Fortin stands tall to backstop Raiders to 4-2 win over Hitmen
The Prince Albert Raiders completed a perfect 2-0 weekend on Saturday night, taking down the visiting Calgary Hitmen 4-2 at the Art Hauser Centre.
Calgary outshot Prince Albert 17-3 in the opening 20 minutes, but both sides scored once each. The Hitmen opened the scoring 2:26 into the game, as the puck bounced off of Ben Kindel in the slot and arced over Dimitri Fortin. Kindel was credited with his 30th goal of the season and gave the visitors an early lead.
The Raiders responded at the 8:27 mark of the first, as Riley Boychuk put the Raiders on the board. A breakout pass from Jackson Kostiuk found Tyrone Sobry in the middle of the Hitmen blue line, and the defenceman walked into the slot area. Instead of shooting, Sobry fed a pass to the right side of the net for Boychuk, and it took a bounce along the way, hitting the Raider rookie and finding the back of the net on Prince Albert’s second shot of the night to tie the score.
With 2:42 left in the first, Kindel was kicked out of the game. Behind the play, the Hitmen forward delivered a cross check to Harrison Lodewyk, and the Raider centerman was down on the ice for some time before skating to the bench under his own power. Kindel was handed a five minute major and a game misconduct for the cross check, setting the Raiders up on a powerplay for the rest of the period. While they couldn’t find the back of the net in the final couple minutes of the first period, they carried over 3:18 of powerplay time into the middle frame with the score even at 1-1.
The green and gold scored on the powerplay 2:29 into the second period, as Brayden Dube gave the Raiders their first lead of the night. After Aiden Oiring’s shot from the left circle was stopped by Anders Miller, he found his own rebound and sent a pass to the slot for Dube, who then tapped home his 25th goal of the season to make it a 2-1 game.
With time winding down on the same powerplay, Calgary tied the game with a shorthanded goal, as hometown product Tanner Howe found the back of the net for the 13th time this season. At the Raider blue line, Howe stole the puck from Brayden Dube, and worked his way in on Fortin on a breakaway. From the left wing, Howe stick handled before roofing a backhand shot glove side, tying things right back up at 2-2.
57 seconds into the third period, Harrison Lodewyk gave the Raiders a 3-2 lead, thanks to another fortunate bounce. Skating down the right wing, Lodewyk was looking to pass across the crease, but the puck deflected off a Hitmen in front of the crease and over the goal line, as he picked up his ninth goal of the season.
Just over a minute later, Ty Meunier put the Raiders by a pair. Skating with the puck along the far wall, the rookie quickly cut back and turned around to head towards the net. Making a move around a defender, Meunier snapped a shot home for his 11th goal of the season to make it a 4-2 game.
The Hitmen didn’t have a ton of chances to get back into the game after that, despite having the goalie pulled on a late powerplay. A plethora of Raiders put their bodies on the line to block a pile of Hitmen shots on goal, preserving the two goal lead, and making it a 4-2 final.
Fortin was incredible in goal, as he stopped 37 of 39 shots in the win for Prince Albert.
A busy week continues for the Raiders, as they head to Moose Jaw on Monday to take on the Warriors.
