Cobra Chickens blank Pats 5-0 for Hildebrand’s first shutout of the season
If picking a game to record a shutout could be planned, Saturday night would have been the perfect date. On the night where the Prince Albert Raiders turned into the Prince Albert Cobra Chickens, they laid a goose egg on the Regina Pats, handing their East Division rivals a 5-0 loss at the Art Hauser Centre. Brayden Dube scored twice, while Riley Boychuk scored his first goal in the WHL among all of the highlights, while Max Hildebrand stopped all 35 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season, and the third of his career.
After a scoreless first period which saw 21 total shots (11 REG-10 PA), the Cobra Chickens opened the flood gates in the second period. Brayden Dube opened the scoring 4:15 into the middle frame, tipping home a point shot. Lukas Dragicevic was the one who let the shot from the blue line go, and Dube was parked in front of Kelton Pyne, changing direction on the puck and beating the Pats netminder for his eighth goal of the season to put Prince Albert up 1-0.
The Cobra Chickens were able to kill off a four minute high sticking call that Ethan Bibeau took right after a high stick Regina got away with seconds earlier, bringing some life back into the building. After killing off all four minutes, Prince Albert got a turn on the man advantage six seconds after coming back to even strength. They would even get a five on three powerplay for 35 seconds, but would score seven seconds after the two man advantage expired. Once again from the point, Dragicevic ripped a shot towards the net, and parked in front this time was Aiden Oiring. Oiring was able to get his stick on the shot, redirecting his ninth goal of the season past Pyne to make it a 2-0 game.
With 2:56 left in the second, the Cobra Chickens struck again, as 16-year-old forward Ty Meunier found the back of the net. After a shot at the point from Tyrone Sobry was stopped by Pyne, Meunier found the rebound in the slot. Circling around the left circle, Meunier cut back towards the net and took a low shot, beating Pyne five hole. His fourth of the season gave Prince Albert a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.
With 1:56 to go in the third, Dube scored his second goal of the game to put the Raiders up 4-0.
Riley Boychuk scored his first Western Hockey League goal with 29 seconds left in regulation to make it a 5-0 game, which would go on to be the final.
With the win, Prince Albert now has points in six straight games. They’ll head to Swift Current for a meeting with the Broncos on Friday night, and come back home to host the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday.
