The Prince Albert Raiders moved one step closer to securing top spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings Sunday afternoon.
Daxon Rudolph, Justice Christensen, Max Heise, and Aiden Oiring all scored and Michal Orsulak made 21 saves as the Raiders jumped two points ahead of the idle Medicine Hat Tigers for the conference’s number one seed. Both teams have five games remaining.
“Just a real gutsy effort,” Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald said. “Three in three and we dug in, we got pucks in behind them and got on our forecheck and made them have to defend on the tops of the circle. Guys just continued to grind away.”
The game remained scoreless through the opening 10 minutes, but when scoring started in came in bunches.
Landon Hanson put Edmonton up 1-0 at 12:41 but Rudolph responded for Prince Albert 45 seconds later.
Christensen then put the Raiders up 2-1 at 16:05 before Lukas Sawchyn tied it back up 1:40 later.
The Raiders jumped ahead for good when Heise beat Edmonton netminder Parker Snell on the power play 28 seconds into the second period. Oiring made it 4-2 roughly three minutes later with a short-handed marker that proved to be the game winner.
Carter Sotheran made things close when he knocked a rebound into a wide-open net with roughly 11 minutes to go into the third, but that was as close as the Oil Kings got.
Sunday’s game was Prince Albert’s third in three days. They opened their Alberta road trip on Friday with a 3-1 win over the Calgary Hitmen, a team they hadn’t beat yet this season, followed by a 3-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday.
With the win on Sunday, McDonald said he was “extremely happy” with the team’s performance over the road trip.
“There were some learning lessons in here and it cumulated with the last game,” he said. “The guys played a tremendous playoff style game and were rewarded for it. Whenever you can go on the road and get two of three it’s a successful road trip.”
The Raiders are off until Friday when they welcome the Moose Jaw Warriors to the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
News and Notes:
• Sunday’s Raider win means the Medicine Hat Tigers have clinched first spot in the Central Division. The Tigers are 13 points ahead of the Edmonton Oil Kings for the division lead. Edmonton needed at least an overtime loss to keep their division title hopes alive.
• The Raiders have scored three short-handed goals all season. Oiring has two of them. Justice Christensen has the other.
• Forward Braeden Cootes was not in the lineup for any of Prince Albert’s games during their Alberta road trip.
• Sunday’s win means the road team won every game in the Prince Albert – Edmonton season series.
