The Prince Albert Raiders did what no WHL team could do for 19 straight games on Saturday: beat the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The two teams combined for seven goals in a wild back-and-forth third period as the Raiders held on for an 8-5 win in front of 4,764 fans at Co-op Place.
“They’re a good offensive team over there,” Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald said. “They capitalized on some of the opportunities that they had and give our guys credit, the ebs and flows throughout the game, they just continued to keep pushing and pushing.”
The Tigers entered the game fresh off a two-game sweep of the Edmonton Oil Kings. Those two wins gave Medicine Hat a franchise record 19 victories in a row.
The Tigers didn’t go down quietly on Saturday. Prince Albert led 4-1 late in the second period, but Medicine Hat stormed back to tie the game at four early in the third, setting up a wild final 15 minutes.
“Everybody knew (about the win streak),” McDonald said. “It’s all over social media so it’s hard to ignore, but for us it was ‘stick to our game plan.’ We wanted to make sure we made them defend and we wanted to make sure we did that by playing underneath and playing north and making them have to come 200 feet every time they had their opportunities.
“Again, give our guys a lot of credit. We stuck to the game plan. It took a full 60 minutes to get the win.”
Max Heise led the way for the Raiders with a hat trick, including the eventual game winner with 2:34 to play in the third period. He also had an assist on Maddix McCagherty’s empty net goal with 1:55 to play which all but guaranteed a Raider win.
The goals weren’t always pretty for the San Jose Sharks draft pick, who now has a team-leading 22 on the season, but they were effective.
“Heiser (was) tremendous,” McDonald said. “Great pace, got to the dirty areas—all his goals came from that short distance in and around the net—and he used his speed on exists, used his speed on entries, and really possessed the puck well underneath.”
The Raiders appeared headed for a comfortable victory after goals from Heise, McCagherty, and Daxon Rudolph gave them a 4-1 lead heading into the final minutes of the second period.
However, Tigers defenceman Jonas Woo fired a wrist shot past Raiders starter Michal Orsulak with 15.2 second left in the second, and Kade Stengrim scored another in the first five minutes of the third to pull Medicine Hat within one.
The score remained unchanged until the midway point when forward Marcus Ruck took a cross-ice pass and beat Orsulak short-side to tie the game up at four.
The Tiger faithful erupted at Co-op Place, but the momentum didn’t last long. Alisher Sarkenov put Prince Albert ahead 5-4 when a cross-crease Riley Boychuk pass deflected off a stick, off Sarkenov’s head, and into the net.
Sarkenov was slow to get up after the goal, but stayed in the game. The officiating crew took a few minutes to review the play, but let the goal stand.
Once again, the momentum swing was short-lived. Luke Cozens tied the game back up with a wrister that snuck through Linden Burrett, who was trying to block the shot, and past Orsulak to tie the game at five.
The three goals came within a span of just over three minutes.
“Even in that third period where they get two quick ones, we just continued to play our game and calmed down,” McDonald said. “(We) got back to our push and were rewarded for it in the end.”
Heise put the Raiders up for good late in the third when he tapped in a beautiful cross-crease pass from McCagherty less than four minutes after Cozens’ goal.
The Tigers pulled goalie Jordan Switzer with more than two minutes to play, but McCagherty quickly put an end to any comeback hopes with an empty netter just 21 seconds later.
The Tigers pulled Switzer again shortly after, and the Raiders responded with another empty net goal, this one courtesy of Braeden Cootes, who fired the puck from inside the Prince Albert blue line and into the empty net.
The 8-5 win pulls Prince Albert within one point of Medicine Hat for first place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. The Tigers have also played two more games than the Raiders.
The Edmonton Oil Kings sit in third with 65 points, but have also played two more games than Prince Albert. The Calgary Hitmen, who lost in overtime to the Penticton Vees on Saturday, sit a distant fourth with 51 points.
The Raiders are back on the ice Tuesday in Prince Albert when they take on the Victoria Royals. Puck drop is 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.
News and Notes:
• Maddix McCagherty had a tough start to the night, but finished as one of Prince Albert’s best players. The Kelowna product inadvertently knocked the puck away as it was sliding towards an empty Medicine Hat net around 2:10 into the first period. However, he regrouped to score a pair of goals, including one on a blistering wrist shot 11:42 into the second, and added two assists, including a beautiful pass on Max Heise’s winner. “His work ethic is tremendous,” Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald said. “His details and how hard he plays, whether it’s on puck or off puck, he just continues to keep elevating his game.”
• It’s rare to see a goal bounce off a player’s head an in, as it did with Alisher Sarkenov. It’s even rarer when such a goal isn’t the strangest bounce of the night. Instead, Daxon Rudolph’s first period tally earned that honour. The Raider defenceman fired a shot well-wide of the net that ricocheted off the back boards and snuck through a tiny hole between Tiger goalie Jordan Switzer’s glove and pad. The goal was Rudolph’s 20th of the season, and gave Prince Albert a 1-0 lead.
• Both teams received three power play chances, none of which ended with a power play goal. The Tigers had the only special teams tally, and it came short-handed midway through the first period. The two Ruck brothers, Liam and Markus, took advantage of some Raider miscues to break-in on a 2-on-0. Markus fed a pass to Liam, who beat Michal Orsulak blocker side to make it 1-1.
• Orsulak finished the game with 29 saves for the Raiders. Switzer made 24 stops for the Tigers.
The Daily Herald Three Stars
1. Max Heise (Prince Albert) – Caused havoc in front of the Tiger crease all night, netting three goals, including the game winner. Added an assist on an empty netter for a four point night.
2. Maddix McCagherty (Prince Albert) – Finished with two goals and two assists. First goal was one of the nicest wrist shots you’ll ever see. Setup Heise for a tap-in on the game winner.
3. Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll (Medicine Hat) – Three assists for the Salt Lake City product, including a beautiful back-hand pass to Cozens on the goal that made it 5-5.
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
