The Nepean Raiders were denied in their quest for a second-straight win on Sun., falling 3-1 to the Yzerman Division-leading Ottawa Jr. Senators.
Pierre-Luc Veillette scored two goals for the Jr. Sens (7-2), while Chiwetin Blacksmith provided a supporting tally, pushing him to the top of the CCHL scoring race at 17 pts.
Malcolm Arseneau’s third goal of the season was the Raiders’ (2-5) lone response.
The Jr. Sens were coming off a 7-3 win over the Rockland Nationals less than 24 hours before puck drop while the Raiders hadn’t played since Sept. 15.
A Sept. 17 home game against the Smiths Falls Bears was cancelled due to poor ice conditions.
“I don’t think we played very good. I don’t think we had any energy and not playing in nine days isn’t an excuse,” said head coach Darcy Findlay.
“We should be excited to play, we should have had some drive, we knew what we were getting into. We just came out flat and played flat for 60 min.“ said Findlay.
Raiders rookie goaltender Liam Soulière made 27 saves in his first taste of CCHL action against the league’s highest scoring team. Gabriel Carriere turned aside 19 Nepean chances for his fourth win.
“I thought he (Soulière) did well. Probably some jitters early on but as the game went on he got better and made those first and second stops.” Findlay said.
“We’re happy to see him for the first game.”
Raider forward Geoff Dempster left the game with an upper-body injury suffered in the first period and was kept out for the remainder of the game under precautionary measures.
Nepean will be back in action next Wed. night when they’ll travel to Rockland (4-3-1-1).
