Pats Drop Exhibition Opener 4-3 to Raiders

First Period
The beginning of the Pats’ Pre-Season was delayed by 20 minutes when a fire alarm was triggered at the Art Hauser Centre.  The fire department gave the all clear and the puck dropped just twenty minutes behind schedule.  With both teams opening their exhibition schedule it was a back and forth period as the teams tried to gain control in the early going.  The Pats would strike first as on the powerplay, Carson Samoridny lined up and wired a wrist shot past Raiders goalie Nick McBride to give the Blue and White a lead through twenty minutes.

Second Period
After a single goal in the first, the Pats and Raiders made up for it in the middle period with five goals between the two squads.  Bryar Ortynski gave the Pats a 2-0 lead with the team’s second powerplay marker of the game with 16-year old Colton Kroeker picking up an assist on the goal.  From there the Raiders fought back into the game with goals 43 seconds apart when Mackenzie Stewart beat Dawson MacAuley from the point and Dakota Conroy got the puck by Adam Beukeboom on a break after the goaltender change.  Less than a minute later, Russian defenceman Dmitry Sinitsyn buried a goal to regain the lead for the Pats with Max Kammerer and Darian Henry notching assists on the marker.  The Raiders would answer back before the end of the frame as with the Pats on a 5-on-3 powerplay, Evan Morden broke in alone and snapped the puck by Beukeboom for the shorthanded tally and a 3-3 tie heading to the final stanza.

Third Period
The deadlock remained in place as the Pats came on strong in the early stages of the period, but the Raiders would weather the storm.  With time winding down, an innocent dump in on the Pats net turned dangerous when the puck skipped offBeukeboom and onto the stick of Reid Gardiner.  The Raiders forward slipped the puck behind the Pats’ netminder to give Prince Albert the 4-3 lead.  The Blue and White emptied the net, but wouldn’t find the tying marker as the Raiders opened the pre-season with a victory on home ice.

Next Game: vs. Prince Albert – Friday, September 6^th – 7:00 p.m.

Next Home Game: vs. Prince Albert – Friday, September 6^th – 7:00 p.m.