After nearly two weeks away from home, the Prince Albert Raiders returned home but dropped a back-and-forth game 5-4 to the Swift Broncos on Saturday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says the Raiders played well in the offensive zone.
“I thought we carried a lot of momentum five on five and we got better as the game went on. We had more offensive zone time, we were outshooting them pretty good. We had traffic in front of the net and they found a way to make save or a block. They funneled some pucks to the net that end up going in.”
It was a scoring frenzy to end the first period as the Raiders would strike first at the 17:06 mark as Harrison Lodewyk would score his first of the season on a play that saw the Swift Current net knocked off of its moorings.
Swift Current would answer a minute later as Caleb Wyrostok would redirect a pass from Connor Hvidston past Chaika to even up the score at 1-1
With time winding down in the opening period, Keaton Sorenson scored his fifth goal of the season at the 19:29 mark as he redirected a pass from Sloan Stanick past Gage Alexander to give the Raiders a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Prince Albert outshot the Broncos 13-10 in the opening frame.
A couple goals in quick succession gave the Broncos the lead in the second period.
Caleb Wyrostok struck for the second time in the game less than twenty seconds after the Raiders bench was called for a too many men minor penalty.
Josh Filmon would sneak a backhand shot past Chaika on the low blocker side a few seconds later to give the Broncos a 3-2 lead.
It was an absolute tug of war in the third period as the Broncos and Raider would combine for four goals in the third period.
A power play goal less than a minute in from Carson Latimer brought the score back to 3-3. The shot hit Gage Alexander in the shoulder, shot straight up into the air and off the Broncos goaltender’s back and into the net.
The Broncos would answer with a power play goal at the 13:47 mark as Connor Hvidston sniped one past Chaika on the high glove side to restore the Broncos lead at 4-3.
The Raiders would tie the game up late thanks to Carter Anderson’s first goal in a Raiders uniform at the 17:24 mark.
But Swift Current would respond under thirty seconds later as Mathew Ward would fire one through a screen and past Tikhon Chaika to give the Broncos a 5-4 lead they would never relinquish.
Raider forward and assistant captain Carson Latimer says the team is hoping to build off Saturday’s effort to start a winning streak
“I think we’re close. Close doesn’t count in this league. We need points, we got to tighten up defensively. We can’t allow five goals. If we continue to build offensively, I think we will win a lot of games. We care so much in that room. We all want to win, nobody wants to lose. We got a character room and we will keep building.”
The Raiders are back in action Tuesday night when they host the Tri-City Americans at the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drops at 7pm.
