
The Prince Albert Raiders couldn’t get on the right side of the tug-of-war in a 5-4 loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings at Rogers Place on Friday night.
A slow start bit the Raiders for the second straight game as Edmonton would strike twice within the first 4:50 of the opening frame with tallies from Gracyn Sawchyn and Cole Miller.
Raider interim head coach Ryan McDonald says Prince Albert didn’t manage the puck well early.
“Our starts, we’ve put a real emphasis on it lately and we come out behind the eight ball again and get down two early. Chasing in the D zone and not managing the puck as well as we’d like to. I give our guys a lot of credit in that second and third period and we started supporting the puck a lot better on breakouts, which led to neutral zone opportunities for us to make those decisions and have rush opportunities or get it on the forecheck and put some pressure on them like they did to us on the first period. In the end it was a one shot game and, you know, you don’t want to get in those high scoring affairs. In the end, we needed one more shot. “
The Raiders would storm back in the second period as a power play goal from Tomas Mrsic and a tip in front from Niall Crocker would bring Prince Albert even 9:05 into the second period.
The tie game didn’t last long as just 22 seconds later, an unassisted goal on a shot from a sharp angle from Gavin Hodnett would give the Oil Kings the lead back.
Prince Albert knotted up the score 4:56 into the third period as Ethan Bibeau would find twine for the sixth time this season.
But once again, the home side Oil Kings would strike less then a minute later as Blake Fiddler would wire home his sixth goal of the season to restore the Oil King advantage.
With just over ninety seconds to play, Gracyn Sawchyn would ice the game for Edmonton with an empty net tally. Tomas Mrsic would strike for his 23rd goal of the season with less than five seconds to go for the Raiders.
Dimitri Fortin made 26 saves for the Raiders on the night. Ethan Simcoe made 22 stops for the Oil Kings.
Friday marked the WHL debut of Jackson Kostiuk who the Raiders signed from the Steinbach Pistons of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League after listing him earlier this season.
McDonald says Kostiuk did everything asked of him in his first WHL game.
“He skates well. He was tenacious on the puck, using his feet to create opportunities. We felt he made some good neutral zone puck decisions and got pucks behind and allowed us to get on the forecheck and create some O zone time that we’re looking for.”