Raiders perfect in opening weekend with pair of wins

 

A dialed-in effort from Jacob Brown Friday allowed the Napanee Raiders to weather an early onslaught Friday and find their legs to skate to wins over the Amherstview Jets 4-1 and Port Hope Panthers 7-0 on opening weekend.

The visiting Jets hurled 19 of their 39 shots at Brown in the first stanza and the veteran was up to the task in stopping all of them. At the other end, Trent Williams got the Raiders going with a one-timer from the slot just 4:14 into the new season. Andrew Carr and Luke Jarmin notched the assists.

Napanee started controlling the balance of the play in the second period.  Captain Reid Lambert gave his team some breathing room with a hustle play early in the second, darting in following a Jackson Barnes break to chip a rebound into the cage above goaltender Tyson Wilcox’s shoulder 7:07 in.   Then, newcomer Ryan McGee struck a dagger into Amherstview’s comeback hopes, unloading a heavy shot to capitalize on a pretty passing play from Carr and Williams to make it 3-0 just before the second-period buzzer sounded.

The third-period saw the Jets pull their goaltender on a four-on-three advantage to give them two extra skaters. They swarmed Brown’s crease with overager Ryland Willers breaking the shutout with 4:30 left.  The visitors would try with the extra attacker again, on and off, but the balance tipped Napanee’s way as Michael Kanellos sprung Williams on a clean break for an empty-netter with just 35 seconds left.

Some 506 fans took in the opener between the Lennox and Addington County rivals.

In Port Hope, Saturday, the Raiders were hoping to get some additional scoring with Carr-Williams-McGee line handling the bulk of the offence in Game 1.  Veteran Spencer Cranley would answer the call.  He notched a hat trick and added one assist, tallying a beautiful breakaway goal in the second period and two in the third (including Napanee’s first power play marker of the season).

Barnes opened the scoring with a laser point shot off a Cranley set up 6:37 into the game, while McGee, Lambert, and Williams all found the net for the second time in as many nights.  Jay Dalgleish turned in his first multiple-point game, making strong clearing plays to spring Cranley and Lambert in the second.  Underager Ben Kerr also had his first junior point with an assist.

While Denholm Blair wasn’t nearly as busy as Brown, seeing only 14 shots behind a stingy defence, he came up with some point-blank saves that kept the Panthers off the board early.  He was sharp when tested in a shutout effort that also saw him record an assist.

The Raiders will return home this Friday to face the Picton Pirates, who will play their first regular season game after an off-season move that saw them add top forwards Jakob Gardiner and Keenan Wiles from Frankford. The puck drops at 7:30.  Saturday, they’ll be in Frankford to face a Huskies team now under the guidance of former Raiders assistant coach Mat Goody. Start time is 7.