Raiders’ Gislason gets early Christmas souvenir

Defenceman’s first career WHL goal comes up a winner

The Raiders celebrate a goal from Tayem Gislason (#5).

Tayem Gislason picked up a special milestone as an early Christmas gift.

On Saturday night, the 18-year-old defensive-defenceman scored his first career WHL goal. As an extra bonus, Gislason’s tally ended up being the winner as his Prince Albert Raiders downed the host Saskatoon Blades 4-1 in a WHL regular season clash played before 4,004 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

With the two sides locked in a 1-1 tie and 7:46 remaining in the third period, Gislason fired home a point shot through a screen to put his side in front 2-1.

“It felt really good,” said Gislason, who is skating through his second season with the Raiders. “We were working them for a long time in the O-zone in the second and third there.

Tayem Gislason scored his first career WHL goal on Saturday.

“I just got lucky that it was me who scored. I had a lane, and I saw we had a guy in front. I just threw it on net and hoped for the best.

“I thought it got tipped by someone else, but it ended up being mine.”

Following that tally, Raiders star centre Ozzy Wiesblatt and left-winger Evan Herman sealed victory for the visitors scoring empty-net goals inside the final 95 seconds of the third.

Saturday’s clash was the last contest for both sides before going into their respective WHL Christmas breaks.

Going into that break, Gislason was pumped to get his first WHL tally, and now he has a goal puck and a story to tell to family and friends when he returns home to Winnipeg, Man.

Tayem Gislason is known as a defensive-defenceman.

He was also happy to finally tally a goal after going goalless last season appearing in 23 contests of the Raiders abbreviated 24-game campaign.

“It just feels good like a weight off the shoulders,” said Gislason, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 181 pounds. “It was exciting.”

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid was pleased to see Gislason get rewarded with his first career WHL goal. Habscheid said his sophomore defender made the smart and non-difficult play in throwing a puck on net when a screen was set up allowing the Raiders rearguard to pick up a goal where the puck had enough juice to cross the goal-line.

“He (Gislason) is a good kid,” said Habscheid, whose team has won six of their last nine games. “He is a defender, and then he gets the game winner like that, so guys are happy for him.

Tikhon Chaika stopped 26 shots for the Raiders.

“He just shot it, and it kind of banked around a little bit. I don’t think it touched the back of the net, but it really doesn’t matter.”

As for the rest of Saturday’s game, the teams played through a fairly tight checking first 40 minutes where the shots on goal were tied 16-16.

On the physical front, Blades defenceman Rhett Rhinehart put on a big hit driving Raiders rearguard Nolan Allan into the boards late in the first period.

In the second period, Raiders defenceman Terrell Goldsmith flattened Blades captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere with an open ice hit.

While the game was scoreless after 40 minutes, Gislason said his Raiders felt like they were on the cusp of breaking thru with a goal.

Misha Volotovskii, right, netted the Blades teddy bear goal.

“We were in their zone pretty much the whole second period,” said Gislason, whose squad had a 10-6 edge in shots on goal in the second frame. “We just said we’ll get one eventually.

“We just have to keep doing what we are doing.”

The Raiders did indeed break thru on the scoreboard at the 3:57 mark of the third period while working on the power play. During a net scramble, Raiders veteran defenceman Landon Kosior pinched down from the point, collected a loose puck and wired it to the top corner of the Saskatoon goal to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

Just under three minutes later, the Blades evened the score at 1-1. Blades centre Misha Volotovskii had the puck at the right side of the Prince Albert net, and he snapped a shot past Raiders netminder Tikhon Chaika

The clean up after the Blades teddy bear toss goal was scored.

As Saturday’s contest was the Blades Teddy Bear Toss game, Volotovskii’s goal caused teddy bears and other stuffed animals to rain down to the ice from the stands. The tally was the second goal of the season for the 16-year-old rookie.

The teddy bears and stuffed animals were collected to give out to Saskatoon and area charities.

That set the stage for Gislason to score his winner.

With the Raiders holding a 2-1 edge, the Blades thought they might have evened the score during a frantic net scramble around the Prince Albert net that resulted in a stopped with 1:47 remaining in the third when Chaika covered the puck.

Misha Volotovskii has two goals as a 16-year-old rookie.

The officials went to a video review to see if the Blades had scored and ruled no goal due to the fact the puck did not cross the goal-line.

The Raiders promptly followed up scoring their two empty-net goals to seal the win.

Nolan Maier turned away 22 of 24 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades (15-13-1). Chaika stopped 26 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders (12-14-1-1).

Saturday’s game concluded a home-and-home series between the two sides, where the Blades pulled out a 3-2 win over the Raiders in Prince Albert on Friday thanks to a screen point shot goal from De La Gorgendiere.

The Blades thought they scored during this mad scramble.

Habscheid was glad his club was able to split the series after falling on Friday thanks to Saturday’s win.

“It is a win,” said Habscheid, whose team has won three out of the four head-to-head encounters with the Blades this season. “The last game before the Christmas break and guys are thinking about going home, and it is tough to get their focus.

“I thought they did a good job. It was a close game, and I though both goaltenders were pretty good. It could have went either way.

“They got the bounce last night, and we got it tonight.”

The Raiders celebrate their victory on Saturday.

Both teams return to action when they face each other once again on Monday, December 27 at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.

Gislason was happy his team heads into the Christmas break on a high note and notes netting his first WHL goal was a nice bonus too.

“It is going to be really good,” said Gislason. “We have good energy going into the break.”

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