by Romano Di Franco
The Nepean Raiders played their first game at the Steve Yzerman Arena after being forced to have their first four home games at the Allen J MacDonald #2. They welcomed the Kemptville 73s.
The Raiders came into this game having been on a roll lately having won four straight games. John Gedraitis got the start in goal for the Raiders while Jacob Biron was in between the pipes for the visiting 73s.
Kemptville got the first goal from Nicholas Bennett with Ty Whyte and Grady Logue providing the helpers. Nepean answered back from Owen Hardy’s marker. It was his second goal in the previous three games. On top of that, the Raiders outshot the 73s 15-7. However in that period, Gedraitis and Biron were nice and tidy in goal.
In the second period, Nepean came firing in on all cylinders getting tallies from Curtiss Sturgeon, Nicolas Papineau and Owen Hardy. The only goal Kemptville had in the middle frame was from Grady Logue assisited Ty Whyte and Matthew O’Doherty. To add to that solid second period, the Raiders outshot the 73s 19-14.
In the third period, Nicolas Bennett got his third goal on the year and second of the game with Eric Sweetapple drawing the only helper. The next two goals came from Grady Logue including his third goal of the game to complete the hat-trick.
However, Nepean tied the game at five with Papineau’s second goal of the game and his seventh of the season. This happened just 95 seconds after Grady Logue’s hattrick. Despite being outshot 13-4, the game went into overtime after 5-5 through regulation.
The overtime period would not last for long as Josh Reid scored just 52 seconds into the extra frame as the Raiders
