A pair of goals from Harrison Lodewyk helped power the Prince Albert Raiders to a 3-2 victory over the Spokane Chiefs at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena on Friday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says Prince Albert got contributions from every position group in the win.
“I thought a lot of our lines contributed here tonight, all four lines. The defense did a pretty good job as well by defending and clogging up our blue line a little bit. Hilty (Max Hildebrand) was great late in the game saving a huge opportunity there towards the end. Our team effort, we stuck to it even though we were down 1-0. We just kind of kept plugging away. We knew we were going to be able to get some sort of opportunities that paid off. But we had some great efforts here tonight.”
After a Raider turnover in the defensive zone, former Saskatoon Blade Connor Roulette would open the scoring for Spokane at the 14:30 mark of the first period with his team leading 13th goal of the season. Chase Bertholet had the lone assist on the play.
After Dawson Cowan made several key saves early in the game, it would take until the 10:36 mark of the second period for the Raiders to solve the Chief goaltender to tie the game. Sloan Stanick struck for his sixth goal of the season on the power play. Aiden Oiring and Niall Crocker assisted on the play.
Truitt says Stanick contributed far more to the Raiders then his two points on the scoresheet would indicate.
“He was good offensively and carrying the pace with his speed. Defensively he was reliable and did some good forward work for us. It doesn’t always have to be pretty along the boards but he battled and got pucks out when we needed to. As a 20-year-old, he’s seen these situations many times so it was good that he stood up and took charge and did a good job.”
Spokane would be the benefactor of a couple of redirections to take a 2-1 lead at the 17:03 mark of the second period. Will McIsaac would get credit for his first goal of the season after his point shot hit multiple bodies before going five hole past Max Hildebrand. Chase Bertholet and Conner Roulette were credited as assists.
A partial breakaway would lead to Prince Albert knotting up the score at 2-2 just 2:40 into the third period. Harrison Lodewyk would get a break up the left wing and fire a wrist shot that Cowan would get a piece of, but not enough to prevent the puck from crossing the goal line. The goal would be unassisted.
After Ryder Ritchie would hustle to beat out an icing call, the Raider offense would go to work. Sloan Stanick would make a firm pass from the corner onto the tape of Lodewyk who would chip it home for his second goal of the contest at the 14:19 mark. Eric Johnston also received credit for an assist.
The game would have a crazy ending as Hayden Pakkala would ring the goal post on an empty net bid and the Chiefs would come back the other way. Brayden Crampton appeared to score the game tying goal, but the shot came after time had expired giving the Raiders a 3-2 victory.
Max Hildebrand made 27 saves to earn the win for the Raiders. Dawson Cowan made 29 stops for the Chiefs.
The Raiders return to action on Saturday night when they travel to take on the Tri-City Americans. Puck drops at 9 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
