For the fifth consecutive home game, the Prince Albert Raiders went to a shootout as they downed the Red Deer Rebels 4-3 at the Art Hauser Centre on Wednesday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt said there was no panic on the team’s bench, despite giving up a two goal lead in the third period.
“Resilience, character, obviously you don’t want to give up a 3 -1 lead. We kind of bowled each other over there and opened up a lane for their player to score. Attitudes were great on the bench. Even when things got tied up, there was no panic or anything like that. We’ve gone through this quite a bit here lately, so it just seemed like they were prepared for it, but it’s good to come over to two points.
An early too many men infraction would cost the Rebels early as the Raider power play would take full advantage of the early chance.
Niall Crocker would tip home his 15th goal of the season at the 3:23 mark of the opening frame. Krzysztof Macias and Sloan Stanick provided the helpers on the play.
Aiden Oiring would find twine for the 12th time this season at the 10:55 mark as he would bury a wrist shot past Rhett Stoesser blocker side. Niall Crocker picked up his second point of the night with a primary helper. Terrell Goldsmith also had an assist on the goal.
Rebel captain Kai Uchacz would bring Red Deer within one at the 18:10 with his 29th goal of the campaign coming on the power play following a double minor against PA’s Aiden Oiring. Kalan Lind and Carson Latimr assisted on the play.
Shots after the first period favored Red Deer 15-9.
The lone goal of the second period would go the way of the Prince Albert Raiders.
Krzysztof Macias would strike for his 16th goal of the season at the 6:52 mark of the middle frame. ‘The Polish Prince’ would receive a feed from Sloan Stanick and made no mistake, doubling the Raider lead at 3-1 after forty minutes. Jacob Hoffrogge also had an assist on the play.
Macias has recorded four of his 16 goals against Red Deer this season, including a hat trick back on October 6 in Red Deer.
Macias says he can’t pick out a particular reason for his success against Red Deer, but he feels comfortable playing against them.
“It’s always like that, that some teams are more comfortable for some players and some teams aren’t. I feel like Red Deer is playing a very aggressive game, they’re very greasy, so I think that might be a good opponent for me and I feel good against them.”
Shots favored Red Deer 33-21 after two periods of play.
Frantisek Formanek would cut the Raider lead to just one with his 12th goal of the campaign at the 9:43 mark of the third period. Kai Uchacz picked up the lone helper on the play.
Kalan Lind would draw the Rebels even with his ninth goal of the season with just 34.2 seconds remaining in the third period to force extra time. Uchacz and Latimer assisted on the play.
Overtime would solve nothing, sending the Raiders to their eighth shootout of the season. Prince Albert had gone 4-3 in games that have gone to a shootout entering play Wednesday.
Max Hildebrand was outstanding between the pipes for Prince Albert, making 43 saves in regulation and stopping two of three Rebel shooters in the shootout.
Truitt credits Hildebrand’s competitive nature for his success in net.
“It’s battle. They get on the net hard. There’s lots of traffic on him, either far away from the net or at the net, he had to control his rebounds and his angles. I thought he did a real good job, especially in the tight areas tonight.”
The Raiders return to action on Friday night when they travel to Moose Jaw to take on the Warriors. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
