By Les Lazaruk
PRINCE ALBERT – If the Saskatoon Blades hadn’t noticed the Prince Albert Raiders closing in on them from behind before Friday, they certainly can’t miss them filling up their rear-view mirror now!
And, by the time Super Bowl LII kicks off Sunday, P.A. might have roared by the Bridge City Bunch and into a WHL playoff spot!
The Raiders started strong, dominated the second period…then coasted to a 5-2 victory over the Blue and Gold. The result leaves Prince Albert (21-20-10) with 51 points, just one back of the Blades (25-25-3) with the P.A. holding two games in hand. They’ll use one of those up Saturday with a visit to Regina.
Feisty Parker Kelly scored the game’s first two goals. The 18-year-old right winger, who was signed by Ottawa as a free agent after attending the Senators’ rookie and main training camps in the fall, was all over the ice…playing in all situations…posting nine shots on goal and being a pest with two minor penalties.
However, Logan Christensen’s first goal of the season late in the opening frame drew Saskatoon to within a goal, as they also held a 12-8 shots on goal advantage.
But, the second period was where the Raiders took command, out-shooting the Bridge City Bunch 23-4 and out-scoring them 3-1.
“We get off to a start with a turnover (that led to Kelly’s opening goal just 92 seconds in) and it was kind of the way the game went,” said assistant coach Ryan Keller. “We turned way too many pucks over. We gave them six odd-man rushes in the second period and when you’re doing that, you’re going to be chasing the game a lot throughout the night.”
Brett Leason, Curtis Miske and Cole Fonstad scored the second period tallies for Prince Albert with Eric Florchuk getting the Blue and Gold reply.
The Blades didn’t help their comeback hopes by taking penalty after penalty, giving the Raiders six straight power plays. P.A. out-shot Saskatoon 39-21, won 37 of 65 faceoffs and went 1-for-7 on the power play while the Bridge City Bunch was 0-for-2 with the man advantage.
The Blades are off until Tuesday when they welcome the Kootenay ICE to SaskTel Centre.
Pacman Points – Prince Albert now has picked up points in the standings in seven straight games (5-0-2), with Ian Scott in goal for every game. During that time, P.A. has out-scored the opposition 34-17. Since the Trade Deadline, the Raiders are 6-2-2 while Saskatoon is 4-7-0 since January 10.
The goals for Miske and Leason extended their consecutive-game point streaks. Miske has six goals and eight assists for 14 points in the last nine games while Leason has a goal and five helpers in the last four games. Defenceman Vojtech Budik had a seven-game points streak stopped.
Leason was stopped on a penalty shot at 19:25 of the third period as Blades’ goaltender Nolan Maier closed the five-hole on Leason’s one-on-one attempt. It was the 41st penalty shot awarded so far this season in the WHL with only 11 goals being scored.
P.A. is just about ready to join the Bridge City Bunch in having a totally healthy roster. Raiders’ head coach Marc Habscheid says Belarus defenceman Sergei Sapego is “day-to-day” with an Upper Body injury that has kept him out since mid-November, shortly after acquiring him from Tri-Cities. The rest of the scratches by both teams were “coaches decisions”…forward Nikita Krivokrasov for Prince Albert while the Blue and Gold sat out blueliner Randen Schmidt along with forwards Tyler Lees and Alec Zawatsky.
Jordy Stallard and Kody McDonald both won 10 of 17 faceoffs for P.A. while Christensen captured possession on seven of 11 draws for the Blades.
Besides Kelly’s game-high nine shots on goal, Fonstad had five shots for the Raiders while Florchuk topped Saskatoon with four shots on goal.
