Recorder & Times Staff
It was a losing weekend to end a winning month for Brockville.
The Braves fell 5-3 to the Raiders in Nepean on Sunday afternoon. Brockville had opened the weekend with a 5-2 loss at home to the league-leading Ottawa Jr. Senators.
Ryan Bonfield’s 30th goal of the season gave the Braves an early lead on a power play 39 seconds into the first period on Sunday, but Jack Hillier responded with a power-play goal of his own to tie the game at 9:30. The Raiders took the lead on another power-play goal, this time from Zach Lefebrve at 18:27.
Caleb Kean evened the score for Brockville at 13:15 of the second. It was his 16th goal of the year. Just over a minute later, Nepean took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Jack Matsukubo.
Bonfield’s second power-play goal of the afternoon made it 3-3 with less than a minute and a half left in the middle frame.
Nicholas Larkin scored the game-winner for the Raiders at 3:48 of the third, and Ryan Liverman added an empty-netter with 49 seconds to go in regulation.
Larkin, Bonfield and Matsukubo were named first, second and third stars.
The Raiders outshot the Braves 41-33. Brandon Abbott made 36 saves for Brockville in the loss. Nathan Loisel picked up the win between the pipes for Nepean.
It’s the first time since late February that the Braves have lost two games in a row. They went 10-4 in March.
With three games to go in the regular season, Brockville (34-16-0-2) remains third overall in the CCHL. The Braves are three points ahead of Renfrew, which has one game in hand.
Nepean’s record is 12-37-2.
Brockville will host Carleton Place on Friday night. The Canadians will not make the playoffs.
The Braves will then play Renfrew at the Memorial Centre on Sunday afternoon.
Bonfield is now tied with Thomas Freel of Ottawa for the league lead with 31 goals and is eighth in points with 57.
In other CCHL action Sunday, Smiths Falls edged Carleton Place 7-6 in a shootout. The Bears are now just two points behind eighth-place Rockland; the Nationals have one game in hand on Smiths Falls.
Original Story at Recorder.ca
