The Prince Albert Raiders lost their second game of their three games in three nights Alberta road trip when Ollie Josephson scored an unassisted late goal to win it for the Red Deer Rebels.
Josephson scored on a turnover by the Raiders with 97 seconds left in the game.
Raiders coach Jeff Truitt was proud of the effort from the team.
“Oh my gosh, we played real hard, we played real well. This was a pretty good road game for us, six to three shots on goal after one period. It was a tight checking game, there wasn’t a lot of room, guys were on top of each other, there wasn’t a lot of quality opportunities,” Truitt said,.
The Raiders outshot the Rebels 14-4 in the third period and carried momentum before the game winning goal, Prince Albert outshot the Rebels 27-18 in the game.
The Rebels opened the scoring when Kalen Lind scored just over 12 minutes into the first period from Josephson and Talon Brigley.
Jacob Hoffrogge tied the game with just over two minutes gone in the second period on the power play, Aiden Orring had the assist.
“We come back to 1-1 on a power play and we carried the play. I thought we deserved a much better fate here tonight than what we got. Just an unfortunate mistake at the bad time and they capitalized on it and that’s the difference,” Truitt said.
The Rebels did not score on four power plays in the game and the Raiders were one for three on the power play. Truitt said that he was proud of the way the team played.
“ They played with a lot of heart and a lot of determination here tonight against a good team, a good team that plays a real good structured style just like us and it was just one of those games where one little thing here and there is going to make a difference and it did,” he said.
Max Hilldebrand made 16 saves for the Raiders,
Debden’s Chase Wutzke made 27 saves for the Rebels.
Truitt said that the team is aware that every point is important at this time of year
“The body of work that these guys put in here tonight putting their bodies on the line and playing really well. I feel bad for the guys. I mean this team has got so much heart,” Truitt said.
He explained that they showed heart on Friday night in Edmonton despite a 5-4 loss
“ I really thought after a bad loss these guys they started well, we were in a dog fight and I’m proud of the guys and I know that they are really disappointed not to get the points,” Truitt said.
The Raiders are in Calgary to play the Hitmen on Sunday afternoon, puck drop is 5 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
“We always want to end this thing off in the right way and get the two points that we need to get on a team that is right underneath us, so a lot is going to have to be on the line for tomorrow. It’s going to be another hard game but we have got to find a way to win this,” he said
