Photo: Napanee Raiders forward Brandon Major battles with Campbellford Rebels defenceman Ethan Perry in front of the Rebels net as goaltender Tyler Freeman makes a save in Tuesday night action in Napanee. Freeman's 53 saves stole a very important 3-2 win for the Rebels in one of the more impressive goaltending performances in the Empire B Jr. C league this season.

Photo by Mark Ormond

Story by Brock Ormond

It was the Tyler Freeman show on a chilly Tuesday night in Napanee, as the Rebels goaltender turned aside 53 shots in the Campbellford Rebels 3-2 win over the Napanee Raiders. 

Freeman was brilliant all night long, stopping a seemingly endless  barrage of shots from the Raiders, including a 27 shot stream in the second period. The Rebels also got assistance from leading scorer Jeremiah Doherty, who notched a pair of goals for his team, including the game winner in the third.

The first frame saw no goals scored, but some intense physical play, with hits being thrown all over the rink by both teams. Both teams played evenly, and Freeman went toe-to-toe with the Raiders newly acquired goaltender Matt Loveys in the nets. Shots  favoured Napanee 13-10.

The second period saw some pucks go into the back of the net for both teams. Napanee opened the scoring 2:35 into the frame on a Riley Steeves backhand goal for his 12th of the season. Zach Knapp-Hermer and Jordon Cannons earned assists on the goal for their hard work. Campbellford answered back with a pair of their own markers over three minutes apart. First, Ethan McDougall sniped a high shot over Loveys’ glove hand on a powerplay with Chris Rogalsky of the Raiders in the box for interference. Doherty followed that up by converting on a beautiful backdoor feed from Nick Julian to give the Rebels the lead heading into the third. Napanee pelted their aforementioned 27 shots on Freeman to the Rebels 11. 

In the third, a questionable knee-on-knee collision between a Rebel player and Aidan McFarland led to a retaliation penalty called on Riley West after he stepped in to defend his 16 year old teammate. Doherty notched his second goal of the night for the eventual game winner on the ensuing powerplay, snapping a high hard shot over Loveys’ left shoulder. Cannons would then cut the deficit back to one with 3:48 left to play on a highlight reel end-to-end rush, finishing it off with a snap shot bar and in over Freeman’s right shoulder. Loveys would end up drawing the only assist on Cannons’ 10th goal of the season. Unfortunately for the Raiders though, that would be as close as they would get, despite a frantic late push for the tying goal. 

The Rebels made the most of their three powerplays, scoring on two of them, while Napanee went 0-for-2.

Campbellford improves to 8-20-1 with the victory and Napanee drops to 18-7-4 with the loss in their first home tilt of 2016. The Raiders will head to Port Hope on Saturday to battle with the Panthers before hosting Gananoque next Tuesday in their next game at the Strathcona Paper Centre.