For the second consecutive series, the Prince Albert Raiders have their backs against the wall.
The Raiders trail the Medicine Hat Tigers three games to none in their best-of-seven series after falling 6-1 to Medicine Hat at the Art Hauser Centre on Wednesday night.
Raider interim head coach Ryan McDonald says Prince Albert had chances, but weren’t able to finish on them.
“We had our chances early. We created some chances. We just weren’t able to capitalize, and they’re a team that doesn’t need too many chances to put pucks in the back of the net.”
Hunter St. Martin would open the scoring just 0:58 into the opening frame as the Florida Panthers prospect fired a wrist shot from the slot that beat Hildebrand for his third goal of the playoffs. Marcus Pacheco had the lone assist.
The Tigers would double the lead with Mathew Ward’s second goal of the series 1:22 into the second period. Hunter St. Martin would provide the assist.
Veeti Vaisanen would extend the Medicine Hat lead on the power play at the 14:04 mark of the middle frame. Gavin McKenna and Ryder Ritchie had the helpers.
Tanner Molendyk would extend the Tiger lead to four with his first goal of the playoffs just over a minute later. Pacheco and St. Martin had the helpers.
Lukas Dragicevic would get the Raiders on the board with his sixth goal of the playoffs at the 19:39 mark. Daxon Rudolph and Aiden Oiring had the helpers.
Gavin McKenna would restore the four goal lead for the Tigers 1:16 into the third period. While playing 4-on-4, McKenna would pick up the puck from below the goal line and complete a highlight reel, lacrosse style goal which is also referred to as a Michigan goal.
Ryder Ritchie would add a goal for the Tigers at the 5:12 mark of the third period.
The Raiders have experience trailing in a series before. In the first round, Prince Albert came back from down three games to one to eliminate the Edmonton Oil Kings.
McDonald says the Raiders are focusing on one game at a time in an effort to get back in the series.
“It’s sticking to the process and sticking to the game plan. The sun’s going to come up tomorrow. We’ve been in this position before. Lean on the experience we just had, but again, it’s simplifying it and sticking to our process.”
Despite leading in the series 3-0, the Tigers aren’t taking anything for granted. Medicine Hat head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says the Tigers can’t afford to look past the Raiders.
“There’s no reason to look ahead, that team came back from 3-1. They think they’re gonna come back from 3-0, that’s their plan. They’re going to come hard, and they’ll give everything they got to get it. We don’t have anything to look (at) but PA, that’s our only focus.”
Puck drop for Game 4 is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre on Thursday night.
