by Romano Di Franco
The Nepean Raiders travelled back home to play host to the Smiths Falls Bears. Nepean came into this game as they wanted to use this game as bounce back game following an 8-1 blowout loss. For the starting goalies, John Gedraitis got the start in goal while Braxton Bennett made his first start of the season.
It didn’t take long for the Nepean Raiders to get on the board in this one as Deklyn Campbell scored his second goal in as many games on a spectacular high-light reel end to end goal. The goal came a minute and forty five seconds in this one. Nick Houben and Tyler Smith got the assists.
The Smiths Falls Bears answered back when Cameron O’Connell fired a shot from the point. The goal came with five seconds to go in the Bears Power Play. Kyler Dagg and Jack Paquette assisted on the goal.
Late in the first period, the Raiders got back in the lead when Tyler Smith scored his first career CCHL goal assisted from Houben and John Lumsden.
The shots on net at the end of the first period was 9-8 in favor of Nepean.
In the second period, both defenses were at the their best as Smiths Falls put up ten shots on net Nepean seven. In fact, the only goal scored in that frame was Raine Hodge who also scored his first career CCHL goal. Jackson Heron had the only helper in the game.
In the third period, both teams played well on defense once again. The Smiths Falls Bears took a 3-2 lead when Tyson Parker scored in the second half of their 5-on-3 powerplay. Instead of unravelling, the Nepean Raiders were able to storm back when Nicolas Papineau scored to tie the game at three with their own powerplay goal. It was his third goal of the season with Luka Benoit and Tristian Konobelj assisting on the goal.
Neither side was able to break through in overtime, so the game went into a shootout.
In the first round, Deklyn Campebell and Tyson Parker scored combined in the first round in the shootout. Perhaps the best part of the shootout was when Tristan Konobelj scored a great goal in the shootout. It looked as the puck went off of Braxton Bennet’s pads and it some how squirked through in the net. With John Gedraitis slamming the door shut on Quinn Booth in round two in the shootout. The Raiders had a chance to win this game in the shootout, but that didn’t happen when Braxton Bennett got a piece of the puck with the blocker on Nicolas Papineau. This was do or die for the Smiths Falls Bears when Travis Oulette had the last hope for the Bears, but it was John Gedraitis who stole the show for Nepean in the shootout.
For the three stars in the game, Cameron O’Connell with his second goal of the season was the game’s third star of the game, Nick Houben with two assists in the game was the second star of the game, and Nicolas Papineau was the game tying goal was the first star.
An honorable mention for the three star selection was Tristan Konobelj with the game winning goal in the shootout.
An exciting match that ended in a narrow shootout victory for the Nepean Raiders!
Nepean’s next game will be held on October 2nd when the Carleton Place Canadiens come to town.
Be sure to subscribe to the Raiders official YouTube channel!
