When in doubt, just throw it on the net, because you never know.
Prince Albert Raiders forward Brayden Dube proved the old overtime adage correct on Friday with one of the stranger game-winning goals in league history. The Raider overager fired a wrist shot from the point that deflected up in the air and over Seattle Thunderbird goalie Marek Sklenicka before bouncing into the back of the net 3:31 into the extra period.
The goal gave Prince Albert a 5-4 overtime victory at the ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington, and five wins in six games on their western road trip.
“That’s why you shoot the puck,” Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald said after the game. “You never know what can happen.”
Dube’s goal came after the Raiders spent large chunks of the overtime period cautiously prodding the Seattle defence. Prince Albert hung on to the puck for most of the extra frame, with several players choosing to stickhandle back out to centre ice and change instead of forcing a shot on goal.
When the shot finally came, the Raiders were rewarded.
“Overtime’s a game of possession,” McDonald said. “You want to try to out-change your opposition and Dubes does a great job. He’s rolling over the top. You’ve got a guy (Sklenicka) who has some traffic come through his vision, and Dubes slings that puck to the net.”
Dube’s overtime winner against his old team almost never happened. For the second game in a row, the Raiders found themselves trailing in the third period, only to come roaring back.
On Friday, it was forward Aiden Oiring performing the third period heroics. He tipped in a Linden Burrett point shot with 1:09 remaining to tie the game after Seattle had scored two third period goals to take a 4-3 lead.
“(It was) a real gutsy win by our group,” McDonald said. “Our guys play hard until the end, and just found a way, just continued to play behind, continued to play north.
“That last almost two minutes there we were just all over (Seattle) in the O-zone and willed that puck to the front of the net and put it in. Our effort is absolutely tremendous and (I) just couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
Sklenicka finished with 26 saves in the Seattle goal. His counterpart at the other end, Dimitri Fortin, had a shaky start, giving up a tough goal from a bad angle to Thunderbirds centre Coster Dunn in the first. The Winnipeg product rebounded to make 40 saves, including a pair of sprawling pad saves midway through the second period.
The Raiders did most of their damage in the second, firing 14 shots on the Thunderbird goal and scoring three times to take a 3-2 lead. It was a welcome recovery after a tough opening period, where they were outshot 14-4 and trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes.
It was the second game in a row the Raiders came back from a 2-0 deficit. On Wednesday, the Portland Winterhawks led 2-0 before Prince Albert bounced back with four third period goals in a 4-2 win.
While it wasn’t the way he preferred to start the game, McDonald credited his team for weathering the storm on both occasions.
“We know teams are going to push against us,” he said. “We know teams are going to throw everything they can (at us)…. Ideally you always want to start with the lead, but give our guys a tonne of credit. Whatever the score is, they just continue to keep working, they continue to keep playing north, and they continue to keep grinding.”
News and Notes:
• Oiring’s late third period goal was his second of the night. He also beat Sklenicka blocker side for Prince Albert’s first goal just 59 seconds into the second period.
• Daxon Rudolph tied the game at two on the power play exactly three minutes after Oiring’s first goal. It was Rudolph’s third power play goal of the season. That ties him with Dube for the team lead.
• Jackson Kostiuk had the other second period goal for Prince Albert. The St. Paul, Man. product showed off his hand-eye coordination, batting a rebound out of mid-air and into the net to give the Raiders a 3-2 lead.
• The Thunderbird power play was extremely effective on Friday. Seattle 2024 first round pick Brock England opened the scoring with the man advantage at 11:18 of the first period. The T-Birds added a second power play goal midway through the third, when Sawyer Mayes scored just five seconds after Bennet Kelly was sent off for roughing.
• Antonio Martorana had the other goal for Seattle. The Edmonton product knotched his fourth goal in three games when he blasted a one-timer past a screened Fortin 4:40 into the third period.
• The Raiders end their road trip on Saturday when they take on the Wenatchee Wild on Saturday. Puck drop is 8 p.m. CST.
