Raiders capitalize on power play, schedule quirk

Prince Albert does in short-staffed Wheat Kings 5-2

Sloan Stanick, right, scores his first of three goals on Saturday.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Jeff Truitt was pleased his Prince Albert Raiders took advantage of a good hand that was dealt their way.

On Saturday night, the Raiders went 4-for-9 nine on the power play and downed a short-staffed Brandon Wheat Kings side 5-2 in a WHL regular season clash before an appreciative 2,626 spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The Wheat Kings were also playing their third game in three nights all on the road.

Brandon slipped past the Raiders 3-2 when the two sides met Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre. The Raiders proceeded to have Friday night off, while the Wheat Kings went to Saskatoon and beat the WHL leading Blades 4-1.

The Raiders celebrate a second goal from Sloan Stanick, centre.

In Saturday’s clash between the Raiders and Wheat Kings, the Brandon side played with only 15 skaters. The Wheat Kings were three short of the full complement of 18 skaters due to injuries and one suspension.

Truitt, who is the Raiders head coach, said it was important his team took advantage of a scenario that lined up in his club’s favour.

“We needed it,” said Truitt. “We need to play desperate.

“We knew they had a tough schedule with three in three, which is always hard to play with a short bench as well. We had to take advantage of it, and we did.”

The Wheat Kings injuries included forwards Roger McQueen, Joby Baumuller and Hayden Wheddon, who were all listed as day-to-day with upper body injuries. Centre Nicholas Johnson is listed as week to week with an upper body injury, netminder Ethan Eskit is day to day with a lower body injury and import defenceman Andrei Maliaven was out with an undisclosed ailment suffered on Friday in Saskatoon.

Sloan Stanick had his third career hat trick on Saturday.

Veteran 19-year-old centre Rylen Roersman was out serving a suspension with a length that is still to be determined for being given a checking from behind major in the Wheat Kings victory in Saskatoon on Friday.

When the Raiders went ahead 5-2 with 6:21 remaining in the third on a hat trick goal from star 20-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick, frustration seemed to boil over on the Wheat Kings side. The final 6:21 featured one big scrum and a few moments when the visitors were losing their cool.

“They are on big three in three,” said Stanick, whose team was wearing special jersey’s for the club’s Kid Takeover Night. “We knew we had to get on their defencemen, and they were down some bodies.

Dominik Petr scored both Wheat Kings goals on Saturday.

“They obviously got a little frustrated there, but it was just saying on the bench just play between the whistles here and let’s get two (standings) points that we really need. You obviously want to defend your teammates and stick up for each other for sure. We were just trying to stay between the whistles.

“You can’t control what they do. We just have to control what we can do.”

The Wheat Kings opened the scoring in Saturday’s contest scoring on the tail end of power play. With 3:55 remaining in the opening frame, Wheat Kings 16-year-old right-winger Brady Turko had the puck at the left side boards and passed it to the doorstep of the right side of the Prince Albert net to 18-year-old import centre Dominik Petr. Petr popped home his 15^th of the season to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

Justice Christensen had three assists for the Raiders.

Before the first intermission came around, the Raiders scored on a power play of their own. With two minutes remaining in the opening frame, Raiders centre Aiden Oiring tipped home a point shot from offensive-defenceman Justice Christensen to even the score at 1-1.

At the 7:44 mark of the second, the Raiders jumped in front 2-1 when Stanick wired home his 25^th goal of the campaign with his squad once again working on the power play. The hosts really started to take over play territorially in the second holding a 9-4 edge in shots on goal for the frame after holding a 10-8 advantage in shots on goal in the first period.

Aiden Oiring had a goal and two assists for the Raiders.

Stanick said it was big for his club to have the success they did on the power play on Saturday.

“We’ve been working on it lots,” said Stanick, who now has three hat tricks in his WHL career. “It is something that is going to help us win games getting those power-play goals, and it felt good.

“We’re clicking right now - just knock on wood keep it going.”

In the third, Raiders overage centre Turner McMillen scored off a rush to push the host side’s lead out to 3-1 at the 4:38 mark of the frame. Just under four minutes later, Stanick smartly put home his second of the night placing home a shot through a screen with the Raiders working on a two-man advantage to give Prince Albert a 4-1 lead.

Krzysztof Macias had three assists for the Raiders.

With 6:46 remaining in the third, Petr scored short-handed for his second goal of the night to cut the Raiders lead to 4-2. That wasn’t able to spark a comeback.

Just 25 seconds later, Stanick fired home his hat trick goal with his squad still working on the power play to give the Raiders a 5-2 advantage. Stanick said it was big for his side to respond quickly after Petr scored his short-handed goal.

“It was a good shot from their player there,” said Stanick, who has 27 goals and 46 assists for a team high 73 points this season. “We just wanted to stay composed.

“We knew we could win the game. We just had to play our game and to get that one to make it 5-2 was really good.”

Max Hildebrand stopped 15 shots to pick in goal for the Raiders. Carson Bjarnason turned away 29 shots to take the setback in net for the Wheat Kings.

Saturday’s game in Prince Albert include some word exchanges.

Oiring had a pair of assists to go with his goal. Christensen and import left-winger Krzysztof Macias both record three assists each for the Raiders.

The win allowed the Raiders to improve to 27-26-1-3 to remain seventh overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference three points up on the eight place 25-26-5 Lethbridge Hurricanes and four points up on the ninth place 23-25-7-1 Calgary Hitmen. The Hurricanes and Hitmen each have a game in hand on the Raiders and will play each other on Sunday in Calgary.

The Wheat Kings fall to 29-23-5-1 to remain sixth in the Eastern Conference six points up on the Raiders.

The Raiders return to action on Wednesday when they host the Red Deer Rebels (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Eric Johnston (#3) stands his ground defensively for the Raiders.

The Wheat Kings are off until Friday when the will host the visiting Raiders (7 p.m. local time, Westoba Place).

The Raiders play seven out of their last 11 regular season games at home, and Truitt wants his side to strive to play more consistently both at home and on the road.

“It gives you confidence that is for sure, but we’ve been up and down,” said Truitt. “We were great at home and then we weren’t great at home.

The Raiders salute the crowd after their win on Saturday.

“We were great on the road. It flip flopped. It is always an advantage to play at home there is no doubt about that.

“You have to be able to manufacture things. No matter where you play at home or on the road you have to be to play the right way and play with pace and play with sacrifice and structure and things like that. It is nice to win at home don’t get me wrong, but somewhere in the later on down the line too you have to win on the road.”

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