Raiders survive penalty trouble to beat Rebels 3-1
The Raiders killed off more than five straight minutes of a Red Deer powerplay in the third period, and knocked off the Rebels 3-1 on Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre.
Despite being outshot 5-0 early in the game, the Raiders opened the scoring on their first shot 7:46 into the first period. Daxon Rudolph teed up Rilen Kovacevic at the point, and the 20-year-old winger ripped a one timer home, with the puck deflecting off a Rebel in front and into the back of the net. Kovacevic picked up his 25th goal of the season, extending his goal streak to four games to put Prince Albert up 1-0.
The Raiders scored on their second powerplay of the game with 5:42 left in the first, as Tomas Mrsic also scored his 25th goal of the season. Taking a pass from Kovacevic rink wide, Mrsic picked his spot blocker side from the left wing, beating Chase Wutzke. The Red Deer netminder was cheating hard on a play to Niall Crocker back door, leaving nearly the whole left side of the net open for Mrsic to shoot at. The St. Louis Blues prospect gave the green and gold a 2-0 lead, which they took into the second period.
The middle frame was quiet for the most part until the 17:47 mark with the Raiders on the penalty kill. With Dayce Derkatch and Justice Christensen already in the box for separate minor penalties, Niall Crocker was handed a five minute major and a game misconduct for checking to the head in the left corner behind Max Hildebrand, as well as a tripping penalty on top of that. That set the Rebels up on a long five on three man advantage, where Beckett Hamilton scored. He took a cross crease pass from Samuel Drancak and buried his ninth goal of the season into a wide open net, as Hildebrand had no chance to dive across for the save.
That goal was the only one of the second period, as the Raiders held onto a 2-1 lead heading into the third. They would have to start the final frame on a long penalty kill, as 5:16 remained on Crocker’s penalties.
Tomas Mrsic scored the only goal in the third period, giving the Raiders a huge two goal lead with 8:10 left in regulation, scoring his second goal of the game to make it 3-1.
Hildebrand was lights out again between the pipes, stopping 32 of 33 shots in the win for the Raiders.
Prince Albert has now won four straight games and are off until Friday night when they host the Saskatoon Blades. Puck drops at 7pm at the Art Hauser Centre.