Raiders fall to Silvertips in five games in WHL Championship Series
The Prince Albert Raiders saw their season come to an end on Friday night, as they fell to the Everett Silvertips by a 7-2 final in game five.
It only took the Silvertips 1:08 to get on the board in game five. After the Raiders turned the puck over breaking out of their own zone, Luke Vlooswyk swung the puck to the far side of the ice, where it was picked up by Zackary Shantz. Down the left wing on a two on one rush, Shantz dished a pass across for Shea Busch, who one timed his fifth goal of the playoffs home, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead.
With 4:03 left in the first, Everett doubled their lead. After Michal Orsulak made a tremendous left pad save, the puck remained free and eventually came to Mattias Uyeda at the blue line. Stepping to the top of the left circle, Uyeda sniped a shot past Orsulak who was without his stick after the prior stop. The goal gave the Silvertips a 2-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes of play.
The Raiders got some life 3:38 into the middle frame, as Brayden Dube put them on the board. Aiden Oiring threw a shot towards the net that Maddix McCagherty got a piece of on the way. The puck bounced towards Dube near the crease, and he was able to flip a shot over Anders Miller to make it a 2-1 game.
After that, Everett grabbed a chokehold on the game, scoring twice less than five minutes apart to go up 4-1. Brek Liske scored his fourth goal of the playoffs with 5:09 left in the frame, while Busch added his second goal of the night with 44 seconds left.
With 20 minutes to go, Prince Albert had one last period to save the season, as they trailed by three goals.
Busch completed the hat trick 6:17 into the third period to make it a 5-1 game, while Nolan Chastko scored less than a minute later to make it 6-1.
The Art Hauser Centre would see one last Juice Bomb with 8:56 left in the third, as captain Justice Christensen ripped a slapshot home to make it 6-2.
With 4:10 left, Landon DuPont scored on a Silvertips powerplay, rounding out the scoring to make it 7-2.
Everett captured their first WHL Championship in franchise history, and will head to Kelowna for the Memorial Cup, which starts one week from today.
