The Prince Albert Raiders started their seven-game road trip just the way they wanted.
The Raiders jumped on the Lethbridge Hurricanes early, outshooting their opponents 15-5 in the first period, and skating away with a 2-1 victory.
“We just had to find our sea-legs a little bit, which is understandable,” Raiders assistant coach Conor Yawney said. “With travel, we haven’t really done the Alberta travel-the-day-before-heavy-legs kind of thing, so it took everyone a shift or two to get into the flow of the game. After that we just went back to how we’ve been starting most of our games through the year. We were just direct, north, took what was given, and checked for our chances.”
Brayden Dube opened the scoring with 7:27 gone in the first period. The Raider forward finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play after a great feed from defenceman Hubert Clarke to make it 1-0.
Jackson Kostiuk made it 2-0 when he ripped a wrist shot glove side on Hurricanes starting goaltender Koen Cleaver with 6:01 gone in the second.
The Raiders had a chance to go up 3-0 later in the period, but Cleaver robbed Riley Boychuk with a sprawling save.
The Hurricanes rallied and cut the lead to one roughly seven minutes after Kostiuk’s goal when Shane Smith deposited a loose puck into an open Raider goal.
That was it for the scoring. Cleaver and Prince Albert Raiders starting goaltender Michal Orsulak closed the door the rest of the way, although both teams clamped down defensively too. The two goalies only needed to make a combined 10 saves in the third.
Orsulak finished with 25 saves on the day, while Cleaver made 27 stops.
Yawney said the game was a battle of contrasting styles. He gave the Raider players credit for sticking to the game plan.
“We were hunting pucks, we were making the plays that were there,” Yawney said. “We weren’t forcing anything. If we didn’t have anything either off the rush or in the o-zone we just through it back in and tried to reset and just kept handing off good shifts.”
The Raiders continue their road trip on Friday when they take on the Spokane Chiefs in Washington. Game time is 9:05 CST.
