Raiders shut down Canes
On a night when it seemed a flurry of early shots might do it, the Lethbridge Hurricanes were unable to hand the Prince Albert Raiders their first loss of the season.
The Hurricanes were topped 5-1 by the Raiders during Western Hockey League play Friday night at the Enmax Centre.
The Canes pumped 21 shots at Raiders goaltender Ian Scott and held a 1-0 lead after the first period on a goal from Taylor Ross, but the Raiders clamped down the rest of the way, holding the Hurricanes to 15 shots in the last 40 minutes as Prince Albert stays perfect at 7-0 while the Hurricanes drop to 2-3.
Though they were outshot 21-9 in the opening period, the Raiders eventually outshot the Canes 40-36 and killed off every infraction against them as Lethbridge went 0-8 on the power play, including a 55second five-on-three-chance early in the first.
“They’re obviously a relentless team and I thought we played a perfect game in the first 20 minutes,” said Ross, whose goal was his fourth of the season. “I think afterwards they just kept to their game and we didn’t.”
The Hurricanes were handed a five-on-three for 55 seconds a little over five minutes into the first when Prince Albert’s Justin Nachbaur was called for cross checking and Zack Hayes as whistled down for roughing.
Lethbridge wasn’t able to cash in on the two-man advantage, but struck a little over two minutes later when Ross was left alone to the right of the Raiders’ crease and made no mistake tapping home a feed from Jordy Bellerive for a 1-0 lead.
Despite getting outshot 16-3 a little past the midway point of the first, the Raiders had a golden chance to pull even, but Ozzy Wiesblatt fired high on Hurricanes goaltender Reece Klassen to keep Lethbridge’s 10 lead intact.
Despite the lopsided shot clock, Klassen was called upon to come up big with a little over 20 seconds left in the first period, getting the right pad down and denying Prince Albert’s Spencer Moe on a breakaway as the Canes carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
The Raiders knotted things up at 1-1 when Sergei Sapego was able to take a few steps in from the left point and get a shot past Klassen 6:26 into the second.
Prince Albert struck for the eventual game-winner on a shorthanded goal midway through the second when Noah Gregor took a pass from Parker Kelly and slid a shot home for a 2-1 lead.
The Hurricanes had a dyingseconds attempt to tie things up before the second period was over on an individual rush from Dylan Cozens that started at centre ice, but Raiders goaltender Ian Scott was there to close the door and keep the Raiders 2-1 lead safe heading into the second intermission.
It took the Raiders a mere 20 seconds to move up 3-1 as Cole Fonstad went to the net and tipped a gimme of a rebound home for his fourth of the season.
The Raiders forward added another 2:12 later to move Prince Albert up 4-1.
The Hurricanes had another five-on-three late in the third and turned that into a six-onthree when they pulled Klassen, but Gregor added his second of the game into an empty net with 1:22 to go.
The Raiders were 0-for-5 on the power play.
The Hurricanes are back at the Enmax Centre tonight when they host the Saskatoon Blades at 7 p.m.
“We just need to stick to our process and the game plan,” said Ross. “We can’t get away from that, our game plan is designed for us.”
Friday’s announced attendance was 3,818.
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