First-round exit signals quiet end to tumultuous season
Raiders lose in six games to Brockville
Malcolm MacMillan
Less than 24 hours after their season came to an end, the Nepean Raiders met one last time as a team, cleaned out their dressing room stalls and began their off-season with snow still on the ground.
It’s the first time in almost a decade the team’s players haven’t walked away from the rink for the last time wearing short and T-shirts.
The Central Junior Hockey League team’s 2007-2008 campaign ended prematurely short of a sixth-straight championship series berth after the Raiders lost 4-3 in overtime in the deciding sixth game of their best-of-seven playoff series with Brockville on March 20.
“It’s different coming to the rink in March and having to pack our stuff up,” said captain Andrew Mather, who has graduated after five standout seasons as a Raider. “This usually happens at the end of April.”
After falling behind two games to none, then battling back to win games three and four with little resistance from a hot-and-cold Braves team, Nepean dropped game five on the road 4-3 before a goal by Brockville’s Mike Byrd only 1:25 into overtime in game six sunk them for good. Though the Raiders led 2-1 in the first after a fluky goal by Emmond Bell and a well-placed slapshot by Bryan Potts, the Braves caught up and both squads traded third-period goals before the extra frame.
Byrd’s goal that sent his squad to a second-round berth with Smiths Falls signaled as ugly an end to a season as could be possible. Raiders goalie Darren MacDonald turned aside a couple Braves shots during a goalmouth scramble, but the team couldn’t clear the rebound. As the Nepean skaters threw themselves to the ice in and around the crease, Braves shooters banged away at the puck. The puck wasn’t covered, nor was the net knocked askew. Finally, though the top half of the cage beckoned, Byrd slid the puck along the ice through a mass of bodies. Game over.
“I hope everyone remembers this [losing] feeling,” said disappointed defenceman Brad Barber who will lead a young d-corps next season. “We have some unfinished business next year.”
Though the series didn’t last the seven games that many around the league thought it might, it was close from start to finish. So close, in fact, that Nepean outscored Brockville 23-22 in six games.
“The boys competed hard over the whole series, but the breaks just didn’t come to us,” said Raiders head coach Gerard Cowie. “I told them they deserved to win [game six] but it just didn’t work out that way.”
The first-round exit is the culmination of a season that was trying at times. Cowie offered stability behind the bench, but was the third head coach of the 60-game season. Archie Mulligan was with the team less than two months before resigning for another position, and interim replacement Alex Armstrong was canned after a 10-game trial run. After Armstrong’s departure, the Raiders went a half-dozen games before inking Cowie.
“Hopefully with Gerard back next year we’ll get a better start than we did this year,” said winger David Gervais. “It was a rollercoaster year. Lots of ups and downs.”
For Mather, it’s the fact that the club still made the playoffs and competed against a tough team against the odds that’s a testament to the team’s character.
“We went through a lot of highs and lows, and a lot of people didn’t give us a chance of being a decent team,” said Mather. “We proved them wrong, and that’s something to be proud of. Not many teams could go through what we went through and still stick together.”
The Raiders posted a regular-season record of 32-23-3-2, good for just the fifth-best record in the CJHL. Those stats, however, were padded by 10 wins in the their first 15 games. After Christmas, Nepean was a .500 club, winning just 12 out of 24 games.
The struggles were a departure to Mather and centre Emmond Bell, who’ve known nothing but winning since beginning Jr. A.
“We’ve never lost in the first round since I was here,” said Bell. “This is not the best feeling, but you don’t always end up on top.” Bell and Mather were the last remaining members of Nepean’s 2003-2004 CJHL championship.
Next year, it will be up to players such as Barber and Gervais to fill the void left by the graduates. It’s an opportunity both players relish.
“A lot of quality guys are leaving, which will make it hard, but we always seem to bring in talented players,” said Barber. “We have a chance to step up and do a lot of great things.”
One of those talented imports this season was New Liskeard’s Tavis Holden, who was one of the club’s top forwards until Christmas but was hampered by ankle and knee ailments in 2008, and notched just two points in his last 11 regular-season games.
“I enjoyed my first year,” he said. “I had a quick start but slowed down. I’ll definitely be back. We have a lot of young talent and we’ll be a contender next year.”
MacDonald, who replaced departed starter Zach Grasley in November, is anxious to get a full CJHL season under his belt.
“I loved it here,” he said. “I wish I’d been here from the start. I’ll definitely be back.”
Despite the obstacles for his club this season, Cowie is proud of how the Raiders responded.
“They just kept plugging away. They’re good hockey players and good men,” he said. “And that’s important as they move forward to tomorrow.”

Raiders fall in six
Club loses OT heartbreaker
Malcolm MacMillan
The Nepean Raiders 2007-2008 CJHL campaign came to a premature end Thursday night, thanks to a 4-3 overtime loss at the hands of the Brockville Braves.
After a season full of ups and downs, and an exciting opening round of the playoffs, Nepean was unable to rebound against Brockville, even after winning games three and four convincingly.
Keep checking this blog throughout the next couple weeks as I'll have stories about the season, an outlook for next season and more photos and videos.
Congratulations to the Nepean Raiders for an exciting season.