The Prince Albert Raiders never trailed once on route to a 6-1 win over the Swift Current Broncos at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday night.
The Raiders would strike twice in the opening frame to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, the opposite of what happened on Wednesday night against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says he was pleased with the way Prince Albert came out of the starting blocks on Friday.
“Against Medicine Hat in that first period, I thought that we were a little bit slow standing around and things like that. We had to get going right off the hop and generate two goals out of it. That’s a period that you win and you just keep the momentum going. I thought our guys were real sharp and hungry, especially in the third period. They really solidified the win here.”
Lukas Dragicevic would open the scoring at the 4:01 mark of the opening frame as the Seattle Kraken prospect wired home his 13th goal of the season at the 4:01 mark. Ethan Bibeau and Dayce Derkatch provided the helpers.
In the dying seconds of the opening frame, Niall Crocker would score his 150th point in the WHL with a power play goal at the 19:54 mark. The 20-year-old forward would put home a rebound for his 21st goal of the campaign. Tomas Mrsic and Dragicevic had the helpers.
Swift Current would pull within one at the 13:43 mark as Carlin Dezainde would pick up his 26th goal of the season. Rylan Gould had the lone helper.
The Broncos would have a good look at tying the game later in the middle frame after the Raiders took a pair of penalties less than twenty seconds apart. Max Hildebrand was called for a slash and Justice Christensen was given a cross checking minor.
The Raiders would be able to successfully kill off the extended 5-on-3. Truitt says he wasn’t thrilled with the Prince Albert discipline at the moment in the game.
“You can’t take silly penalties at this time of the season behind the play slash and then on the penalty kill, taking that penalty. It puts you down five on three for an extended period of time. You can’t make those mistakes right now. Even though we killed that one, usually a five on three percentages go up. I thought we put ourselves in a real bad position there. The ebbs and flows go, but that was a real opportunity for them. I’ll give our guys a lot of credit. We bailed out a couple of our teammates there.”
The Raider offence would explode in the third period with four goals. Tomas Mrsic’s 31st of the season at the 5:56 mark gave the Raiders an insurance goal. Brayden Dube had the lone assist.
Brayden Dube would tip home his 24th goal of the season at the 8:42 mark on the power play. Mrsic and Dragicevic provided the helpers.
Justice Christensen would add a pair of goals late, one at even strength and one on the power play.
When asked what lead to the offensive explosion in the third, Truitt says the Raiders would be able to keep their speed going on their zone entries.
“We got clogged up an awful lot in the second period at the blue lines. We didn’t get our speed going into the offensive zone. I thought we did a lot better job of that, not stalling our speed. We won the battles on the blue line, kept things going north. I think that feeds into our game real well.
Max Hildebrand made 31 stops to earn the win for the Raiders. Joey Rocha made 33 saves for the Broncos.
Subhead: Around The WHL
Shane Smith had the overtime winner as Lethbridge pulled off a 6-5 comeback over Regina
35 stops for Logan Edmonstone led Kamloops past Kelowna 3-1.
Josh Zakreski was the overtime hero as Portland forged the comeback trail to knock off Wenatchee 6-5.
Six different goal scorers lifted Saskatoon past Calgary 6-3
25 saves for Chase Wutzke powered Red Deer past Edmonton 3-1
Raiden LeGall had 27 saves as Everett defeated Prince George 3-1
MArcus Nguyen scored twice and Nolan Flamand had three helpers as Brandon knocked off Moose Jaw 6-3.
Melfort’s Nate Misskey recorded two helpers as Victoria defeated Vancouver 5-2.
Cruz Pavao and Savin Virk scored in the shootout for Tri-City as they knocked off Spokane 5-4 on home ice.
