Christmas came early for the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday.
The 2026 Memorial Cup host Kelowna Rockets sent the Raiders into the holiday break on a high note, gifting Prince Albert nine power play opportunities in a penalty filled 8-3 Raider win at the Art Hauser Centre.
“You’ve got to be a disciplined team if you want to go far in this league,” said forward Aiden Oiring who scored one of Prince Albert’s five power play goals. “That’s a good game for us to practice that. We might see these guys again in the future. You never know.”
Owen Hayden’s high-sticking penalty a little over three minutes into the first period was a harbinger of things to come. The Raiders already led 1-0 thanks to a Linden Burrett goal 1:18 into the first when Hayden went to the box. Roughly a minute later, Justice Christensen hammered a one-timer past Kelowna starting goalie Harrison Boettiger for a 2-0 lead.
It was Christensen’s third power play goal of the season, and the start of a dominant night for the Prince Albert special teams.
“I just really liked our puck movement,” Raiders coach Ryan McDonald said when asked about the success with the extra man. “We created some fantastic looks. We created those opportunities, but capitalized on those chances. Guys put the puck to the net hard and we went to the net hard (and) recovered plays well.”
Several Raiders benefited from the Kelowna penalty-parade, by none moreso than new trade acquisition Brandon Gorzynski. Playing in just his second game after being picked up from Calgary, Gorzynski torched the Rockets for three goals and two assists. Four of those five points came on the power play.
After the game, the 6’2, 190 pound winger from Scottsdale, Arizona credited his teammates for the strong showing.
“They made it pretty fun,” Gorzynski said with a grin. “It’s pretty easy when you have guys like that to play with. It was a fun game to play.”
With Rockets defenceman Mazden Leslie in the box for cross-checking, Gorzynski beat Boettiger over the shoulder from the bottom of the face-off circle to give Prince Albert a 3-0 first period lead.
In the second, he stickhandled into the slot and flipped a back-hand into the top left-hand corner. The early second period goal gave the Raiders a 5-1 lead, and chased Boettiger from the Kelowan crease.
In the third, he took a Daxon Rudolph pass and wired a wrist shot into the top left-hand corner for this third of the night. Gorzynski and his new teammates celebrated by the bench while the officiating crew cleaned up roughly a dozen hats that came tumbling onto the ice.
“He plays hard,” McDonald said when asked about Gorzynski. “He leans on guys. He has a tremendous shot. You saw that one from the goal line on a half-wall board side cycle on the power play where he tucks it short-side shelf. (I’m) just really happy to see him get rewarded there with that third one and again, just really happy with his body of work since he’s been here.”
The combination of Oiring and Gorzynski paid plenty of dividends. Oiring assisted on all of Gorzynski’s goals, while Gorzynski drew the primary assist on Oiring’s third period power play marker.
Both players were pleasantly surprised with the results.
“Me and AO haven’t played much together, haven’t even practiced together, and we found each other a few times out there,” Gorzynski said. “It was kind of refreshing, and just exciting for the future.”
“We found each other down-low and (found) new plays where we’re not trying to force them,” Oiring added. “We’re just taking what they’re giving us and it’s working out.”
There was just one blemish on Gorzynski’s home debut: a whiffed second period pass that ended up on Dawson Gerwing’s stick. The big left winger from Meadow Lake wasted no time firing the puck over Prince Albert starter Dimitri Fortin’s shoulder with 3:30 to play in the second period.
It was the Rockets’ last goal of the game. The third period turned chippy, with both teams combining for more than 60 minutes in penalties. The Raiders continued their dominance in the third, firing 19 shots on Kelowna back-up Josh Banini, and scoring two more power play goals for a convincing 8-3 win.
“I think that’s what happens when you’re frustrated,” Gorzynski said. “They were frustrated and we kind of just let them do that. We’ll just score on you on the power play.”
News and Notes:
• Dimitri Fortin made 37 saves in the Prince Albert goal, 17 of which came in a busy second period. Fortin stopped Carson Wetsch on a breakaway midway through the second, then stopped Jaxon Kehrig on a 2-on-0 break not long after. Fortin then made a sprawling pad save on Levi Benson, who found himself all alone with the puck in the slot seconds before the buzzer sounded.
• The Raiders struck twice in the third period, but things could have been much worse if it wasn’t for Banini’s efforts. The Kelowna stopper’s biggest save came on defenceman Brock Cripps, who almost had the goal of the year. Cripps stickhandled passed three Rockets and around the goal, but Banini denied him with a sliding toe save on the attempted wrap-around.
• Riley Boychuk scored the third of Prince Albert’s five power play goals when he fired a wrist shot off the post and in with 6:54 to play in the second period.
• Jonah Sivertson’s goal 1:24 into the second period stood up as the game winner. Sivertson picked up the puck after a blocked shot and fired it high blocker side on Boettiger. Benett Kelly and Maddix McCagherty drew the assists.
• The Raiders dressed only 11 forwards on Friday. They were without Max Heise who has an upper body injury, but is expected back after Christmas. They were also without Alisher Sarkenov, who just finished representing Kazakhstan at the 2026 IIHF Division I, Group A U20 World Championship in Slovenia. The Raiders expect Sarkenov to be back in the lineup for their Dec. 27 game in Swift Current.
• Rockets assistant captain Mazden Leslie received a two minute minor for mixing it up with Aiden Oiring after the whistle, then received a 10 minute misconduct for tossing Oiring to the ice while heading to the penalty box. The scrum was one of several that broke out in the third period. The Raiders responded by putting their top unit out for the last half of the power play. That led to Gorzynski’s third goal, which made it 8-3 with 5:12 to play. After the game, McDonald said they didn’t put their top power play unit on the ice to send a message. It was just business as usual. “We started with the second unit and then the first unit goes out there again,” McDonald said. “You’re always trying to get reps and you’re always trying to fine tune things and get different looks.”
• Gorzynski is quickly acclimatizing to life in Prince Albert, but said the deal that brought him here was unexpected. “I didn’t even think it would happen,” he said. “I loved being in Calgary. Nothing against them, but I know they’ve got a really good team here. I’m excited to be here, and that was a fun game to kind of encourage me to keep wanting to be here.”
• The Raiders are off until Dec. 27 when they take on the Swift Current Broncos in the first game of a home-and-home series. Game two is scheduled for Dec. 29 at the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
