Snow and slush may have slowed down the capacity crowd that squeezed into the Art Hauser Centre for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, but it had little effect on the Prince Albert Raiders.
The Raiders outshot the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 39-24 on a night where there was almost as much ice in the parking lot as the rink, and skated away with a comfortable 8-3 victory.
“I thought it was a great group effort,” Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald said. “Medicine Hat’s a team that’s high offence. Any time the puck turns over, you’ve got to snap to your defensive posture in a real hurry. I thought our guys, as we continued to go through the game, got a lot better at it.
“We got a lot quicker, which was fantastic. Our sticks were great. They had to come through us and again, they’re a good team. They’re going to earn their chances … and when they did Orsi (Raider goaltender Michal Orsulak) made some big saves for us.”
It was a banner night for the Raider power play. The hometown side converted three of four opportunities with the man advantage, including the eventual game winner from Max Heise midway through the second.
With Niilopekka Muhonen in the penalty box for interference after flattening Owen Corkish, Heise took a pass in the slot from Braeden Cootes and fired a one-timer past Tigers goaltender Carter Casey.
“They’re a really good team over there,” Heise said. “(They) came out heavy, but I thought we capitalized on our chances, and the power play was huge for us tonight.
“I think we were moving the puck quick. Like I said before, we capitalized on our chances, which is huge. Special teams is the biggest thing in playoffs. It can swing games and momentum for you.”
Heise’s goal made it 4-1, and sent the hometown crowd into a frenzy. The Tigers pulled one back before the end of the second when Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll batted the puck out of the air, over Orsulak, and into the Raider net.
However, the Raiders game out firing with four goals in the third, including power play markers from Aiden Oiring and Alisher Sarkenov in the first seven minutes.
“(We watched) lots of video going into it beforehand,” Oiring said when asked about the Raider power play’s success. “The hard work and the skill we have on that power play is hard to match. It’s easy to play with those guys. It’s just fun.
“They got a goal late in that second period. Some teams can use that as motivation. We just knew we had to come out hard in the third and take the game over as much as we can.”
The Raider power play may have feasted on Friday, but their five-on-five units set the table. Brayden Dube, Justice Christensen and Ben Harvey all scored even-strength markers to put the Raiders up 3-1 before the power play started rolling.
In the third, the Raiders closed thing out with a four-on-four goal from Oiring, plus another even strength tally from Evan Smith.
Markus Ruck and Bryce Pickford rounded out the scoring for Medicine Hat, who never had a power play of their own all game. Afterward, Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said the disparity in penalty time had nothing to do with the outcome.
“Our penalty kill has been good all year,” Desjardins said. “Like, really, really good. (They are) a big reason we had the year we did. We’ve got to be disciplined. We’ve got to stay out of the box. They capitalized on their chances and good teams do that.”
The Tigers played without top pairing defenceman Jonas Woo and 6’3, 207 pound forward Ethan Neutens in the line-up. Desjardins said they missed having both players on Friday, but gave the Raiders full credit for their win.
“I thought Prince Albert was better than us tonight,” he said. “I thought they worked hard. I thought they won a lot of one-on-one battles. We knew it was going to be a tough building to come into and we were right. It was a tough building and it didn’t go the way we wanted.”
News and Notes:
• Aiden Oiring and Brock Cripps led all Raiders with three points each. Max Heise, Daxon Rudolph, Brayden Dube, Evan Smith, Alisher Sarkenov, and Braeden Cootes all had two point nights.
• Raider goaltender Michal Orsulak was at his best in the second period. The Tremosna, Cze. product stopped nine of 10 shots he faced, none tougher than a sizzling Andrew Basha wrist shot the Raider netminder snagged during an odd-man rush.
• At the other end, Carter Casey made 31 saves in the Tiger crease. Casey played the entire game for Medicine Hat. It was his fourth start of the WHL playoffs.
• Friday’s 50/50 came to $196,900. The winner left with $98,450.
• The announced attendance was 3,299.
