The Prince Albert Raiders got back into the win column with a 4-3 shootout win over the Regina Pats at the Brandt Centre on Tuesday night.
The win comes after the Raiders lost 9-4 on home ice against Swift Current last Friday. Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says he was pleased with the bounce back effort shown by Prince Albert.
“What I liked is we were connected here tonight and it looked cleaner in our defensive zone and a lot of our puck movements and managing things. I thought that our effort right through the lineup was there and credit to the players for stepping up and lots of energy, lots of enthusiasm here early on. Lots of guys were just doing the right things and it was the right way.”
Ty Meunier would open up the scoring with his third goal of the campaign at the 9:24 mark of the first period. Junah Sivertson and Lukas Dragicevic provided the helpers. Meunier has now scored in two straight games.
Cole Temple would draw the Pats even with his third goal of the season at the 19:20 mark of the opening frame. Jaxsin Vaughn and Zachary Lansard assisted on the play.
The Pats would be the beneficiary of some puck luck early in the second period. Braxton Whitehead attempted a pass that went off the stick of a Raider defender, landed on top of the back bar of the net, off the back of Max Hildebrand and in for his second goal of the season. Cohen Klassen and John Babcock were credited with the assist.
On numerous occasions during the broadcast, Raider play-by-play voice Nick Neilsen referred to the play as “the weirdest goal I’ve ever seen”.
Luke Moroz would tie the game for Prince Albert with his second goal of the season coming on the power play with a one timer from the right circle at the 12:16 mark. Brayden Dube and Justice Christensen assisted on the play.
Truitt says seeing depth scoring is a promising sign for the young players.
“It’s tremendous, it’s great that those guys are contributing. As a young guy, maybe they might not be getting all the ice time that they’re used to but it’s still a learning process. You take your minutes and do your best, and it’s great to see Ty (Meunier) and (Luke) Moroz score, and Sivertson gets an assist here tonight. It just bodes with the scoring touch that we’ve got, and you can’t rely on only a few guys to score and those guys contributing is great for our club.”
Just over two and a half minutes later, the Raider power play would go to work once again. Tomas Mrsic would wire home his eighth goal of the season to give Prince Albert the lead. Dragicevic picked up his second point of the night with the lone helper.
With the goal, Mrsic now leads the WHL in power play goals with seven. Entering play, he was tied with Saskatoon’s Rowan Calvert and Spokane’s Shea Van Olm for the league lead with six.
A power play marker from Zackary Shantz would tie the game just 3:52 into the third period. Anthony Wilson and John Babcock had the helpers.
The rest of the third period and overtime would solve nothing and the Raiders would head to their first shootout of the season.
Max Hildebrand would stop Regina’s Tye Spencer, Tanner Howe and Zackary Shantz while Tomas Mrsic had the shootout winner for Prince Albert.
Dating back to the start of January of last season, Hildebrand has only allowed four goals in a shootout in 27 attempts.
Truitt says Hildebrand is effective in shootout because of his competitive nature
“He doesn’t like to get scored on and he’s faced a lot last year and won a lot of them last year. He’s comfortable in that situation. He’s a solid goaltender anyway, but one-on-one, he does a great job for us and good for him again for helping us pull this out.”
The Raiders travel to Brandon on Saturday night when they visit the Brandon Wheat Kings. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
