Adam Prudhomme
Editor
The Napanee Raiders’ offense was clicking on all cylinders this weekend, pumping out 13 combined goals while picking up a pair of wins.
Friday night at home they cranked out five goals in the third period en route to a 6-4 win over the visiting Port Hope Panthers. They kept the high-octane offense rolling on Sunday when they blasted the Jets 7-3 in Amherstview.
Friday’s win can be filed under the ‘anything can happen in sports’ category.
After Panthers goalie Sam Dingle shutdown the Raiders in a 5-1 victory just six days earlier, this time around he was charged with five goals on 41 shots.
To his credit he was brilliant once again through the first 40 minutes, allowing just one goal to Cameron Krupa at the 12:08 mark of the first period. Port Hope’s Tyler McGarvey had opened the scoring less than a minute earlier.
A quick strike less than two minutes into the second by Isaac Langdon gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead heading into the final intermission. That’s when the Raider offense came to life as Ben Carter, Maverick Labrie and Blake Aylesworth each scored in succession for the Raiders, all within the first 3:20 of the period. Michael Patrick chipped in with another at the midway mark of the frame and Krupa capped off the five-goal stanza with an empty-netter.
Bailey Maracle earned the win with 21 saves on 25 shots.
Napanee stayed hot in their next game, never trailing on the way to their 7-3 road win. Aylesworth, Krupa, Beckett Palmer-Stephen, Patrick and Christos Chronis each scored for Napanee, Palmer-Stephen and Patrick both lighting the lamp twice.
Maracle earned the win with 25 saves. Amherstview’s Alex Chui allowed four goals before being chased in favour of Sam Closs, who coughed up three. Combined they faced 32 pucks.
Napanee will have a light schedule this week with no home games, travelling to Frankford to face the Huskies on Saturday.
From there they’ll have just two regular season games remaining with their final home game set for March 3 against the Campbellford Rebels. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. They’ll wrap up the regular season March 4 with another trip to Frankford.