Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
A pair of 3-0 victories to open the best-of-seven Tod Division semifinals have the Napanee Raiders in the driver’s seat against the Port Hope Panthers.
In Game 2 on Sunday in Port Hope Bailey Maracle required just 12 saves to blank the Panthers and put Napanee up 2-0 in the series.
Justyn Steven opened the scoring at the 7:22 mark of the second. The Raiders clung to the 1-0 lead until the midway point of the third when Austin Labelle doubled their lead. Liam Mroueh tacked on an insurance marker at 11:03.
Napanee killed off seven Panther power-plays, but were also shutout on all four of their man-advantage opportunities.
On Friday the Raiders scored once in each period en route to their 3-0 win in Game 1 on home ice.
Dayton Kent scored the first goal of the series at the 10:41 mark of the first. Matthew Panetta doubled the lead at 11:04 of the second while Mroueh added another late in the third.
Napanee’s penalty-kill unit was strong in this one as well, keeping the Panthers 0-9 on the power-play. Maracle made 13 saves overall.
Port Hope’s Curtis Laviolette took both losses, stopping 74 combined shots while allowing all six goals.
Napanee will look to take a commanding 3-0 series lead tomorrow night when they host the Panthers at the SPC for Game 3. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. Game 4 goes Wednesday in Port Hope at 8:30 p.m. If necessary, Game 5 would go March 1 in Napanee at 7:30 pm., with Game 6 in Port Hope on Sunday and Game 7 back in Napanee on Sunday.
Meanwhile in the league’s other playoff bracket, the second seeded Picton Pirates hold a 2-1 series lead over the third seeded Amherstview Jets.
Picton opened the series with a close 2-1 win on Thursday followed by a 5-4 win on Saturday. The Jets may have regained some momentum last night with a 5-2 win. Game 4 goes Wednesday in Amherstview with Game 5 Thursday in Picton.