It won’t go down as the prettiest win for the Prince Albert Raiders, but they were able to pick up the two points with a 6-5 win over the Swift Current Broncos at the InnovationPlex on Friday night.
The early tides weren’t in the Raiders favour as the home standing Broncos would control play early in the first period.
Brady Birnie’s 15th goal of the season at the 5:02 mark and Ty Coupland’s ninth of the campaign at 12:40 would give Swift Current an early 2-0 lead in the first period.
The Raiders erased the early deficit by the end of the period thanks to Tomas Mrsic’s 14th goal of the season at the 14:56 mark and an unassisted tally from Luke Moroz at 17:12.
Despite the good finish to the period, Raider head coach Jeff Truitt was not pleased with how his club came out of the starting blocks.
“It wasn’t a great start. I was really disappointed in the way that we started this game. Everything is important, but when you get a chance to continue your momentum from the last little while, we’ve got to come out harder than what we did.”
“I thought we played a good last six minutes to even it up, and then we kind of caught fire there. We made some mistakes in net front coverage and things like that. Guys have to learn here. They bury a couple in there tight, couple back door goals. Those types of things have got to get ironed out here quicker because we got away with it tonight. We might not get away with it next game.”
A couple of power play markers would put the Raiders ahead in the second period. Aiden Oiring would reach double digits with his 10th goal of the campaign at the 7:23 mark. Mrsic and Krzysztof Macias picked up the assists.
Just over four minutes, Mrsic would strike for his second goal of the night and 15th of the season on the power play at the 10:36 mark. Oiring and Macias assisted on the play.
Josh McGregor would cut the Raider lead to just one with a power play marker at the 12:46 mark of the middle frame.
Prior to the goal, Prince Albert was in a groove killing 15 straight opposing power plays.
With just over a minute remaining in the middle frame, Oiring’s second goal of the night would restore the two goal advantage for Prince Albert. Justice Christensen picked up the helper.
In the third period, the Broncos would score twice in the first 7:46 of the frame to tie the game up at 5-5. Rylan Gould and Clarke Caswell each picked up their eighth goals of the season.
“You’re kind of searching for answers a little bit when you’re up 5-3 and they come back to 5-5.” Truitt said. “It’s a test of your character. We stuck with it, finding that little extra edge to get one. It’s a character thing when you face adversity. What are you going to do? Our guys found a way, although it wasn’t our greatest game in the world, but we came away with a big road win.”
Tomas Mrsic would finish off his second career WHL hat trick at the 17:08 mark to give the Raiders the lead back. Oiring and Niall Crocker assisted on the play.
Mrsic and Oiring each finished with four points on the night and have formed instant chemistry since the two have been paired together on the same line.
“You’ve got two guys that can make plays.” Truitt said. “They’re very elusive with the puck. Their skill work is tremendous. They’re natural goal scorers and point producers. So, yeah, we talk about them an awful lot, but they’re definitely key for our team and help drive the offense, and that’s what we need from them.”
The Raiders return to action on Saturday night when the Lethbridge Hurricanes make their first visit of the season to the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
