The Moose Jaw Warriors scored four goals in the first period on their way to a 4-1 win in Prince Albert on Wednesday night.
Carter Serhyenko’s recent struggles continued, as he was pulled before the end of the first period in favour of Tikhon Chaika. Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid explained the frustrating night.
“It started with the quick goal,” Habscheid said. “We couldn’t get our feet under us, but I thought after the first period we played pretty good. That’s the way it goes and the beat goes on.”
It took just 1:15 for the Warriors to strike first, as Eric Alarie pounced on a rebound in front of the net, putting Moose Jaw up 1-0. Atley Calvert took the original shot that Serhyenko stopped, but the rebound came right to Alarie’s stick, giving him his fifth goal of the year.
Moose Jaw continued to apply pressure and was rewarded with another goal shortly after the first period media timeout. Alarie won a puck battle in the corner and sent a pass over to Daemon Hunt, who ripped a shot past Serhyenko’s blocker, putting the Warriors up 2-0 less than halfway through the opening frame.
With 5:23 left in the first, Matthew Gallant led another rush into the Raider end, and fired a shot that Serhyenko got a piece of with his toe. The puck rebounded on to Logan Doust’s blade, and he buried it past Serhyenko, who was diving across the crease to try and make the save.
Moose Jaw added one more goal in the first period on Maximus Wanner’s first Western Hockey League goal. Serhyenko was left diving across the crease again after another rebound given up in front, and Wanner made the most of it. That would mark the end of Serhyenko’s night. He gave up four goals on 13 shots in the first period before being replaced by Tikhon Chaika with 2:34 remaining in the first.
The Warriors ended the first period with that four goal lead, with the shots being even at 13 apiece through the first 20 minutes.
The second period had a lot less goals, zero to be exact. Although with just under two minutes left in the middle frame, it looked like Hayden Pakkala opened the scoring for the Raiders on the powerplay when he redirected a point shot in the high slot. The officials initially waved off the goal, then reviewed it for a lengthy time, before officially declaring it no goal due to a high stick.
Prince Albert led in shots 28-25 through two periods, but still trailed by four heading into the third period.
The third period hadn’t even started before things started to get heated. During a delay before puck drop, Marc Habscheid was ejected from the game after an altercation with the officials. From there, the third period had a scrappy tone to it, as scrums ensued after nearly every whistle.
“There were some interesting comments,” Habscheid said about his discussion with the officials. “I wished them Merry Christmas and that was that.”
The Raiders found their first goal of the night with 7:39 left in the game. Tyson Laventure found a rebound in front of the net on the powerplay, and banged his fifth goal of the season home past Tetachuk, making it a 4-1 deficit.
“He’s a goal scorer,” Habscheid said about Laventure. “We generated almost 50 shots tonight and that’s all you can do. Our guys want to score but pucks aren’t finding their way in. We’ve just got to give them opportunities and try to create plans for our guys to score and hopefully they’ll go in.”
That’s as close as the Raiders would get in this one, as the Warriors left the Art Hauser Centre with a 4-1 victory, handing the Prince Albert their third consecutive loss.
With the loss, the Raiders have a 6-12-0-1 record, and are four points behind the Warriors for third place in the East division.
Next up, they’ll travel to Brandon for a game against the Wheat Kings on Saturday for their fourth meeting this season.
@kyle_kosowan•sports@paherald.sk.ca