Allan ensures Raiders playoff push stays alive

Defenceman picks up four points in 6-1 win

Nolan Allan collected four points for the Raiders on Saturday.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Nolan Allan made certain his Prince Albert Raiders stayed alive as far as a playoff push is concerned as the WHL regular season draws to a close.

On Saturday night, the 18-year-old standout defenceman recorded one goal and three assists to power the Raiders to a 6-1 victory over the Regina Pats before a season high crowd of 3,040 fans at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The win allows the Raiders hopes of chasing down a WHL playoff berth to remain very much alive.

The triumph over the Pats was a big bounce back effort for the Raiders, who dropped a 4-2 decision one night earlier on home ice to the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Nolan Allan and his Raiders stayed alive in the WHL playoff chase.

“We were more ready to go tonight I think,” said Allan, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. “We weren’t real happy with our game against Brandon last night.

“We came in prepared today and got the job done. It was just our mindset. We are do or die right now.

“Everyone has to bring more. We need every inch we can get. We have to stick to that mentality and play that way every night.”

With the victory, the Raiders to improve to 26-33-4-1 to jump into ninth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference standings with 57 points to sit one point ahead of the 24-31-6-2 Calgary Hitmen.

Nolan Allan scored a key second period goal on Saturday.

The Raiders trail the 26-32-5-2 Swift Current Broncos by two points for eighth place and the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

The Pats fell to 24-33-3-2 with Saturday’s setback to the Raiders. Regina remains 11^th overall in the Eastern Conference six points behind the Broncos for the final playoff berth in the conference.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes gave themselves a little breathing room when it comes to locking up a playoff berth posting a 6-1 road victory over the Tigers in Medicine Hat on Saturday. The Hurricanes improved to 29-30-3-1 to sit three points ahead of the Broncos for seventh in the Eastern Conference.

The Pats have six games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Hurricanes and Hitmen have five contests remaining on their slates, the Raiders have four games left on their schedule and the Broncos are set to hit the ice for three more contests this season.

Keaton Sorensen scored the Raiders first goal on Saturday.

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said he liked how his players took ownership when it came to playing well in Saturday’s game with the Pats.

“That was all on the players,” said Habscheid. “We had one power play meeting before the game.

“It was time they took over the show. In the end, the players have to own it, and they owned it tonight. They deserved the benefits.”

Just 2:12 into the opening frame, the Raiders jumped ahead 1-0 on a goal from left-winger Keaton Sorensen. Sorensen entered the Regina zone on a rush down the right-wing, cut in close to the Pats goal and tucked home his 10^th tally of the season.

Connor Bedard fires home his breakaway goal for the Pats.

With 7:01 remaining in the opening frame, Pats 16-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard snapped home his 45^th tally of the season on a short-handed breakaway glove side on Raiders import rookie netminder Tikhon Chaika to even the score at 1-1.

Bedard sprung himself on the breakaway intercepting a pass in his own zone from Allan, who was working the point.

On top of evening the score of the contest at 1-1, Bedard tied the Pats record for most goals in a season by a 16-year-old matching the 45 markers former NHLer Jeff Friesen put up in the 1992-93 campaign.

Reece Vitelli scored the winning goal for the Raiders.

While the Pats got even on the scoreboard, Habscheid was pleased to see Allan didn’t get down on himself after Bedard scored.

“It was important the way he (Allan) responded after that first goal,” said Habscheid. “(Connor) Bedard is a pretty good player.

“You can say it was a lucky play, but really it wasn’t. I just like the way Nolan responded.”

The opening frame had an intense playoff feel to it where the Pats held an 11-9 edge in shots on goal, and both sides brought some physical play.

The Raiders started to gain an edge in the second period and ultimately captured the games momentum scoring two goals in a span of seven seconds to go up 3-1 with just under five minutes to play in the frame.

The Raiders celebrate Nolan Allan’s second period goal.

With 4:52 remaining in the third, Raiders captain Reece Vitelli blew home a midrange shot for a power-play goal that put the Raiders up 2-1. Allan and centre Evan Herman combined to set Vitelli up for the one-time chance that resulted in the power-play tally.

Off the ensuing faceoff, Vitelli won the draw to Allan. Allan zipped down the right wing into the Regina zone and banked home a bad angle shot to give the Raiders their 3-1 advantage just seven seconds after Vitelli’s goal.

Allan said that two-goal spark proved to be important in allowing the Raiders to ultimately take the game.

“It was big,” said Allan, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 184 pounds. “I think it turned the momentum our way.

The Raiders celebrate an Evan Herman power-play goal.

“We obviously got a couple of more on the power play to kind of put them to bed. Those were huge.”

Just 41 seconds in the third, the Raiders struck again on the power play with offensive-defenceman Landon Kosior firing home a point shot to post his 18^th goal of the season to give the hosts a 4-1 advantage. Allan picked up his second assist of the night on Kosior’s tally.

At the 9:04 mark of the third, Allan and Vitelli combined to set up Herman for the Raiders third power-play goal of the night. Herman tucked home his 23^rd goal of the season from the centre left side of the Regina goal.

Eric Johnston (#3) scored the Raiders last goal on Saturday.

The Raiders went 3-for-8 on the power play on Saturday, while the Pats were unable to capitalize with four chances with the man advantage.

Rookie defenceman Eric Johnston scored a point shot goal to round out the 6-1 final for the host side.

Chaika stopped 25 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. 

Drew Sim turned away 22 shots to take the setback in net for the Pats.

When asked about his four-point game, Allan chuckled and deadpanned that it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

“I guess some of those assists were just secondary assists,” said Allan. “They are not really that nice.

The Raiders salute their fans after their win on Saturday.

“It is whatever. We got the win is the main thing. It was a huge two points against this team.”

The Pats now get back into action on Tuesday when they travel to Brandon to face the Wheat Kings (7 p.m. local time, Westman Place).

The Raiders are off until this coming Friday when they travel to Saskatoon to take on their archrivals the Blades (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

Allan said his squad has to keep up the urgency going forward.

“It is do or die,” said Allan. “We pretty much have to win all of our games here.

“Every night you are putting everything on the line. That is just the mentality that we need that we are going to have going forward to try and get into playoffs here.”

Injury ends season for Raiders’ Wiesblatt

Ozzy Wiesblatt is out for the rest of the season due to injury.

On Saturday afternoon, the Prince Albert Raiders announced star forward Ozzy Wiesblatt has been brought to an end due to an upper body injury.

A decision was made to shutdown Wiesblatt through consultation of the doctors from the Raiders and the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. The Calgary, Alta., product, who turned 20-years-old earlier this month, has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Sharks.

The Sharks selected Wiesblatt in the first round and 31^st overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.

Wiesblatt last suited up for the Raiders on March 12, when they downed the Blades at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon 1-0.

With 3.8 seconds remaining in the first period of that contest, Blades overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart nailed Raiders left-winger Sloan Stanick hard into the right wing boards in the Prince Albert zone by the blue-line. Wiesblatt took exception to the hit and engaged Rhinehart in a fight.

The two had a short fight with Rhinehart getting in the majority of the hard shots. Wiesblatt left the game and did not return appearing to favour his left wrist.

Wiesblatt appeared in 43 games with the Raiders this season posting 10 goals, 31 assists and a minus-three rating in the plus-minus department.

Before leaving Prince Albert, Wiesblatt was a guest of the 900 CKBI post-game show in the Ches Leach Lounge hosted in front of fans following the Raiders 6-1 home ice victory over the Regina Pats.

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