That was the message from Prince Albert Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald after his team failed to close out their first round series with the Red Deer Rebels on Wednesday.
The Raiders jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but couldn’t stop the Rebels from storming back with four goals in the final 41 minutes in a 4-3 Red Deer win.
“Stick with our process,” McDonald said in a phone interview afterward. “(It’s) a game where we controlled a lot of the play and we created looks with our puck decisions and puck play, so again, just stick with it.”
Brandon Gorzynski and Daxon Rudolph put the Raiders up 2-0 in the first 10 minutes of the first period. The Rebels, who needed the win to prevent Prince Albert from sweeping them out of the playoffs, responded with goals in the last minute of the first period and first three minutes of the second.
Both goals came from defenceman Cameron Dillard, who only had two all season heading into Wednesday’s contest.
Connor Howe put the Raiders up 3-2 midway through the second, but Beckett Hamilton responded for the Rebels roughly six minutes later.
Prince Albert outshot Red Deer 34-8 in the first 40 minutes, but couldn’t hold the lead. In the third, Kalder Varga put Red Deer ahead for good with a power play marker just 1:24 into the period.
Prince Albert managed just four shots the rest of the period, and Red Deer skated away with the win.
“I thought we created a lot of possession time,” McDonald said. “We got pucks underneath and we created a lot of o-zone possession time, whether it was five-on-five or on the power play. We had a lot of Grade A looks that we just weren’t able to capitalize on. (We) had our opportunities to continue to add to the lead and they came back and capitalized on the opportunities that they got.”
Rebels netminder Matthew Kondro finished the game with 35 saves, while Michal Orsulak made nine stops for Prince Albert. Prince Albert went 1/6 on the power play, while Red Deer finished 1/3.
Both teams are back at it again on Friday for Game 5 at the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
Game 6, if necessary, is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
