Raiders cruise to 6-1 game one win over Blades
The Prince Albert Raiders sent a message in game one of their second round series, beating the Saskatoon Blades 6-1 on Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre.
The Raiders stormed out of the gates, scoring three times in the opening 20 minutes. Aiden Oiring opened the scoring 3:41 into the game, as Prince Albert’s top line went to work, with Brayden Dube and Brandon Gorzynski both picking up assists. From the corner, Oiring faked like he was going to skate up the wall, but played the puck neatly off the end wall, spinning around the other way. Deking Triston Mitchell-McElhone out of his skates, Oiring found all the separation he needed to work his way in on Gardner. From a sharp angle, the 20-year-old picked the perfect spot in the top corner past Gardner’s head for his second of the playoffs.
Daxon Rudolph made it a 2-0 game less than two minutes later. From the left corner, Braeden Cootes sent a pass behind the net to Jonah Sivertson. He brought the puck to the circle and dished a pass to the slot for Rudolph. The defenceman ripped a shot glove side past Gardner, scoring his fourth goal of the playoffs. Saskatoon decided to call their timeout after the goal, trying to find any way to stall Prince Albert’s momentum. That didn’t seem to work, as the Blades didn’t tally their first shot on goal until their was 7:28 left in the first period.
With 4:02 to go, Alisher Sarkenov extended Prince Albert’s lead to 3-0. After Cootes blocked a clearing attempt by Brayden Klimpke of the Blades, the Vancouver Canucks prospect brought the puck back into the Saskatoon zone leading a two on one rush. Down the right wing, Cootes fed Sarkenov back door, and the import forward redirected home his third of the playoffs to make it a 3-0 game.
With 20 minutes in the books, the game was tilted heavily in the Raiders favour, with a 3-0 score and a 19-2 lead in shots.
Gorzynski scored the only goal of the second period, striking with 7:59 left to make it 4-0. He took a long stretch pass from Rudolph at the Blades blue line, and led a two on one chance with Dube on his left side. Gorzynski kept the puck, and snapped a shot far side past Gardner’s blocker, as the Dallas Stars prospect beat the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect for his third of the playoffs.
Michal Orsulak was only tested with seven shots after two periods, and his biggest save of the night so far came off a chance from Hayden Harsanyi. He was given a nice pass from Tristen Doyle, and was all along on Orsulak in tight. Harsanyi went to his backhand, but Orsulak denied him with a terrific left pad save to keep it a 4-0 game.
The Raiders were given their first two powerplays at the start of the third period, and they cashed in on both chances. Oiring scored his second of the night with a one timer from the right circle, and Dube sniped home a shot from the slot to make it a 6-0 game. Both goals were scored on Ryley Budd, who started the third period in relief of Gardner, after surrendering four goals on 31 shots.
Zach Olsen scored for Saskatoon at the10:52 mark of the third period to make it 6-1, which would stand as the game one final.
The Raiders take a 1-0 series lead in the best of seven, and will look for another win on home ice in game two on Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drops at 7pm.
