Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
With their 5-0 win over the Gananoque Islanders Friday night, 2017-18 Napanee Raiders cemented their place among both league and franchise history.
The win gave them a final regular season record of 37-2-1, good for 75 points which stands as the new high level mark for the PJHL and the best ever regular season output in the team’s 29 year history.
Ryan Casselman had a goal and an assist to cap his season at 48 goals and 69 assists, easily capturing the league’s scoring title with 117 points while nearly eclipsing Andrew Halliday’s franchise high 120 points, which he set 10 years ago.
Nicholas Nabuurs picked up the shutout in Friday’s record setting win, finishing his season with a 21-2 mark and a 1.58 GAA with four shutouts. Teammate Jeremy Piazzi was 16-1 with a 1.92 goals against, also earning four shutouts.
A record in the books, the Raiders will now turn their attention towards the playoffs. Their semifinal series gets underway Tuesday when they host the Amherstview Jets for Game 1 of their best-of-seven, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the SPC.
On paper the Raiders will enter as heavy favourites, holding the advantage in every category, outscoring the Jets 302-187 on the year while allowing 70 goals to the 162 Jets goaltenders allowed. The Jets went 18-20-1 on the season, good for 37 points, just under half of Napanee’s final total.
Both teams drew penalties at nearly the same rate, with Napanee spending 736 minutes in the bin compared to 721 for Amherstview.
If the Jets have one thing on their side, it’s history. They hold the distinction of pulling off the upset over Napanee’s previous record setting club, defeating the 2008-09 Raiders in the league finals.
Elsewhere in the league, the Port Hope Panthers scored a 7-4 victory in Game 1 of their semifinal series over the Picton Pirates last night. Game 2 goes Thursday in Picton.