The Prince Albert Raiders (1-1-1-0) are still searching for their first win on home ice after falling 4-1 to the Brandon Wheat Kings (3-0-0-0) at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday night.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says minor mistakes turned out to bite Prince Albert in the end.
“I thought that they kind of physically took it to us there for a little while. We got our speed going and I thought we got better. But then again, you got to take a look down your lineup, your best players have to be your best players. I thought our younger kids were the most dominant line out there tonight. We need more from others at key times. Discipline with five penalties. Some of these little mistakes have bitten us and against a good team like that, it’s going to result in a loss.”
Marcus Nguyen would open the scoring at the 16:04 mark of the first period with his first goal as a Brandon Wheat King coming on the power play. Nolan Flamand and Dominik Petr assisted on the play.
Shots after the first period were even at nine apiece.
Dominik Petr would double the Wheat King lead at the 17:12 mark with a sharp wrist shot from the slot, beating Max Hildebrand. Ben Binder Nord assisted on the play.
Ethan Bibeau would strike for his second goal of the season with less than a minute to go in the middle frame to cut the deficit to one. Lukas Dragicevic and Riley Boychuk assisted on the play.
Shots were even at 21 after forty minutes.
Roger McQueen’s fifth goal of the season would give the Wheat Kings a 3-1 lead at the 6:46 mark of the final frame. Luke Shipley had the lone helper.
Nguyen would ice the game for Brandon with an empty net goal.
Brandon finished the evening 1 for 6 on the power play, while the Raiders went 0 for 4 on the man advantage.
Truitt says the special teams are still a work in progress, but there was some promising signs on the power play.
“The power play had some looks, we turned over a couple of times, but I thought we had some real good looks. It’s been three games here, we haven’t really generated as much as we want to. On our penalty kill, the guys are still learning things right now and still getting used to things. Guys in different responsibilities that have to learn in an awful hurry against a good powerplay unit. It’s often the difference, it was basically a 3-1 game, if we score one, we defend one more, you never know where it goes.”
Ethan Eskit made 32 saves to earn the win in goal. Max Hildebrand made 23 saves
The Raiders return to action on Saturday night when they travel to Swift Current. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
Around The WHL
Nathan Behm recorded a hat trick as the Kamloops Blazers downed the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-3.
Minto alumni Nate Misskey registered his first goal of the season as the Victoria Royals picked up a 2-1 road win in Kelowna.
Lethbridge exploded for five goals in the third period as they defeated the Swift Current Broncos 6-3.
Moose Jaw picked up their first win of the season defeating the Regina Pats 4-2 at home.
Red Deer knocked off the Medicine Hat Tigers by a 4-2 final.
