by Romano Di Franco
The Nepean Raiders visited the Kemptville 73s at the North Grenville Municipal Centre in the hopes of leaving behind a tough 8=2 loss to the Navan Grads and focus on their great month of December. Meanwhile the 73s put together a fantastic performance having shutout the Cornwall Colts 4-0.
For the starting goalies, Otsirakatste Brant made his fifth consecutive start in goal looking for a bounce back performance and Rylan Donovan who put on a masterclass in the aforementioned game against the Cornwall Colts got the start in goal.
The first period saw the Nepean Raiders put up goals in a hurry as Owen Kinghan, Owen Smetham and Dekyln Campbell scored the first three goals of the game. Rylan Donovan had a rough time in goal until he was pulled and replaced by Mason Jones. Kemptville scored only gone goal and that was when Franco Canevari scored his first career CCHL goal from the point. Emile Trottier and Eric Sweetapple assisted on the goal.
The Nepean Raiders outshot the Kemptville 73s 13-10 in that first period.
The second period was full of physicality with Nathan Nadeau and Alexis Beaulieu involved in a face washing match and so did Spencer Thompson and Sydney Loretto. The Raiders did have some pretty good scoring chances. First, Peter Freel had a breakaway with Nicolas Bennett chasing him but he missed the net. Second, Jack Yates had Mason Jones beat, but all he found was the goalpost.
That said, the Raiders did outshoot the 73s 9-8 in the second period.
The Kemptville 73s made things interesting when Sydney Loretto popped the water bottle for his sixth goal of the season. However, the 73s comeback fell short when the Raiders scored the last two goals from Carter Williamson and Luka Benoit.
Notably, Nepean killed off all six of the Kemptville 73 powerplay opportunities
Best of all, the Raiders extended their record for the month of December to 4-1-0.
These two teams will see each other two more times with games on January 24th and March 12th respectively.
Nepean’s next game will be held on Sunday December 22nd when the Brockville Braves come to town as the Raiders look to end off 2024 on a winning note.
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