Raiders wrap up Central Division road trip with three straight wins
The Prince Albert Raiders are coming home from Alberta with a three-game winning streak.
After dispatching the Red Deer Rebels and the Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday and Saturday respectively, Brayden Pachal was the hero in Calgary on Sunday, as the P.A. defenceman scored the game-winning goal in overtime to give his team their third-straight win.
“Junior hockey’s an interesting thing. You get on a roll one way, winning or losing, and those things can snowball,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said.
“I think we’ve played pretty well (these) three games and had some good performances by a lot of guys and even though we’re missing some key players we just keep working away.”
For the fourth game in a row the Raiders were the first team on the scoreboard. P.A.’s Jordy Stallard, seemingly scoring by will as of late, found the back of the net late in the opening frame to give his team the 1-0 lead.
In the second period Kolten Olynek scored on the power play to extend the Raider lead to 2-0. About 10 minutes later the Hitmen would find power play success as well, with winger Jakob Stukel bringing Calgary to within one.
P.A. carried that 2-1 lead into the third period and they held that lead until the last minute of play, when former teammate Matteo Gennaro beat P.A.’s Nicholas Sanders to tie the game at twos and send it to overtime.
The last time the teams met, on Jan. 11, it was the Hitmen who came away victorious in overtime. This time the Raiders got the upper hand in the extra frame, as Pachal scored his second goal as a Raider to seal the win.
“The guys are really tired, they played a lot of hockey so far in this month and … we found a way to get a win,” Habscheid said.
“We’ve had enough losses this year, now (they) put together three wins in a row and (we’ll) let them enjoy that.”
The Raiders have the rest of the week off. They return to action on Friday when they play host to the Letbridge Hurricanes. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
Game Summary
Prince Albert 3, Calgary 2 (OT)
First Period
- Prince Albert, Stallard 14 (unassisted) 17:13
Second Period
- Prince Albert, Olynek 10 (Budik, Fonstad) 5:15 (pp)
- Calgary, Stukel 14 (Zipp, Reagan) 14:50 (pp)
Third Period
- Calgary, Gennaro 29 (Stukel, Malenstyn) 19:14
Overtime
- Prince Albert, Pachal 2 (Kelly) 2:52
Goalies: Prince Albert – Nicholas Sanders, 30 saves (W, 5-10-1-2); Calgary – Trevor Martin, 23 saves (L, 3-2-2-1).
Three Stars: 1. Spencer Moe; 2. Brayden Pachal 3. Jakob Stukel.
