The Prince Albert Raiders snapped a six game losing streak with a 5-2 win over the Kamloops Blazers on Tuesday.
Tomas Mrsic, Ethan Bibeau, Luke Moroz, Krzysztof Macias, and Aiden Oiring had the goals for Prince Albert. Head coach Jeff Truitt credited the team for playing a complete game.
“We got good goaltending, I thought our defenceman played a real simple style tonight, and our forwards did a great job managing the puck and finishing when they had to,” Truitt said. “They grew with the momentum as the game went on, and there were no letdowns, which was a big thing. We talked about sticking to our habits and sticking to our work ethic, and they did that.”
Emmitt Finnie and Jordan Keller had the goals for Kamloops, who outshot Prince Albert 39-26 in the game, but struggled solve Max Hildebrand. Truitt said the Raider goaltender has been a model of consistency in the young season.
“He’s great every night, and I thought tonight he made a couple of really big saves,” Truitt said. “It was nice that he got some run support here.”
The Raiders had few power play chances on Tuesday but made the most of them, scoring twice on their only two attempts with the man advantage. The Raiders are now 5/15 on the power play in their last three games.
“It’s starting to come around just because of the chemistry and our guys reading off of each other,” Truitt said when asked about the power play. “When they’re seeing their opportunities, they’re getting shots on net.
“We’re getting traffic at their net as well. I didn’t think that we were doing that enough earlier, but they’re figuring it out now and getting a little bit of success.”
Tomas Mrsic opened the scoring just 38 seconds into Tuesday’s contest when he one-timed a cross-ice feed past Blazers goalie Dylan Ernst to make it 1-0.
The Blazers responded roughly six minutes later when captain Emmitt Finnie beat a Prince Albert defenceman to the outside and slid a shot between Hildebrand’s legs from a tight angle to make it 1-1.
The Raiders bounced back with two goals in the second. Ethan Bibeau made it 2-1 on a quick shot at the goalmouth that forced officials to take a few extra seconds to confirm after it ricocheted off the back crossbar and out.
The Blazers had a chance to tie it with less than five minutes left in the second, but Hildebrand denied Blazers forward Nathan Behm on a breakaway to preserve the lead.
The Raiders extended their lead with 1:21 to go in the second when Moroz deflected a Doogan Pederson point shot past Ernst to make it 3-1.
Prince Albert added two power play goals in the third to make it 5-1. Macias fired a cross-ice pass over Ernst’s outstretched arm at 13:28, and Oiring wired a wrist shot high blocker side at 11:18.
Kamloops added a power play goal of their own with 27 seconds left in the game thanks to Jordan Keller. Finnie and Harrison Brunicke picked up the assists.
With the win, the Raiders improve to 2-5-2-0 on the season, while Kamloops falls to 2-6-1-0. The Raiders are back in action on Friday in Victoria against the Royals. Puck drop is 8:05 p.m. CST.
