It was going to happen sooner or later.
The Tri-City Americans scored five unanswered goals, three of which came on the power play, and handed the Prince Albert Raiders their first regulation loss of the WHL season.
“We’d be pretty foolish to think that we were going to go the whole season and never have a regulation loss,” Raiders assistant coach Conor Yawney said following the 6-2 defeat on Saturday. “We dealt with some adversity. Give Tri-City credit. They fed off the crowd.”
Goals from Riley Boychuk and captain Justice Christensen put the Raiders up 2-1 midway through the second, but the lead was short-lived.
Cash Koch tied the game with his fourth of the season 29 seconds later, and the Americans took advantage of three straight Raider penalties to score two power play goals, and take a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Yawney credited the Americans for taking advantage of their scoring opportunities, something he said the Raiders failed to do.
“We had our chances there, especially in the second, and we just weren’t able to put it home,” he said. “They were able to put away their chances, then at the end of the game (there were) some bad bounces our way, I would say, for some of the goals and it’s tough to come back from that.”
The Americans added another power play goal with less than seven minutes to play after Max Heise was sent off for delay of game. The Raiders were forced to head back on the power play after Aiden Oiring was called for cross-checking along with Tri-City’s goal.
Although the Raiders killed off that power play, the damage was done. Despite the setback, Yawney said some adversity would be good for the group.
“They tried to push us out of the game and we kind of stood our ground and tried to fight back, Yawney said. “It’s good to see what the group is made out of.”
Gavin Garland added another power play goal in the third, and Cruz Pavao scored into an empty net with 2:39 left in the game to round out the scoring.
The Raiders are off until Tuesday when they take on the Western Conference leading Everett Silvertipps. Puck drop is 7:05 CST.
