The Nepean Raiders failed to take advantage of their power play opportunities and the Hawkesbury Hawks shook off a number of penalties to win, 5-1.
Hawkesbury was paced by Brett Everson, who tallied one goal. Everson scored on the power play 11:00 into the second period to make the score 2-1 Hawkesbury. The Hawks earned a power play opportunity when Martin Lavallee was put in the box for holding stick. Adriano Leone assisted on the tally.
Hawkesbury's penalty box was a popular destination as the team totaled 12 minors and one major for 29 minutes in penalty time. The total exceeded the 20.0 minutes per game the Hawks had been spending in the box. Hawkesbury put up an impenetrable defensive front on the penalty kill, and did not allow Nepean to score on any of its 11 power plays. The Hawks' defensemen played an important role in the offense, chipping in two goals.
Hawkesbury additionally got points from Leone, who also finished with one goal and two assists and Ryan Bunka, who also registered one goal and one assist. Others who scored for Hawkesbury included Damien Charette and Brandon Barillaro, who scored one goal each. In addition, Hawkesbury received assists from Jonathan Cyr, who had two and Charles Levesque and Jonathan Tecce, who contributed one each.
The Raiders managed to stay out of the box for the most part, totaling eight minors and one major for 21 minutes in penalty time. Nepean fell short of the 31.0 minutes average penalties per game. The Raiders did not challenge the opposing netminder, only getting 13 shots on net to force 12 saves.
Nepean was led by Kari Belec, who scored the team's only goal. Belec scored 19:45 into the first period to make the score 1-1. Josh Zizek picked up the assist.
Hawkesbury's James Hack stopped 12 shots out of the 13 that he faced. The Hawks registered two goals on six power play opportunities. For Hawkesbury, Tom Nicholson was ejected from the game. Jack Ondrovic took the loss and made 16 saves before being replaced by Francis Marotte who made six saves. The Raiders ran into serious disciplinary problems during the contest, and Jody Sullivan was ejected from the game.
