Feisty affair – Oil Kings slip past Raider 5-4 in penalty filled clash

The Raiders and Oil Kings tangle in a second period scrum.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Jeff Truitt wanted to see his team getting going a touch quicker to counter a feisty foe.

On Friday, Truitt’s Prince Albert Raiders faced the Edmonton Oil Kings in a feisty WHL regular season contest that saw the two sides combine for 71 minute in penalties. The Oil Kings took 12 infractions for 35 minutes in penalties, and the Raiders had 14 infractions for 36 minutes in penalties.

When the dust settled, the Oil Kings edged the host Raiders 5-4 before a standing room crowd of 2,691 mostly unhappy spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The Oil Kings converted on 3-of-7 power-play chances in the contest, while the Raiders were 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

The Oil Kings celebrate a third period goal from Adam Jecho (#43).

The Edmonton side played an agitating brand of hockey that at times got under the skin of the Prince Albert players. Truitt, who is the Raiders head coach, said his squad just needs to navigate that aspect just a slight bit better.

“They’ve got speed, they’ve got size, and they’ve got grit,” said Truitt. “We’ve got to be smarter in that department as well.

“We can’t take the slashing penalties and the 10-minute misconducts. We just can’t take ourselves out of the game line that. This is where you’ve got to bite the bullet here a little bit.

“You know what? There is another game between these two teams, and we just have to show up earlier.”

Adam Jecho had the winning goal for the Oil Kings.

The Raiders and Oil Kings have split their four head-to-head encounters this season with each side collecting two regulation victories. They will meet for the fifth and final time in the regular season on Saturday, March 15 in Edmonton at Rogers Place at 7 p.m. local time.

Raiders star defenceman Lukas Dragicevic thought his squad played harder after the Oil Kings took the game to them in the opening 20 minutes. He said the biggest thing for his Raiders in the short term was to regroup for their next game.

The Raiders return to action on Saturday when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Broncos (7 p.m., InnovationPlex).

Lukas Dragicevic had a pair of goals for the Raiders.

Dragicevic said his club wants to play the Oil Kings again to improve upon what happened in Friday’s setback to the Edmonton side.

“We’re back in Edmonton’s building,” said Dragicevic noting the upcoming March 15 encounter. “We’re just going to continue to work hard, and we’re going to owe them one when we’re back there.”

Edmonton dominated the first period of Friday’s contest, but they weren’t able to crack on to the scoreboard due to the play of Raiders netminder Dimitri Fortin. Fortin was spectacular making 16 saves in the opening 20 minutes to keep the Oil Kings off the scoreboard.

The Raiders had just four shots on goal in the first 20 minutes, but one of those shots found its way into the Edmonton net. At the 5:14 mark of the stanza,

Tomas Mrsic had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

Dragicevic got the puck inside the left faceoff circle on a rush and wired home his 15^th tally of the season on the Raiders first shot on goal in the contest. That marker allowed the Raiders head into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Prince Albert jumped into the second period with more intensity holding an 18-10 edge in shots on goal in what turned out to be a back and forth frame.

The Oil Kings evened the score at 1-1 just 1:45 into the second on a power-play goal from Gracyn Sawchyn. Sawchyn fired home a shot from the left side of the Prince Albert goal for the equalizer.

Import centre Miroslav Holinka added the Oil Kings second power-play goal at the 12:44 mark of the second to put the visitor up 2-1.

Rylen Roersma had three assists for the Oil Kings.

Raiders captain Justice Christensen put the host side back on even terms firing home his 21^st of the season at the 14:13 mark of the second to force a 2-2 tie. With 54.5 seconds to play in the second, Raiders star centre Aiden Oiring tallied on the power play slipping home a bad angle shot from the right side of the Edmonton goal to give Prince Albert a 3-2 lead.

Just when it seemed the Raiders would take that lead into the second intermission, Oil Kings agitating overage centre Marshall Finnie scored with 18.4 seconds remaining in the third to force a 3-3 tie.

“You have to play a complete 60 (minutes),” said Truitt. “In the second period, we started getting power plays.

Gracyn Sawchyn had the Oil Kings first goal on Friday.

“We picked up our pace a little bit and picked up our battle. Now the game gets going. We pushed back.

“I thought there was lots of intensity in the second and the third.”

With 5:56 remaining in the third, Oil Kings veteran right-winger Cole Miller scored off a set faceoff play to give the visitors a 4-3 lead. The visitors added a key insurance marker with 2:38 remaining in the third with a power-play goal coming off the stick of import right-winger Adam Jecho to give Edmonton a 5-3 advantage.

The Raiders didn’t go away. With Fortin pulled for an extra attacker, Dragicevic added his second of the contest and 16^th tally of the campaign with 86 seconds remaining in the third to cut the Oil Kings lead to 5-4. Prince Albert pressed hard in the final 86 second but was unable to come up with another equalizer.

Miroslav Holinka had the Oil Kings second goal on Friday.

“Obivously, the first period wasn’t too great,” said Dragicevic. “The second and third were.

“We got a goal on the power play that was huge. Obviously, they got a couple. Third period, I thought we battled hard, and they just ended up getting the last one.”

Dimitri Fortin turned away 36 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders. Ethan Simcoe stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings.

Star left-winger Tomas Mrsic had a pair of assists for the Raiders. The Raiders were without star 20-year-old right-winger Rilen Kovacevic, who was serving a one-game suspension for being accessed a kneeing major and a game misconduct in 2-1 home ice overtime loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday.

Justice Christensen had the Raiders second goal on Friday.

Rylen Roersma, who is a 20-year-old left-winger, recorded three assists and was a plus-two in the plus-minus department for Edmonton. Holinka had a pair of assists to go with his goal. 

The Oil Kings, who improved to 33-22-2-2 get back at it on Sunday when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blades (4 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders fell to 33-20-4-1 with the setback and now have the same amount of standings point as the Brandon Wheat Kings (32-18-4-3) at 71 for first in the East Division. Prince Albert holds the standings tiebreaker due to having more wins, but the Wheat Kings have one game in hand on the Raiders.

Josh Mori controls the puck for the Oil Kings.

The Saskatoon Blades (30-19-3-4) sit four points back of both the Raiders and Wheat Kings. Saskatoon has two games in hand on Prince Albert and one game in hand on Brandon.

Dragicevic said his squad is excited to be battling late in the regular season for first place in the East Division. During the stretch run, he expects his Raiders will face some more feisty battles from opponents like what they experienced against the Oil Kings on Friday.

“It is hockey, right,” said Dragicevic. “Everything is going to always be tough, and we like it that way.

The Oil Kings celebrate their win on Friday.

“That is how we want to play, and they obviously just beat is tonight, which sucks. We’ll never complain about things getting greasy like that. That is how we want to play, and we’re just going to continue to get on with our season.”

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