Goalie shines in his first start but Raiders drop pair in CCHL

By Romano Di FRanco, nepeanRaiDeRs com

Jaden Cholette made 46 saves in his first Central Canada Junior Hockey League start as the Nepean Raiders took on their crosstown rivals the Ottawa Junior Senators at the Fred Barrett Arena on Saturday, Feb. 18.

Despite the 4-0 loss, Cholette was praised for his play and was named the “hardest Working Raider” for the game.

Wil Murphy opened the scoring for Ottawa as he banged home a rebound after Cholette stopped a point-blank shot from Lucas Staresinic. Zachary Losier made it 2-0 on a 2-on-2 rifling a blast from the left faceoff circle.

Vincent Velocci had the lone goal in the second period. He banged in his own rebound after Cholette stopped the wrap-around attempt.

Andrew Utero made it 4-0 with a shot from the slot through a ton of traffic.

Cholette never saw it as Utero registered his third point of the night.

On Sunday, the thirdplace Hawks visited Nepean and entered the game on a two-game losing streak while the Raiders were looking to end a seven game winless streak.

Dimitri Pelekos got the start in the Hawkesbury goal while Luca Sandu was in goal for Nepean.

Hawkesbury had the lone goal in the first period scoring on a PowerPlay goal by Alex Fournier who beat Sandu with a rifle from the high slot with Nicholas Larkin in the box for Slashing. Hawkesbury outshot Nepean 18-8 in the first period.

The second period was penalty-filled with both teams being assessed nine penalties. Both teams capitalized and came away with PowerPlay markers.

Hawkesbury had two as Antoine Dorion scored with Luca Ricciardi off for Slashing and Felix Sauve scored with Wade Bolton in the box for Roughing. Owen Hardy scored with Sauve in the box for Cross Checking to narrow the gap. Hardy’s goal came on a rebound from a Luke Posthumus blast from the point. Nicholas Larkin had the other helper.

After 40 minutes the Raiders trailed 3-1 and were outshot 17-12 in the middle frame.

Nathan Gagne restored the three-goal cushion for Hawkesbury with their fourth PowerPlay goal of the game. Penalties continued to be the story in the game with Alex Urbisci was booked for Tripping and that led to Jack Matsukubo cutting the lead to 4-2 after one-timing an Owen Hardy pass through Pelekos. Luke Posthumus had the other assist.

With time winding down things got interesting as Nepean pulled Sandu for the extra attacker and the Luke Posthumus pulled the

Raiders to within one after a goal-mouth scramble saw the rookie poke home his 16th of the season. Jack Matsukubo was in on the action earning his 13th helper of the season.

The comeback would fall just short though as time ran out and Hawkesbury came away with the 4-3 decision. Jack Matsukubo was named the Hardest Working Raider with his second goal in as many games.