Raiders win Tuesday night barn burner 5-4 against Winterhawks
The only game in the WHL on Tuesday night didn’t disappoint, as the Prince Albert Raiders and Portland Winterhawks put up nine combined goals. The Raiders came out on the winning end of it, taking down their Western Conference foes by a 5-4 final. Three Raiders had multi point nights, while Max Hildebrand stopped 37 of 41 shots in the win.
After being outplayed and heavily outshot in the first half of the first period, the Raiders were given their first powerplay of the game after Cole Slobodian was sent off for interference after taking down Linden Burrett in front of Max Hildebrand. The Raiders took 59 seconds to strike on the man advantage, as Lukas Dragicevic fed Rilen Kovacevic. Kovacevic, the newest member of the Raiders, scored his second goal in a green and gold jersey with a nice shot that beat Ondrej Stebetak. It was his 23rd goal of the season, and it gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead.
Slobodian took another penalty at the 15:26 mark of the first period, giving Prince Albert another powerplay. This time, it was Portland who had the best chances, as they nearly scored shorthanded. However, a three on one rush was stopped beautifully by Daxon Rudolph, as he swatted a saucer pass out of midair, eliminating any scoring chance.
Turning the play the other way, Rudolph stretched a breakout pass to Riley Boychuk just as the powerplay expired. The Raiders had a four on one rush coming the other way, and capitalized to take a two goal lead. Boychuk fed a pass to Ty Meunier in the slot, and Meunier gave a pass right back to him in the left circle. Boychuk ripped a shot past Stebetak, scoring his sixth goal of the season as the three 16-year-olds connected for the goal to make it a 2-0 Raider lead.
The Winterhawks outshot the Raiders 14-7 in the first period, but the green and gold took their two goal lead into the second period.
Six combined goals were scored in the second period, with both teams scoring three times. Josh Zakreski scored Portland’s first goal of the game 1:01 into the second period, and Tyson Jugnauth scored at the 7:48 mark to tie the game up.
With 7:03 left in the middle frame, Niall Crocker gave the Raiders the lead again, taking a pass from Ethan Bibeau and sniping a shot from the hashmarks past Stebetak to make it a 3-2 game. Less than two minutes later, Brayden Dube struck for Prince Albert, scoring his 18th of the season to put Prince Albert up 4-2.
Another goal was scored less than two minutes later, but this time it was Portland’s turn. On the powerplay, Kyle Chyzowski sniped a shot home past Hildebrand, scoring his 30th goal of the year to make it 4-3 with 3:38 left in the second.
1:06 later, Prince Albert restored their two goal lead. Aiden Oiring took a drop pass from Brayden Dube and buried his 18th of the year. After a busy period of scoring, the Raiders ended the second period how they ended the first: leading by two goals as they took a 5-3 lead into the final 20 minutes.
The Winterhawks struck early in the third, making it a one goal game 2:17 in. Zakreski took a long shot through traffic that beat Hildebrand for his second goal of the night, making it 5-4.
Both teams trade scoring chances the rest of the game, with the shots in the final 20 minutes favouring Portland by a 12-9 margin. The Raiders couldn’t find a goal in the third, but it didn’t matter as they held on for the 5-4 win, surviving a late Winterhawks attack with the net empty.
It’s the second straight win for Prince Albert, and they’ll look to make it three in a row on Friday night when they welcome the Swift Current Broncos. Puck drops at 7pm.
