The Prince Albert Raiders couldn’t solve 16-year-old rookie netminder Josh Ravensbergen as they fell 5-0 on home ice to the Prince George Cougars on Saturday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says Prince Albert didn’t get enough second chances to challenge the rookie Ravensbergen in the loss.
“I didn’t think we had a lot of guys at the net or second opportunities at the net. We told our guys that we’re going to be looking for rebound opportunities. We just didn’t get there.”
The Cougars, who entered play with two of the top three scorers in the WHL had a rather unlikely candidate open the scoring. Nicholas McClennan would find twine for his first WHL goal at the 6:07 mark of the first period. Ephram McNutt had the lone assist on the goal.
The first period wouldn’t be without some fireworks between the two teams. Keaton Dowhaniuk laid a high hit on Sloan Stanick, causing him to be given a five minute major penalty and game misconduct for check to the head and a game misconduct.
Harrison Lodewyk would then engage the Cougar defensemen in a fight and bring some energy to the crowd at the Art Hauser Centre.
The Raiders led the shot clock 16-15 in the first period.
The Cougar offence would break through for a pair of the goals in the second period.
Zac Funk would pick up his 15th goal of the season at the 6:29 mark on the power play. Koehn Ziemmer and Bauer Dumanski assisted on the play.
Just 19 seconds later, Terik Parascak would strike for his WHL leading 18th goal of the season at the 6:48 mark. Ondrej Becher had the lone assist.
Truitt called a timeout following the Parascak goal. He says he used as a way to settle his team’s nerves/
“I want to just calm them down. Things snowballed like it did the other night. I just wanted to reiterate what we were doing. It’s right. Let’s just manage the pucks the right way and keep things going. But it’s just a matter of 19 seconds or whatever it was.”
Koehn Ziemmer extended the Prince Georgelead to 4-0 in the third period with his fifth of the season at the 15:18 mark. Riley Heidt provided the lone helper.
After a highlight reel set up from Koehn Ziemmer, Oren Shtrom would provide the finishing touch with his fourth goal of the season at the 17:32 mark. Ephram McNutt also had an assist on the goal.
With the win, Prince George now stands firmly as the top team in the WHL with a 12-5-0-0 record.
“They’ve got dynamic skill.” Truitt said about Prince George. “They’ve got good speed and they just don’t miss. When you give guys like that a lot of time, they’re going to find a back in the net.”
The Raiders return to action on Wednesday, Nov. 8 when they travel to the windy city to take on the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Puck drops at 8 p.m. Sask time.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
