Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Any fears of the Napanee’s Raiders’ pre-season scoring struggles bleeding into the regular season were put to rest Saturday as they posted a convincing 7-3 road win over the Uxbridge Bruins to kick off the 2019-20 campaign.
The game was a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, when Napanee ended the Orr Division Bruins’ season in a four game sweep.
This time around several new faces found the scoresheet, as the Raiders outshot the Bruins 50-29 in a game they never trailed.
Defenceman Alex Case, making his Raider debut, had the honour of scoring the team’s first goal of the regular season, converting on a pass from Reid Humphrey and Brodie Maracle 8:36 into the first.
Maracle pushed the lead to 2-0 at 15:53 with assists from Devon King and Case.
Soren Zamuner, another Raider rookie, made it 3-0 at the 7:09 mark of the second. Mackenzie Warren and Maracle earned the assists.
The Bruins broke up the Raiders’ scoring run just over a minute later when Dalton Strongman bested Raiders’ goalie Bailey Maracle to break the shutout. Spencer Mazakian added another for the hometeam with just under five minutes to go to cut the lead to 3-2.
Just as it seemed the game was headed for a tense third period, the Raiders erupted with two goals in just over a minute. Logan White, who came over from the Picton Pirates in a pre-season trade, scored at 16:19 from Brodie Maracle and Zamuner. Brodie Maracle potted his second of the game at 17:57, with King and Noah Westwater, the latter earning his first point with the Raiders, credited with assists.
Uxbridge’s Cameron Moffitt had a late goal in the second to give the Bruins’ a glimmer of hope, down 5-3 at the end of the middle frame.
Bailey Matthews, with help from Zamuner and Westwater, squashed any thoughts of a comeback with a goal in the opening five minutes of the third. King tacked on the game’s only power-play goal at 17:49 with assists from Evan Foley and Reid Humphrey to ice the 7-3 victory.
Bailey Maracle earned his first win of the season with 26 saves, helping to keep Uxbridge 0-5 on the power-play.
Uxbridge’s Jordan Yaremchuk took the loss, stopping 43 of 50 pucks, giving rookie coach Ben Hagerman a win in his debut behind the bench.
Napanee will continue their mini road trip to open the season on Thursday when they visit Picton to take on the Pirates. Like Uxbridge, the Pirates were swept by the Raiders in last year’s playoffs. Picton opened their season with a 2-1 overtime win against the Gananoque Islanders.
On Friday the Raiders will have their home opener, against yet another team they toppled on their way to the Schmalz Cup, the Port Hope Panthers. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. with a special pre-game ceremony planned to celebrate last year’s Junior C provincial title, the second in franchise history. That game will also mark the regular season opener for the visiting Panthers.
In a busy three game week the Raiders will have a rare Sunday home game, when they welcome the Georgina Ice to the SPC on Sept. 20. Puck drop is 3:30 p.m.