The Swift Current Broncos (1-3-0-0) managed to weather the storm in the third period to hold onto a 5-4 win over the Prince Albert Raiders (1-2-1-0) on Saturday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says Prince Albert didn’t have the consistency needed to win.
“We’re up 3-1 after one, a good road period. They scored with something like two and a half minutes left and they kind of fed off it. The second period, there was just a lot of bleeding going on and we just missed coverages. They were loose on everything, they hit all their passes. We put Hildebrand in and we came out and dug in and outshot them 17-1 and pulled within one. You can’t be up and down in this league. There’s too many good players but you can’t be up and down again in this league.”
Aiden Oiring would open the scoring at the 5:04 mark with an unassisted goal on a breakaway, beating Joey Rocha blocker side.
Tomas Mrsic would double the Prince Albert lead at the 11:37 mark with his first goal as a Raider since being acquired in an offseason blockbuster trade with Medicine Hat. Oiring and Lukas Dragicevic assisted on the play.
Swift Current would respond at the 17:39 mark as Dawson Gerwing would pick up his first goal of the season. Connor Gabriel would be credited with the lone assist.
It wouldn’t take long for the Raiders to respond as Tyrone Sobry would rip home a wrist shot at the 19:08 mark from just below the left circle for his first goal of the season. Mrsic and Oiring picked up the helpers.
Shots favoured Swift Current 10-9 after the opening frame.
A power play goal off the tape of Brady Birnie would cut the Raider lead to just one.at the 8:23 of the middle frame. The 19-year-old would redirect a pass from just outside the crease past Cooper Anderson for his first goal of the season. Clarke Caswell and Peyton Kettles assisted on the play.
Less than a minute later, Eric Johnston would strike against his former team for his first goal of the season to tie the game.. Dawson Gerwing and Ty Coupland provided the helpers.
Connor Gabriel would give the Broncos their first lead of the night at the 16:34 mark as he beat Anderson with a wraparound for his first goal of the campaign. Gerwing and Adam Kral assisted on the play.
27 seconds later, Birnie would strike with his second goal of the night. Luke Mistelbacher and Clarke Caswell assisted on the play.
After the play, Birnie would be given a 10 minute misconduct for directing words towards Cooper Anderson after scoring the goal.
Swift Current outshot the Raiders 12-5 in the middle frame.
Cooper Anderson was relieved in net after the second period, but Truitt says he still has plenty of faith in the young goaltender.
“I certainly didn’t mind him in the first period, there was shots coming and puck were bounding off him a little bit with the rebound control. Our guys did a pretty good job in front of him typing up people. In the second period, they seemed to catch fire with a lot of speed and open plays. Talking with him between periods, he was fine, he wasn’t down or anything. We just told him that we wanted to get Hilty (Max Hildebrand) in and change the momentum a little bit and go from there. He’ll learn from it and he’s going to only get better and better as we move along.”
Justice Christensen would pull Prince Albert within one at the 7:06 mark of the third period. The play would be reviewed as contact was made between Christensen and Broncos netminder Joey Rocha, but the call on the ice of a good goal would stand. Niall Crocker and Jonah Sivertson picked up the helpers.
That would be as close as the Raiders would get as Joey Rocha would made 16 saves in the third period to hold Prince Albert at bay.
After outshooting Swift Current 17-1 in the final frame, Truitt says Prince Albert did a good job of showing what the team was made of in the third period.
“We seem to be able to put third periods together but the push had to be on and the accountability. We changed up some line combinations and things like that but it’s just kind of a reset and a total reset after the second period. We had to come out and show our colors and I thought that we did a great job of that but inconsistent play is no good in this league.”
Rocha made 27 saves in the game to earn the win for Swift Current. Cooper Anderson would make 18 stops for Prince Albert, while Max Hildebrand was only tested once in relief.
The Raiders return to action next Friday when they welcome the Everett Silvertips to the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
Around The WHL
Edmonton defeated Calgary 4-1 in their home opener.
Jayden Kraus made 41 stops and Nate Misskey had two points as the Victoria Royals took home a 5-2 road win in Kamloops.
A late power play goal by Rowan Calvert helped the Saskatoon Blades edge the Brandon Wheat Kings 4-3.
Nishaan Parmar was the overtime hero as the Seattle Thunderbirds defeated the Wenatchee Wild 5-4.
