Napanee wins East title, pushes semi-final to seven games

NAPANEE – 2024-2025 will be remembered as a banner season for the Napanee Raiders as they played into May, but ultimately came up just short of a Schmalz Cup final berth.

After sweeping the rival Clarington Eagles in four games to win the PJHL East Conference crown, the Raiders pushed the Hanover Barons to seven games before bowing out.

Opening the conference final on home ice April 4  due to the Tod Division winning the all-star game this year, the Raiders staked a three-goal lead through two periods off the sticks of Alex Case, Michael Patrick and Ethan Boutilier before Clarington could reply with a late power play goal from Owen White. Logan Vale turned aside 27 of 28 shots and was named first star in a 3-1 victory.

Game 2 followed a similar pattern in Clarington as Napanee got goals from Christos Chronis, Case, and Trent Williams to lead 3-0 after two. Mitch Davies broke Vale’s shutout in the third, but again the Napanee goalie stood tall, stopping 32 shots in a 3-1 decision.

Andrew Carr decided the closest game of the quarterfinal Tuesday, April 8 in Napanee as he stickhandled in front and beat Braeden Davis on the power play 11:17 into the second overtime. It was his second goal of the game.  Blake Aylesworth also scored.   Clarington outshot the Raiders 46-36, but again Vale held strong.  Eagles Brayden Hicks and Davies sawed off the Napanee goals as all the scoring until overtime came in the second.

Chronis and Carr would each score a pair of goals in Game 4 in Clarington. Matthew Airport also got a goal in the 5-2 decision, while Davies and Hicks replied for the Eagles in a 5-2 in Napanee win.  A jubilant road crowd celebrated with Napanee as they unfurled their first conference championship since 2019.

The semi-finals started busily with the Raiders and Barons playing back-to-back contests on four-and-a-half-hour trips going into Easter weekend.  Though Napanee won the flip for home ice, they started on the road in Hanover Thursday, April 17.

The contest started with Erik MacNiel finding Isaac Brown open across ice to score 70 seconds in.  Napanee also had the only goal of the second period with Andrew Carr finding Ben White in front of the net for a tiip-in.  Trent Williams added a third from a steep angle in the first half of the third, a goal Hanover captain Ryan Colquhoun responded to late.

Again, Vale was a big story in a 3-1 victory, turning aside 35 stops, some from point-blank range.

The following night in Napanee, the Barons showed they had more in the tank with three third-period goals in a 5-2 win. Alex McGillvray had two of those tallies, including one into the empty net. Danny Scott had the other.

Hanover also opened the scoring with goals from Jaden Shiell and Aaron Dukeshire early in the second.  Patrick battled back with a pair of his own to even the score going into the final stanza. The Barons’ Derek Hartley made some big stops at key times before his team could take control.

The Raiders found themselves in some trouble going into Game 3, which was also at home. A video review forced Brown out of the series for two games for a head contact major for a hit on Dukeshire while killing a Game 2 penalty. They’d also be without Coach Ben Hagerman who was assessed a gross misconduct for taunting the Hanover staff about the review prior to the first period.

The Barons’ Mark Macintosh struck first in a tight-checking affair on Easter Sunday, finding the cage 13:17 into the second.  That’s where the game stood for some time until a Baron was whistled for a penalty shot for pulling the puck under his body with his hand in the crease area.  Captain Ben White moved from right to left to beat Hartly and tie with 3:06 left in regulation time.

White ultimately was the hero in overtime as he broke into the offensive zone and took a feed from Patrick.  He got just enough on the puck to beat Hartley toward the right post 11:15 into the extra frame, giving Napanee a 2-1 win and series lead.

After four days off, the series shifted to Hanover for Game 4.  Carr put the Raiders ahead early in the second after Aylesworth and Baron Erick Gulutzen traded first period goals, but the veteran Barons notched four consecutive goals for a 5-2 decision.  Sam Barrett knotted it for the home side with seven minutes left in the second and Kyle Maloney struck a big blow, giving his team a go-ahead with five seconds left.  McIntosh struck on a power play 8:30 into the third to deflate Napanee’s pressure to tie and Maloney added another for good measure to tie the series.

Back in Napanee two days later, the Raiders got the extra bounce in a back-and-forth first period as White, Airhart and Aylesworth tallied to offset two by Drayton Howell and McIntosh.  The game would flip to Hanover’s favour, however, with 16-year-old call-up Coen Galbraith benefitting from playing with vets Maloney and McIntosh to score twice in the second period.

With the Raiders almost looking down-and-out, they found some extra life with Vale pulled late in the contest. Carter Hartwick snuck from his spot on the point to a net-front scramble and beat Hartley with 1:03 left to send the game into overtime.

It would be a quick decision for Napanee as Patrick camped to the left of the net and tipped a MacNiel point shot downward into an open cage just 19 seconds into overtime.  That win gave the Raiders two opportunities to advance to the Schmalz final.

Game 6 saw MacNiel and McIntosh trade first-period goals before the Raiders had a tough road second period. Curtis Arnold, McIntosh, and Colquhoun tallied in the second stanza, the last goal with just one second left, leaving a daunting 4-1 lead.

The Raiders made the game interesting with Carr and Patrick scoring within the last three minutes. Carr’s goal came on a power play. Just 18 seconds after Patrick’s goal, with Napanee pressing around the Hanover net, Chronis got a head-contact penalty that tempered the attack.  Napanee thought it might get an offensive zone face-off late off a potential icing call but it was waved off, leaving them out of time to tie.

The teams were scoreless through 20 minutes of Game 7, but MacNiel got the gate for a slashing call at the 20-minute mark. McIntosh bulled his way to the net to score just 40 seconds into the second and later set up Maloney for a 2-0 lead.  Aylesworth would bring the Raiders within one before the break.

In the third, McIntosh again proved lethal with the man advantage scoring his 23rd of the post-season seven minutes in for a 3-1 lead. Less than a minute later, however, as he’d done often in these playoffs, Williams put the puck on net quickly from the corner to score and give the Raiders’ new life.

Colquhoun dashed that optimism 13:05 in as he stole the puck from a Napanee defender and went in alone to score unassisted. Hanover got an empty netter from Barrett with 1:24 to play – assisted by Maloney and McIntosh – as thy dashed Napanee’s Schmalz Cup dreams.

The Napanee Raiders organization is grateful for its fans, sponsors, and volunteers for their endless support this offseason.  We also owe tremendous gratitude to this group of players that bought into the program and gave their all to achieve success.  With preseason, regular season and playoffs, they played 73 games this year. They won 55 and earned a Tod Division championship, PJHL East championship, and semi-final berth.

Stay tuned for more stories in the coming days, including tributes to graduating overagers.