Carson Latimer and Dallyn Peekeekoot had goals and Tikhon Chaika made 26 saves, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the Eastern Conference leaders in their own rink.
The Edmonton Oil Kings used a three-goal second period outburst to power past the Prince Albert Raiders 5-2 at Rogers Place on Saturday.
“They got some timely goals, (and) some of their skill took over,” Raiders coach Marc Habscheid said afterwards. “We made a couple mistakes but we hung in there. They were kind of overmatched a bit, but we hung in there. A couple of breaks here and there and it might have been different.”
Jalen Luypen and Carter Souch had two goals each for the Oil Kings, while rookie Kolby Hay made 22 stops to earn his 11th win of the season.
Luypen opened the scoring at 6:55 of the first period when he grabbed a rebound off a Jaxsen Wiebe shot to make it 1-0. The Kelowna, B.C. product extended the lead early in the second with a shorthanded marker to make it 2-0.
Carson Latimer got the Raiders on the board just over a minute later. A bad pinch from an Oil King defenceman led to a Prince Albert three-on-one with Latimer, Sloan Stanick and Reece Vitelli on the rush. Stanick fed a perfect back-door pass to Latimer who tapped the puck into an empty net to make it 2-1.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, that was as close as they got all night. Souch scored two goals roughly two minutes apart, converting at 12:43 and 14:48, to make it 4-1 heading into the second.
The Oil Kings added to their lead late in the third on a perfectly placed shot from Dawson Seitz to make it 5-1.
The Raider battled back to put tremendous pressure on the Oil Kings during the dying minutes, and were rewarded with a goal. Dallyn Peekeekoot went to the front of the net and deflected a Remy Aquilon point shot past Hay to make it 5-2. Peekeekoot’s power play goal was his fourth of the season, and second with the man advantage.
Despite the final score, Habscheid credited his team for playing hard to the final whistle.
“That’s the Raider way,” he said. “We’re still champs and we’re not going down without a fight.”
The loss drops the Raiders four points back of the Calgary Hitmen and Lethbridge Hurricanes, who sit tied for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot with 45 points each. The Hurricanes hammered the last place Medicine Hat Tigers 9-2 on Saturday, while the Hitmen had the day off.
The Swift Current Broncos, who sit seventh with 46 points, rallied from a 4-1 deficit to beat the Winnipeg Ice 5-4 at home.
The Raiders end their four game Alberta road trip with two wins and two losses. They’re off until Friday when they take on the Warriors at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw. Game times is 7 p.m.