Try as he might, Josh Banini couldn’t deny the Prince Albert Raiders a 3-1 win at the Art Hauser Centre on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old Moose Jaw Warrior netminder made 40 saves on the night to keep his team in the game.
“I thought we played a good game. Obviously, he did as well, we put a lot of rubber at him and he made some saves.” Raider defenceman Daxon Rudolph said in a post game interview. “I think second opportunities were there at times and almost banging them in. But when you run into a hot goalie, it is what it is. You just have to find a way to win those games and that’s what we did. I think we played really good. 60 minutes here tonight and stuck with it.”
The Raiders would outshoot the Warriors 14-3 in the second period and by a 17-9 margin in the third period.
Raider interim head coach Ryan McDonald says Prince Albert played a strong offensive game, despite only scoring twice against Banini.
“I thought offensively, our pace increased as the game went on. We did a really good job of getting pucks low to high, but also east to west getting to the net off the pass and making sure we landed at the net with traffic. Their goalie made some real key saves for them tonight, but I thought our guys did a good job getting pucks to the paint and then finding the secondary opportunities.”
Prince Albert would get out of the gates quickly as Lukas Dragicevic would open the scoring just 1:27 in with his 17th goal of the season off a give and go play with Niall Crocker. Vojtech Vochvest would have the secondary assist.
Daxon Rudolph would strike for his seventh goal of the season at the 4:12 mark of the second period with a shot from the point that found a way through traffic and past Banini. Oli Chenier and Justice Christensen picked up the helpers.
With two goals coming from defencemen, McDonald says the back end plays a key role in the Raider offensive attack.
“We want to play fast and whether it’s on our exits, whether it’s in the neutral zone and especially in the offensive zone, it’s making sure that you can find those key areas to dive into. When you dive in, it’s making sure you get pucks on off your stick and you see the first one in Drago, great rush play, jumps it on the rush and it’s on and off a stick before you can blink.”
Moose Jaw would pull within one at the 7:19 mark as Casey Brown would fire a wrist shot past Max Hildebrand for his third goal of the season. Luke Moroz picked up the lone helper.
The Raiders would ice things late as Tomas Mrsic would bury his 33rd goal of the season on an empty net at the 18:54 mark. Aiden Oiring picked up the lone assist.
Max Hildebrand made 22 stops in goal for the Raiders to earn the victory.
With the win, Prince Albert temporarily jumps into first place in the East Division. Saskatoon and Brandon both sit one point back and will match up on Wednesday night at Westoba Place.
The Raiders return to action on Friday night in Saskatoon when they take on the Blades in the first half of a home-and-home series. Both games will be crucial in the final results of the East Division.
McDonald says the Raiders are just worrying about getting themselves prepared.
“It’s one game at a time and for us you know the most important thing is you know tonight making sure that we get a good cool down in and you get a good meal and getting dressed up so we can hit the game film tomorrow and again have another good day of preparation and just go for the weekend.
