Raiders spoil milestone night for Pats phenom centre Bedard

Prince Albert skates away with 6-5 firewagon win

The Raiders begin to celebrate their victory on Friday night.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Connor Bedard picked up the milestones, but the Prince Albert Raiders picked up victory.

At first, Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre looked like it was going to be a banner night for the Regina Pats 17-year-old phemon centre. Bedard posted two goals and two assists to help stake his Pats out to a 5-4 lead early in the third period in a WHL regular season clash with the Raiders.

At the 5:19 mark of the third, Raiders 16-year-old rookie right-winger Grady Martin knocked home the rebound from his own shot from the front of the Regina net to even the score at 5-5. The tally was Martin’s first career WHL goal.

Exactly four minutes later, Raiders 17-year-old rookie centre Aiden Oiring popped home his ninth of the season from the front of the Regina net to give the Raiders a 6-5 lead. Oiring converting a beauty drop setup pass from left-winger Sloan Stanick at the right side of visitors’ net.

Connor Bedard had two goals and two assists for the Pats.

The young and gutty Raiders made that 6-5 score hold up as the final to the delight of the sellout crowd of 3,299 spectators that packed into the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. While the Raiders first sellout of the current campaign came due to people wanting to see Bedard, almost the whole crowd was firmly behind the Raiders.

When time expired in the third period, the home side faithful gave their Raiders a rousing ovation as sophomore 18-year-old netminder Max Hildebrand gave a kick and fist pump celebration before being mobbed by his teammates. Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt said the sellout crowd got their money’s worth with Friday’s game.

“It took six to beat them (the Pats),” said Truitt. “I didn’t think at the beginning of the night it was going to take six.

Aiden Oiring scored the winning goal for the Raiders.

“It opened up quite a bit. There were some good quality chances on both sides. It was pretty wide open that way.

“The score was indicative of the play, because there were breakdowns on either side and good quality chances.”

The Raiders victory spoiled a banner night for Bedard, who barring something unforeseen will be the first overall selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. That draft will be held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 28 and 29.

With his two tallies, Bedard now had 50 goals on the season. He scored those 50 goals in 40 games played.

The last player to score 50 goals in 50 or few games in a WHL regular season was Jayden Halbgewachs of the Moose Jaw Warriors back in the 2017-18 campaign. Halbgewachs netted 50 goals in his first 47 contests that season. He appeared in all the Warriors 72 regular season games in 2017-18 recording 70 goals, 59 assists and a plus-43 rating in the plus-minus department.

Alexander Suzdalev had a pair of goals for the Pats.

Bedard now has 100 points on the season coming off his 50 goals and 50 assists to go with a plus-32 rating. He leads the WHL in points and goals. The North Vancouver, B.C., product hit the 50-goal and 100-point plateaus in back-to-back seasons.

Besides Bedard’s exploits, Friday’s contest between the Raiders and Pats was as wild as a mid-1980s NHL clash between the Hartford Whalers and the Quebec Nordiques.

The Pats opened the scoring at the 4:37 mark of the opening frame when import right-winger Alexander Suzdalev netted a Michigan style lacrosse goal. Just over four minutes later, left-winger Tanner Howe, who is from Prince Albert, increased the Pats advantage to 2-0 scoring on the power play in close to the left side of the Prince Albert net thanks to a beauty pass from the point by Bedard.

Ryder Ritchie had a goal and an assist for the Raiders.

Rookie 17-year-old left-winger Brayden Dube tallied for the Raiders at the 12:44 mark of the opening frame to cut the Pats lead to 2-1.

With 29.9 seconds remaining in the first, Bedard potted his first goal of the contest to push the Pats lead out to 3-1. Coming down the left wing, Bedard looked like he was going to skate behind the Prince Albert net.

As he was about to go behind the Raiders goal, Bedard stopped, took a stride backwards and deflected home a tally off Hildebrand into the Prince Albert goal.

The Raiders came storming out of the gate in the second surging for three straight goals by the 7:59 mark of the frame to take a 4-3 lead. Left-winger Carter Anderson scored an even strength tally to start the surge. After Anderson’s goal, 16-year-old rookie standout right-winger Ryder Ritchie and overage centre Keaton Sorensen each tallied on the power play to give the Raiders their one-goal edge.

Tanner Howe (#43) had a goal for the Pats on Friday.

Truitt said the host side came out skating a lot better coming out of the second intermission than they did in the opening 20 minutes of the contest.

“I thought we were on pucks,” said Truitt. “I thought that we gained control of pucks in the offensive zone.

“I thought that we cut some seams and made them guess a little bit. We took the ice that was given to us, and we made some really good plays.”

With 2:59 remaining in the second, Bedard scored on the power play for his second goal of the contest driving a mid-range shot through a screen for his 50^th goal of the season. Bedard’s second tally forced a 4-4 tie heading into the second intermission.

Brayden Dube scored the Raiders first goal on Friday.

Just 90 seconds into the third, Suzdalev scored on a five-on-three power play to account for his second goal of the contest and 30^th tally of the campaign to give the Pats a 5-4 edge. Bedard picked up an assist on that tally to account for his fourth point on the night and 100^th point of the season.

That set the stage for Martin and Oiring to come through with their singles to deliver victory to the Raiders. Martin was pumped to net his first career WHL goal.

“I was just so full of joy,” said Martin. “It feels good to get that monkey off the back.

Connor Bedard (#98) reacts to scoring his 50th goal of the season.

“I’ll just keep going from here.”

After Martin scored the equalizer that forced a 5-5 tie, Hildebrand stopped Bedard on a breakaway with 11:48 remaining in the third. That allowed the host side to take the lead on Oiring’s goal.

Hildebrand stopped 32 shots in goal for the Raiders. Drew Sim turned away 25 shots in goal for the Pats.

Ritchie and Oiring each had assists to go along with their goals to post respective two-point nights. Raiders 20-year-old defenceman Landon Kosior collected a pair of helpers in the win. Import defenceman Stanislav Svozil had a pair of assists for the Pats.

Terrell Goldsmith returns after missing eight games due to injury.

The Raiders returned 17-year-old physical defensive-defenceman Terrell Goldsmith to their lineup on Friday after he missed eight games with an upper body injury. Goldsmith, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 219 pounds, is rated 202^nd among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings, and he played a sizable amount of minutes in the host side’s winning effort.

“Obviously, it was awesome to be back,” said Goldsmith. “I had to shake the rust off a bit in the first period.

“After that, I kind of just tired to play my game, and it felt good to be back.”

Raiders LW Sloan Stanick, left, rubs out Pats D Stanislav Svozil.

With the setback, the Pats fell to 25-23-2-1. They sit tied for sixth to eighth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 53 standings points along with the Swift Current Broncos (25-23-1-2) and the Calgary Hitmen (23-23-5-2).

The Raiders improved to 21-28-3 with the second straight win to sit eight points back of the Pats, Broncos and Hitmen. The top eight teams in the Eastern Conference qualify for the WHL Playoffs.

The Pats return to action on Saturday when they return home to face the WHL leading 42-7-1 Winnipeg Ice (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).

The Raiders want to keep holding frequent goal celebrations.

The Raiders also get back at it on Saturday as they host the 33-18-0-3 Moose Jaw Warriors (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre). Martin believes his Raiders will keep their positive momentum going against the Warriors.

“We’re very confident with our game,” said Martin. “Today, we really showed what we can do and where we are at.

“We’ll get Moose Jaw tomorrow.”

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