The Prince Albert Raiders extended their winning ways to three in a row with a 6-3 victory over the Victoria Royals at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre Tuesday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says that Prince Albert played a strong game and took advantage of some Victoria mistakes.
“I thought that we controlled the puck pretty well, especially later on in the first period. Second period,we worked hard and we got some bounces against a team that likes to pounce on those opportunities. Power play did us a big favor with a short handed. Overall, I thought it was a good effort by our guys.”
Jake Poole would open the scoring for the Victoria Royals just 2:38 into the first period as he would collect a rebound and put it past Tikhon Chaika to give the home side an early 1-0 lead. Carter Dereniwsky and Alex Thacker would receive assists on the game’s opening goal.
Victoria’s Luke Rybinski would be sent off with a two minute interference minor penalty at the 5:54 mark of the opening frame and the Raider power play would go to work.
Ryder Ritchie would convert his 13th goal of the season at the 7:16 mark to even the score at 1-. Landon Kosior and Aiden Oiring picked up the helpers on the Raider opening goal.
The Raiders would head to the penalty kill after Justice Christensen would be called for interference at the 15:33 mark of the opening frame.
The penalty kill unit of the Prince Albert Raiders would take advantage of a mistake by the Victoria Royals.
A 3-on-1 break short-handed would give the Raiders the lead as Landon Kosior would bury his 3rd shorthanded goal of the season past Royal netminder Braden Holt to give the Raiders a 2-1 advantage at the 16:16 mark of the first period. Keaton Sorenson and Hayden Pakkala assisted on the play.
Shots favored the homeside Royals 15-12 after 20 minutes of play.
Up by one after 20 minutes, the Raider offense would explode in the third for three goals, all coming from different scorers.
Truitt says that the Raiders were able to force a lot of pucks at Royals netminder Braden Holt.
“I thought we generated a number of different ways. We generated off the rush and in the offensive zone. We had puck possession, moving pucks crisply and getting shots on net against a good goaltender. That’s not easy to do, and I was really happy with the way we got our chances here tonight.”
Raider captain Evan Herman would strike just 3:08 into the second period with his 10th goal of the season to extend the Raider lead to 3-1. Grady Martin would receive the lone assist.
After Cole Peardon forced a turnover in the offensive zone, Harrison Lodewyk would keep the good times rolling as the 17-year-old would strike for his 5th goal of the season at the 13:03 mark to extend the Raider lead to 4-1. Peardon would pick up the lone assist on the play.
Aiden Oiring would execute a give and go on the power play with Keaton Sorenson and he would make no mistake for his 8th goal of the season to extend the Raider lead to 5-1. Sorenson and Kosior would receive assists on the play.
The Oiring goal also chased Royals netminder Braden Holt who stopped 16 of 21 Raider shots he faced. Nicholas Cristiano took over in the Victoria crease for the remainder of the contest
Victoria would cut into the deficit 12:22 into the third period as a Kalem Parker point shot would go through traffic and past Tikhon Chaika to cut the Raider lead to 5-2. Alex Thacker and Teague Patton would receive assists on the goal.
The Royals would close the gap to 5-3 as Matthew Hodson would strike for his 15th goal of the season on the power play. Poole and Parker would receive assists on the goal.
Herman would ice the game for Prince Albert with an empty net goal at the 19:13 mark of the third period.
Tikhon Chaika earned the win in goal stopping 26 of 29 Victoria shots in the contest
Truitt says that the Raiders lost a bit of composure in the third period, and will need to improve on that come Wednesday night in Vancouver.
“It’s just composure. Guys need to settle things down. We need to control the puck when we can to chip pucks out and alleviate their second opportunities. We fluffed on a couple and it comes right back at us. It’s all about composure, we got to improve on those things next game.”
The Raiders return to action on Wednesday night when they travel to the Langley Events Centre to take on the Vancouver Giants. It will be the first time the Raiders have visited Vancouver since the 2019 WHL Final. Pucks drops at 9 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
