
With several key players out of the lineup, the Prince Albert Raiders embraced the next man up mentality with a 2-1 win over the Swift Current Broncos at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday night.
It was the first career win as a head coach in the WHL for Ryan McDonald, who has taken over the reins from Jeff Truitt on an interim basis. Truitt will be away from the club for the next three to four weeks after undergoing eye surgery.
“It’s something truly special.” McDonald said. “First and foremost, we wish Truey (Jeff Truitt) a speedy recovery. It’s funny, I’m walking down the tunnel and my watch buzzes and the first person to send a message is Truey so you know just how excited he was for this group and for myself and I couldn’t ask for a better place for it to be at home.”
A fast paced first period saw the lone goal go the way of the home side.
Shortly after a successful Raider penalty kill, Dayce Derkatch would get Prince Albert on the board with his second goal of the season at the 13:37 mark. A nifty three way passing play between Derkatch, Brayden Dube and Evan Smith would leave Derkatch as the triggerman who made no mistake.
“It was unreal.” Derkatch said in a post game interview.” Dube, nice pass to Smitty (Evan Smith). He makes a nice pass back to me and I wire it high blocker. As you can tell, I was pumped and it was awesome.”
It appeared Swift Current had tied the game with 44.3 seconds left to go in the opening frame. After a mad scramble in front of Hildebrand, the puck would come to Peyton Kettles at the point and the 17-year-old rearguard would fire a shot into the back of the Raider net. The play was overturned by the officials on the ice for goaltender interference.
Swift Current would draw even at the 4:01 mark of the second period as Luke Mistelbacher picked up his 20th goal of the season on the power play. The 19-year-old forward would fire a shot from the slot that beat Hildebrand. Clarke Caswell and Brady Birnie assisted on the play.
The Broncos had a great chance to take the lead with a 2-on-0 opportunity, but were denied by the glove of Hildebrand, who made the best of his 31 saves on the night to keep the game tied.
McDonald says Hildebrand has been outstanding all season long for Prince Albert.
“I watch him make those saves every day in practice. He’s our rock, he’s a backbone back there. He really thrives in situations and games where he’s right in the mix. He’s a true competitor.”
Luke Moroz would score the game winning goal for the Raiders at the 15:04 mark of the third period. After a Doogan Pederson shot was blocked by the Broncos, the puck came to Oli Chenier who put the puck right on the tape of Moroz who wired home his fourth goal of the season.
Prince Albert was without two key contributors on Friday night as Krzysztof Macias and Tomas Mrsic were out of the lineup. Harrison Lodewyk also left the game with injury and did not return.
McDonald says he was impressed with the players who jumped up in the lineup to fill spots.
“It’s the next man up mentality. I thought the young guys did a fantastic job. There were moments where we bent a little bit, but we didn’t break. We got back to the game plan and made guys come through us and really clogged up that middle in the second and third period.”
Reid Dyck made 25 saves for the Broncos.
The Raiders and Broncos will rematch on Saturday night at the InnovationPlex in Swift Current for the second half of a home-and-home weekend. Puck drops at 7 p.m.