The preseason home schedule for the Prince Albert Raiders has come to a close and the team ended it with an exclamation mark downing the Saskatoon Blades 5-4 on Friday night thanks to some late game dramatics.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says he was proud of how the Raiders handled the adversity.
“We kind of got down, had to come back. We never gave up. Some great performances by a lot of the guys here tonight. Spread it around with the younger guys and the older guys, and I thought they responded real well. It’s always great to win, but it was the character of coming back and giving ourselves an opportunity.”
Saskatoon would open the scoring at the 5:38 mark of the first period. Rowan Calvert snapped home his first preseason mark to give the Blades the lead. Tyler Parr had the lone assist.
Daxon Rudolph would record his first goal of the pre-season at the 13:43 mark to tie the game at 1-1. Jonah Sivertson had the lone assist.
Shots favored Prince Albert 15-6 after twenty minutes.
Saskatoon would take their first lead of the night with just 0.3 seconds to go in the second period as Ben Riche would fire a puck through a screened Eric Kahl. Pay and Brayden Klimpke assisted on the play.
William James would double the Blade lead at the 1:50 mark with his first goal of the preseason. Vlastimil Blazek and Lukas Hansen assisted on the goal.
Jonah Sivertson would bring the Raiders within one with his fourth tally of the preseason at the 4:38 mark. Dayce Derkatch and Cole Peardon picked up the helpers.
Ryan Gower would tie the game for Prince Albert at the 15:42 mark with his first preseason goal. Aiden Oiring assisted on the play.
The Raiders had a chance to take the lead in the last two minutes as Aiden Oiring was sprung on a shorthanded breakaway. The 19-year-old was taken down to the ice by Saskatoon’s Ben Riche, but there was no penalty called on the play much to the dismay of the Raider faithful in attendance at the Art Hauser Centre.
On the other end of the ice, Rowan Calvert would give the Blades the lead at the 18:34 mark with his second goal of the night. Parr and Klimpke assisted on the play.
Oiring would come up clutch for the Raiders as he would tie the game last then a minute later to force overtime. Doogan Pederson and Rudolph assisted on the play.
After nobody would score in overtime, the game would head to a shootout. Kahl would stop Ben Riche and Tyler Parr for Saskatoon. Oiring and Boychuk scored for Prince Albert to secure the win.
Truitt says the Raiders never quit for a single moment during the contest.
“That’s our culture. That’s what we do. You got to come in prepared. You can’t be easy at any time in this league, because you’re going to pay for it. We knew that they were going to be quicker and they were. We knew they were going to be more structured and determined. It’s a good test for our guys to be prepared and be able to play 60 minutes.”
Prince Albert was without six regular players on Friday. Max Hildebrand (healthy scratch), Tomas Mrsic (St. Louis camp), Krzysztof Macias (Florida camp), Niall Crocker (Ottawa camp), and Lukas Dragicevic (Seattle camp) were all out of the lineup.
Truitt says he was pleased with the Raiders adjusted to missing key contributors from their lineup.
“You got to mix and match things around a little bit. These probably aren’t going to be the lines once everybody comes back. You’re looking at the effort, you’re looking at the chemistry and the overall effectiveness of how they play together. It’s difficult sometimes when you don’t play with the same person day after day but I thought they adapted real well. We were on the shot clock early but we knew that they were going to block shots. We needed to finish a little bit better but I like the communication and I like the direction that the younger guys fit in with the older guys.”
The Raiders wrap up the preseason schedule on Saturday night when they take on the Blades in Warman. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
