By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Noah Westwater scored twice in the third period as the Napanee Raiders stayed alive in their Provincial Junior Hockey League playoff series against the Port Hope Panthers with a 4-2 win Sunday night.
Westwater’s power-play goal midway through the final frame snapped a 2-2 tie and gave the Raiders a lead for the first time in the series with a crowd of nearly 700 spectators on hand for Game 4 at the Jack Burger Sports Complex in Port Hope. He added an empty-net goal as the buzzer sounded on the Napanee victory.
Port Hope, which had a chance to sweep the series, still leads the best-of-seven Tod Division semifinal 3-1 and will head to Napanee for Game 5 on Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m.
Port Hope and Napanee traded goals in each of the first two periods. The Panthers led 1-0 and 2-1 with the Raiders answering back shortly after each time.
Isaac Langdon opened the scoring for Port Hope on a power-play just 1:28 into the contest before Christos Chronis replied during a Napanee man-advantage opportunity just under five minutes in.
Carter Clarke restored the Panthers lead 14 minutes into the second. Ben Carter knotted the score again less than three minutes later with his goal for the Raiders.
Napanee’s Bailey Maracle was the busier of the two goaltenders on the night and made 44 saves in the win to send the series back to Napanee on Wednesday.
If necessary, Game 6 is scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. in Port Hope.
