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CALGARY, AB. – Fighting for their playoff lives, the Prince Albert Raiders skated to a 6-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen on Wednesday night. Brandon Herrod, Mark McNeill and Justin Maylan finished with a goal and an assist each for the Raiders (29-36-2-3), who clinched at least a tie for the eighth and final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference “We’re not done yet,” said Prince Albert head coach Bruno Campese, whose team will play a home-and-home set against the Swift Current Broncos this weekend. “We’ve worked hard. The last couple years we’ve been close. We had a tie-breaker two years ago against Edmonton and we ended up losing a 2-1 overtime game at home. We know the pain and we don’t certainly want to go through that again. We can take care of our own business and we want to take care of our own business on Friday.” A former assistant coach with the Hitmen, Campese had nothing but kind things to say about the Calgary franchise, which fell on hard times this year after two straight seasons atop the WHL standings. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here, but I sure certainly enjoyed my time working for the Hitmen and working for the organization,” Campese said. “I still have a great deal of respect for the people that are involved here.” Austin Connor, Todd Fiddler and Igor Revenko also scored for the Raiders, while Rob Trzonkowski and Alex Roach scored late goals in the third period for the Hitmen (20-45-3-2). “They had some desperation and they worked and we didn’t,” said Hitmen head coach Mike Williamson. Prince Albert goalie Jamie Tucker finished with 34 saves, while Calgary netminder Brandon Glover stopped 30 of 36 shots he faced. |
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In addition to scoring, Trzonkowski dropped the gloves to fight Prince Albert defenceman Tyler Yaworski in the first period and was commended by Williamson for his hard-nosed effort. “I thought Bobby worked hard,” Williamson said. Although his team is mired in a three-game losing streak, Trzonkowski said he’s trying to keep a positive attitude with just two games remaining on the season. “I just want to get over the adversity of our losing streak,” said the rookie forward, who has scored three goals to go with four assists this season. “I’m trying to take out all the positives of this rough time. Sometimes it’s pretty depressing losing, but I still love coming to the rink every day and practising. I’ll miss it when it’s over.” The Hitmen will wrap up the 2010-11 campaign with a home-and-home series against the Medicine Hat Tigers this weekend. After travelling to Medicine Hat for a game on Saturday night, the Hitmen will round out the season with a Sunday afternoon (2 p.m.) affair against the Tigers at the Scotiabank Saddledome. “I want to see guys who show that they care and they want to be here and we haven’t seen enough of that,” said Williamson of what he wants to see from the players on the final weekend of action. Trzonkowski said he and his teammates want to finish off the season by showing some desperation and pride. “This is a great organization, so do it for each other, do it for yourself and do the best you can,” he said. THREE STARS RAIDERS 6 at HITMEN 2 Third period Penalties – Bourhis PA (tripping) 2:15, Ruopp PA (boarding) 9:29, Corbin PA (high-sticking) 10:52, Ruopp PA (roughing), Humphries Cal (roughing, misconduct) 11:39, Hlinka PA, Clayton Cal (slashing) 17:05, Danyluk PA (goaltender interference) 17:39. Shots on goal by: Goal – Prince Albert: Tucker (W, 12-19-3); Calgary: Glover (L, 9-16-2). Attendance: 8,171.
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