MISS
Round 4
NEP – Nicholas Larkin MISS
CPC – Brandon Walker MISS
Round 5
NEP – Jacob Dupont MISS
CPC – Caton Ryan GOAL
Ultimately, Carleton Place would come away with the win.
Alexander Mcglade (3A) was named the game’s first star. Curtiss Sturgeon (1G | 1A) was the second star and Caton Ryan captured third star honours.
Jacob Dupont is named the Hardest Working Raider picking up his first goal of the season.
Nepean’s next game is against the Smiths Falls Bears at the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre for a 7:30pm puck drop.
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