Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Sports
Eight first period goals were more than enough to power the Napanee Raiders to their eighth straight win on Saturday night as they crushed the Rebels 14-1 in Campbellford.
Riley Steeves opened the scoring at the 3:13 mark of the game, igniting a string of five goals in a span of one minute and 12 seconds. Jacob Murphy notched a pair of goals in the first and finished the hat trick in the second. Griffen Conger and Riley Steeves also had a pair of goals while Justynn Steven, Cullen Hinds, Ryan Casselman, Josh Murphy, Devon King, Jake Campbell and Tyler Ignazzitto all had singles. With four assists each, Casselman and Hinds recorded five point nights, as did Steeves with three assists to go with his two goals. Murphy added a helper with his three goal outburst to collect four points.
Nic Nabuurs picked up the win, stopping all eight shots he faced in the first. With a comfortable lead, he gave way to Milroy Connors who made his Raiders debut. He stopped 16 of 17 Rebel shots over the final two periods. The lone goal came 8:41 into the third, when Campbellford’s Jordan Davis converted on the power-play.
The Raiders outshot the home team 61-25 of the night. While the win was Napanee’s eighth in a row, the loss was Campbellford’s ninth straight as they continue to search for their first win of the season. That winless stretch dates back to 2015, as they were held winless all of last year as well.
Friday night at home the Raiders had to work a little harder for the win, edging the Amherstview Jets 3-1.
Casselman got the Raiders on the board first, converting a feed from Brodie Maracle for a 1-0 lead 5:19 after the opening puck drop.
Conger doubled the lead at the 4:28 mark of the second with a power-play goal and Casselman added another at the 16:51 mark, also on the power-play.
Amherstview’s Evan Hunt made things interesting, scoring a power-play just 53 seconds into the third. Nabuurs shut the door from there, finishing the night with 27 saves. Amherstview’s Keegan Paulette was a tough luck loser, stopping 35 pucks. He robbed the Raiders’ snipers on a handful of occasions with a quick glove hand, but couldn’t get much support from his offense.
The wins gave Raiders sole possession of first place, a spot they haven’t seen this late into a season in quite some time. They got some help from the Picton Pirates who pulled off an upset 5-2 win over the Port Hope Panthers on the road Sunday night.
Napanee will look to push their win streak to double digits this weekend when they take on the Gananoque Islanders in a home-and-home series. They’ll welcome the Islanders into the SPC on Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop. On Sunday they hit the road to visit Gananoque with a 7 p.m. game time.
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