It was an offensive game for the ages at Steve Yzerman Arena. Thirteen goals later, the Nepean Raiders emerged with a hard-fought 7-6 win over the Brockville Braves on Wed. night.
Graham Denomme was the overtime hero for Nepean, rushing end-to-end before wristing a shot over the left pad of Braves’ netminder Justin Evenson.
Denomme’s goal ended a roller-coaster of a night for the Raiders, who coughed up a 4-2 second period cushion before allowing Brockville to tie it twice in the third.
Ten different Raiders picked up a point in this one, most notably forwards Ryan Horvath (2G) and Silas Mattawashish (1G 1A) and defencemen Davis Browning (1G 2A) and Tyler Orban (2A).
Horvath’s two goals give him eight points in his last nine games while Mattawashish has seven points in five games with Nepean.
Acquired via Rockland the day before, forward Dana Engram played his first game in a Nepean jersey, assisting on Denomme’s goal.
Other Nepean goals were scored by Colin McCaughey and Antoine Belisle.
Belisle now has 12 points in 11 games played since the Dec. 1 trade of then-top scorers Malcolm Arseneau (to Pembroke) and Kari Belec (to Hawkesbury).
The game picked up where the last meeting between the two teams left off, a 115-shot slugfest on Dec. 15 which ended in a 5-3 Brockville win.
The shots were more one-sided in this one, as Raiders’ G Liam Soulière was kept active, stopping 45 Brockville chances for his ninth win on the year. Evenson saved 25 of 32 that came his way.
Despite ranking 11th in CCHL wins, Soulière’s .925 save percentage sits in a four-way tie for second place in the league.
The win gives the edge to Nepean in the season series (3-2).
The Braves’ Simon Mack, a 2001-born defenceman and Penn State-commit scored his first career CCHL goal to send the game to overtime.
The Raiders will travel to Smiths Falls on Fri.
