A crowd of 300 turned out to the Shawville Arena on Saturday night to watch the 2nd Annual Fish Findlay Classic between the Smiths Falls Bears and the Nepean Raiders. The proceeds from this game are donated to the Shawville Minor Hockey Association. For the 2nd consecutive year the Raiders gave their "home crowd" a victory to celebrate as the Raiders beat the Bears 5-2. The loss is the Bears 3rd consecutive loss.

The 1st period was evenly played with the Raiders taking a 1-0 lead on a goal that Smiths Falls disputed that it never went in the net. The Antoine Belisle goal stood and the period ended 1-0 Nepean as they outshot the Bears 14-13 and Nepean took the only minor penalty.

Belisle scored again at 9:54 of the 2nd period to put Nepean up 2-0. Rookie Marc Shannon (Hamilton ON) surprised Nepean netminder Marshall Frappier with a high backhander at 11:38 for his 7th goal of the season. Kyle Dowdall (Perth ON.) & Kris Lalonde (Almonte ON.) drew the assists. Former Bear Kevin Groulx scored on a breakaway to restore the Nepean 2 goal lead at 14:06. Nepean outshot the Bears 15-8 while the Bears received a single minor penalty during the middle stanza.

Nepean jumped out to a 4-1 lead when Kari Belec beat Brad Dobson (Moose Factory ON) at 8:04 of the 3rd period. Malcolm Arseneau made it 5-1 at 18:27 before Ryan Gibson (Sydenham ON) scored his 5th goal of the year, unassisted, at 19:29 to make the final score 5-2 Smiths Falls took 2 of the 3 penalties handed out in the 3rd period.

Bear Facts

Jared Henry, Tre Folkes, and Matthieu Franche all sat out the game with injuries.

Brett Humberstone (Jasper ON) and Blake Kettyle (Perth ON) of the Wesport Rideaus played their first CCHL games and played well for the Bears in their debuts.

Powerplays    Bears 0-2    Nepean 0-3

Penalty Totals    Bears 6 minutes on 3 infractions    Nepean 4 minutes on 2 infractions

Shots    Bears 33    Nepean 44

Game Length    2:11

Attendance    300

3 Stars

1st Star    Antoine Belisle (Nepean)

2nd Star    Malcolm Arseneau (Nepean)

3rd Star    Ryan Gibson (Bears)

Next Game    The Bears host the Pembroke Lumber Kings on Friday December 9th at the Bears Den in our annual Teddy Bear Toss game. All fans are asked to bring a stuffed toy to the game and throw it on the ice after the 1st Bears goal. All toys will be donated to charity for those fortunate during the holiday season.