Raiders fall 6-1 to Rebels on the road

Photo by Nathan Reiter. Prince Albert Raiders forward Carson Latimer handles a puck during a home game at the Art Hauser Centre

The Prince Albert Raiders couldn’t get off to a good start as they fell 6-1 on Saturday night to the Red Deer Rebels at Peavy Mart Centrium.

Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says the Raiders didn’t get off to a great start and need more contribution up and down the lineup against a contender like Red Deer.

“We need more from our top 6 guys, we didn’t generate an awful lot with our top 6. I liked our Ritchie, Pearson and Dube line. I really liked the young kids line. We need more out of our top 6 guys. We got down 3-0 and discipline was a problem here tonight. Momentum went their way. We need more from a lot of guys and against these opponents, you got to bring your best.”

Prince Albert would run into some penalty trouble in the first period and Red Deer would take advantage. The Rebels would open the scoring at the 10:52 mark of the first period as Kai Uchacz potted his 18th goal of the season on the power play. Lind and Grubbe recorded the assists on the goal.

Jace Isley would double the lead for Red Deer just over three minutes later with his 14th goal of the season assisted by Josephson and Sedoff.

The Raiders were putting some pressure on the Rebels on the power play late in the first period, but Red Deer was able to clear the zone as the penalty expired.

Talon Brigley made a clean pass to the tape of Frantisek Formanek who was sprung on a clean breakaway out of the box and he made no mistake beating Hildebrand to extend the Rebel lead to 3-0 at the 18:07 mark.

Red Deer outshot Prince Albert 15-8 in the first period. 

Truitt says he felt disappointed with the start the Raiders had in Red Deer.

“I didn’t like it at all. We knew they were a hard team and that they were coming. To aid them because of the penalties certainly gave them momentum and took away ours. Now you got to shorten the bench and chase the game and not get the momentum you need.”

The Rebels would keep the pressure on in the second period as Arjun Bawa would extend the Red Deer lead to 4-0 at the 16:05 mark.

Red Deer would add another tally with thirteen seconds left in the second period. Kalan Lind would strike at the tail end of a power play to give the home side a 5-0 lead through 40 minutes. 

Jhett Larson extended the Rebel lead even wider to 6-0  with a goal only 0:42 into the final frame

The Raiders would not be shut out on Saturday night as the former Rebel Keaton Sorenson put his 10th of the season past Rebel goaltender Rhett Stoesser at the 10:54 mark of the third period.

The Raiders will look to turn the page on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Medicine Hat for the final leg of a three game in three day road trip.

“The key is going to be if we rebound. The biggest thing is if we can respond on a short turnaround at 4 o’clock. Lot of our top 6 guys didn’t see a lot of ice time here tonight so they should be well rested for tomorrow. Every game is new and we got to respond a lot better than what we did here tonight”

The Raiders have come out victorious in both matchups against the Tigers so far this season. Puck drops from Co-op Place at 5 pm Saskatchewan time.

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