Nepean Raider Nation

Overtime heartbreaker for Raiders
Club gives up late tying goal, loses in extra frame
Malcolm MacMillan
A day before they named a new head coach for the remainder of the 2007-2008 season, the Nepean Raiders showed that a shake-up was needed, dropping a 5-4 decision in overtime on Dec. 9.
The Robinson Division-leading Cumberland Grads handed Nepean its second overtime loss of the season, dropping the club’s record to 19-10-2-2.
And though the Raiders record has them just six points behind the league-leading Pembroke Lumber Kings, the next couple weeks will do a lot to dictate in which direction the team is heading.
The Raiders play Pembroke twice before Christmas, and also square off against 22-8-2-0 Brockville and 15-14-1-0 Hawkesbury before the holiday break.
“We just have to continue to stay positive and support each other,” said assistant coach Peter Howes.
Nepean surrendered leads three times against the Grads, who pushed overtime after a late timeout call by head coach Mark Grady. The coach’s set plan caught the Raiders on their heels, and Grads leading scorer Jason Akeson buried a shot between Nepean’s Darren MacDonald and the post on the short side.
Thirteen seconds into overtime, Akeson’s line clicked again. Eric O’Dell fired a shot along the ice that eluded MacDonald and beat the goalie through the legs.
“They’re a good team,” Howes said of Cumberland, “but I thought we deserved a better fate for the way we competed.”
At times, the Raiders execution was flawless: finishing checks, capitalizing on chances around Grads goalie Matt Fiander and firing from all angles. Other times, Nepean failed to get the puck out of its own end and left Cumberland attackers alone in the slot.
The Grads first and second goals came as a result of Nepean players letting Grads shooters get open. The last three goals were shots that MacDonald probably would want to have back.
Things weren’t helped from the get-go, as the Raiders dressed only 10 forwards and five defencemen. Each of the team’s affiliated players had games with their regular teams and could not dress for Nepean.
The bench got even shorter midway through the first period when winger Stephen Miles was forced out of the game after re-aggravating an upper-body injury.
Forwards Shane Bakker and Ben Sexton, as well as defencemen Greg Eskedjian and Scott Dawson were all sidelined with a variety of long- and short-term ailments.
“The injuries are to some of our energy players who help put us over the top,” said Howes.
As is the case most of the time, the Nepean offence was clicking.
Stephen Miles picked up his seventh goal of the season, a hard-working score, by swiping at a loose puck to the right of Fiander. After Cumberland tied the score, Nepean’s Stephen Mele banged home the puck from point-blank range. And later, with the score 3-2 in favour of the Grads, the Raiders responded twice in a six-minute span.
Captain Andrew Mather won a battle on the side boards and blasted a shot past Fiander, then after Mather got knocked off the puck, Emmond Bell pounced on the disc and beat Fiander from the circle.

NEWS AND NOTES
* Winger Brandon Edge returned to action last week with a full cage after being cut for more than a dozen stitches in a game against Kanata. Edge suffered a high stick that clipped him under the eye and on the eyelid. The infraction went uncalled.
* Newly acquired forward Jeff Christison brought plenty of energy to the ice on Sunday, throwing a thunderous, open-ice body check early in the game to set a physical tone for Nepean. Corey Domenico was again one of the Raiders top hitters in the contest.