Raiders win first game in U.S. Division 5-2 over Spokane

The Prince Albert Raiders won their third straight game on Friday night, and improved their point streak to 15 games to start the season. They defeated the Spokane Chiefs 5-2 at Spokane Veterans Arena to improve to 12-0-3-0 on the season.

It was a terrific first period in the United States for the Raiders, as they jumped ahead to a 3-0 lead over the Chiefs. After an adventurous shift from Daxon Rudolph saw him force a turnover and turn the puck over himself, he jumped into an offensive zone rush for Prince Albert to open the scoring. After Max Heise dropped the puck off for Alisher Sarkenov, the Kazakh forward swung a pass to the slot for Rudolph. Seeing Spokane’s goalie Carter Esler sliding over to find the puck, Rudolph saw his five hole open up, and that’s where he deposited his fifth goal of the season. His gal came right around the midway mark of the first period, 9:57 into the game to be exact, to put the Raiders up 1-0.

With 7:21 to go in the first, Jonah Sivertson put Prince Albert up 2-0 on a fantastic individual effort. After he took a pass from Evan Smith near center ice, Sivertson barreled into the Chiefs zone, working around four different blue sweaters on his way to the net. After losing it for a moment, Sivertson dug it free again, but it was Ty Meunier who found it and fired a shot. That try got blocked in front, but Sivertson found the rebound and beat Esler for his sixth goal of the season to make it a 2-0 lead.

Owen Corkish got on the board with 6:24 to go in the first, extending Prince Albert’s lead to 3-0. Brayden Dube made a great play behind the net to find Corkish open in the left circle. Corkish took the pass and outwaited Esler, who was expecting a one timer, as he held onto the puck for an extra second before finding the far corner. It was Corkish’s fourth goal of the year to round out the first period scoring.

The Raiders nearly had one more goal in the dying seconds of the first period, but Esler shut the door with a terrific glove save. Aiden Oiring found Riley Boychuk cutting towards the goal and gave him a perfect pass on the tape. Boychuk ripped a shot on goal, but Esler snatched the puck with the leather to keep it a 3-0 game after 20 minutes of play.

The Chiefs held the advantage in shots in the second period at an 8-5 clip. It was Prince Albert, whoever, who scored the lone goal of the frame. After Spokane had chances to get back in the game, most notably a great glove save by Michal Orsulak on Sam Oremba, Linden Burrett scored for Prince Albert to open up a 4-0 lead. Matyas Man dumped the puck beneath the goal line where Riley Boychuk picked it up, and he had a boatload of room to skate the puck back into the circles. Boychuk surveyed the ice and found Burrett creeping closer and closer to the net, and gave his defenceman a crisp pass. Burrett then wired a shot past Esler, scoring his first goal of the season to make it a four goal game. With his assist on the goal, Man recorded his first WHL point.

The Chiefs got onto the board for the first time at the 7:02 mark of the third period, as Coco Armstrong found the back of the net. After a point shot from Rhett Sather was stopped, Armstrong found the rebound and buried it past Orsulak, scoring his sixth goal of the year. After the goal, Justice Christensen and Assanali Sarkenov got into it, as they were both handed fighting majors. Sarkenov was given an additional game misconduct on top, as he was throwing punches after the two were broken up, while Christensen hadn’t even dropped his.

Mathis Preston cut into the Raiders lead even more, as he found the back of the net with 3:48 left in the third. After a shot from Rhett Sather didn’t get through all the way to Orsulak, Preston found the puck and batted it out of midair and over the goal line. It was Preston’s seventh goal of the season to make it a 4-2 game.

The Chiefs pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, but couldn’t sustain any offensive zone time, as just seconds later, the Raiders gained possession of the puck. It came to Alisher Sarkenov near center ice, and he sent it the rest of the way down into the empty cage. His fourth goal of the season gave the Raiders a 5-2 win.

The Raiders now get set to travel to Kennewick to take on the Tri-City Americans tomorrow night. Puck drops at 8pm Sask time.