The Lethbridge Hurricanes only had the lead once on Wednesday night, but it was the only lead that mattered as they defeated the Prince Albert Raiders 2-1 at the Art Hauser Centre.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says the Raiders played a solid game, but fell just short against a veteran Lethbridge team.
“I thought that we had enough chances to win. The first two periods, I thought that we generated enough. But yet, we played pretty good defense and it was a tight game. We knew it was going to be like this. They’re a strong team that plays the walls well. They’ve got speed and (Brayden) Yager and they’ve got enough depth to score. We did a good job here tonight, good effort and we just came up a little bit short.”
Linden Burrett would open the scoring with his first WHL goal at the 4:43 mark of the opening frame. Evan Smith and Riley Boychuk each picked up an assist.
Lethbridge would have a tremendous chance to tie the game with a five minute power play near the midpoint of the second period after Raiders forward Rilen Kovacevic was assigned a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct.
With just four seconds left in the major, Niall Crocker would head to the box for a slashing minor. The Raider penalty kill held Lethbridge off the scoresheet for 6:56 straight and held the Hurricanes scoreless in four power play opportunities in the game.
Truitt says he was pleased with what the Raiders showed on the penalty kill.
“I thought we outworked their power play. I thought that we were on our toes. I thought that we took away seam plays, we blocked a lot of shots and Hilty came up with a few saves that we needed. I liked our energy and our penalty kill.”
Lethbridge would tie the game at the 16:24 mark of the third period as a long shot from Brayden Yager would go off the stick and fool Max Hildebrand before finding the back of the net. Caden Price and Logan McCutcheon picked up the helpers on the play.
After the Raiders killed a penalty in overtime, it would be Lethbridge that would pick up the extra point as Shane Smith would strike for his 11th goal of the season 4:04 into the extra frame to win the game for the Hurricanes. Noah Chadwick and Kooper Gizowski picked up the helpers.
Smith is the younger brother of Minto head coach Doan and Northern Bears assistant Colten.
The Raiders picked up a point and maintained a two point advantage over the Brandon Wheat Kings for the top spot in the East Division.
Despite coming short on the scoreboard, Truitt says there were plenty of positives to take from the effort.
“Just our effort, it’s going to be like this for the end of time here this season. I thought that really put in a good effort here. Battling wise, physical wise, pace wise, positional wise. I thought that we put it all together, but the only thing we didn’t do is finish off as many plays as we wanted to.”
Jackson Unger made 26 saves for Lethbridge in the win. Max Hildebrand made 30 stops for Prince Albert in the loss.
The Raiders return to action on Friday night when they welcome the Edmonton Oil Kings. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
