Riding a six game point streak, the Prince Albert Raiders (9-8-3-0) will look to keep the momentum rolling this weekend.
The Raiders will hit the road on Friday night for a matchup against the Swift Current Broncos (14-8-0-0) before returning to the friendly confines of the Art Hauser Centre on Saturday for their first meeting of the season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes (12-8-1-1).
The Raiders are coming off one of their most complete efforts of the season in a 5-0 win over the Regina Pats at the Art Hauser Centre last Saturday. Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says Prince Albert will look to build off that game and continue their positive momentum.
“That’s what we’re talking about even on these practice days is what is going to take us to another level and the consistency of it. You can’t just rest on what’s happened. You’ve got to progress, move forward and get better. There’s a lot of games left and we want to continue to trend in the right direction and make players aware of some things that we can button up on to get better. We’ve reached a point but then we’ve got to plug holes and plug some tendencies that we need to get better at. The little things will add up as we go along here. We’ve been concentrating on a lot of the little details here over the last few days.”
Friday night will be the third meeting of the season between the Raiders and Broncos, with Swift Current having won both matchups to this point.
The last time the two teams met was back on Nov. 1 when the Broncos scored nine times at the Art Hauser Centre in a 9-4 victory.
Truitt says Prince Albert has improved a lot since that game at the start of the month, but the Broncos will provide a tough test for the Raiders.
“It certainly would be (motivation). We don’t want that to happen again, but our game has evolved here a little bit where I think that we’re in a better position to not have that happen to us, but it’s still going to be a really good test for us. They’re a good explosive team, they’re a team that stretches zones and they’ve got great individual skill and they pressure you. They don’t give you a lot of time and space to make plays and over handle things, so we’ve got to be on our toes. From a motivational standpoint, I guess that’s one game that you certainly don’t want to happen again, but we just want to keep this thing going and continue to develop our good habits.”
With the win over Regina on Saturday, the Raiders broke the .500 plateau for the first time this season. Prince Albert sat with a record of 2-7-2 at the conclusion of their B.C. Division road trip on Oct. 19.
The Raiders have recorded at least a single point in eight of their last nine contests since returning from that trip. With five rookies on the roster and a couple of new faces acquired in the offseason via trade in Tomas Mrsic and Lukas Dragicevic, there was an adjustment period for Prince Albert at the start of the season.
Truitt says the Raiders have been patient but he is very pleased with the progress he has seen so far this season.
“The progress I think has been tremendous. The wins and losses are one thing, the wins here lately have been exactly what we needed. It’s proved that when everybody gets comfortable in their roles and comfortable about the responsibilities, now all of a sudden things are happening better.
“We talked about taking pride in our defensive zone. When we do that, we’re generating more offense because we’re more in control of things. I think that’s been a huge thing that guys are more comfortable with.You got to give the players a lot of credit for learning it and now implementing it. It goes right through the lineup, it’s been a collective positive here.”
The Raiders currently sit in ninth place in the Eastern Conference sitting two points back of Red Deer for the eighth and final playoff spot. Only 11 points separate Prince Albert in ninth place and Saskatoon who sit at the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Prince Albert has played the fewest amount of games in the Eastern Conference at 20. The Raiders have three games in hand on the two closest teams above them in the standings, Red Deer and Edmonton.
Truitt says the standings in the Eastern Conference are incredibly tight which is forcing teams to be at their best each and every night.
“We’re seeing teams win and we’re seeing teams losing in overtime and shootouts and then the next night, they respond. That goes to show that the parity of the conference and you want to get on the right side of it, but that pushes you to play at a high level every night. That’s what we’ve gone through. We’ve seen some ups and downs that way, but now we’ve seen the positive end of it. We don’t take anything for granted because any night, anything can happen.”
Puck drops at 7 p.m. in Swift Current on Friday.
Injury Report
Per the WHL Weekly Report, D Vojtech Vochvest has returned from injury. F Cole Peardon is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
