PRINCE ALBERT – There was almost a need to place a call to the local detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Saturday night to investigate a robbery.
In the end, it was determined that the Saskatoon Blades only committed a Houdini act, not a crime.
Parker Kelly’s second goal of the game at 3:05 of overtime gave the home-standing Raiders a 4-3 victory over the Bridge City Bunch, ending a four-game winless skid for P.A. It was their fourth overtime game in their last five outings. Kelly converted a cross-crease pass from Brayden Pachal, off a 2-on-1 rush, for the winning tally.
With three-and-a-half minutes left in the third period, the Raiders appeared to be coasting to a regulation time victory. But, the Blades scored goals 49 seconds apart, both with goaltender Ryan Kubic on the bench for an extra attacker, knotting the score 3-3.
“That shows a little bit of character,” said blue and gold Head Coach Dean Brockman about the comeback to get a point in the standings. “That needs to come out a little bit more often. When you’re down with three-and-a-half minutes (remaining), there’s no quit. The guys kept going, staying with it, staying with what we were telling them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite finish it off.”
Overage forwards Jordy Stallard and Curtis Miske notched the other goals for Prince Albert, now 4-4-3 for the season, while Josh Paterson, Caleb Fantillo and Chase Wouters replied for 3-6-1 Saskatoon.
“The mistakes that we’re making are huge mistakes,” explained Brockman. “They’re not just a little thing here or there. It’s really glaring. When we don’t make those mistakes, I thought we were in control for the most part.
“But, just one guy pinching at the wrong time, one guy making the wrong read, guys are trying to steal pucks, instead of coming back or getting over top of them. Those things like that, we’ve got to eliminate.”
The Raiders never trailed in the contest in front of 2,195 fans at the Art Hauser Centre. Both teams face the B.C. Division-leading Victoria Royals next; the Blades on Tuesday at SaskTel Centre and the following evening in Prince Albert.
Pacman Points – The game will never be compared to some of the brawl-fests from the 1980s between the two Central Saskatchewan rivals, but there were three separate incidents of fisticuffs. One of them, between Gage Ramsay of Saskatoon and D-Jay Jerome of the Raiders resulted in game misconducts to both players for partaking in a pre-arranged scrap.
P.A. defenceman Zach Hayes was handed a game misconduct, in addition to a major penalty for a check to the head late in the second period. That will likely result in the WHL looking into possible supplementary discipline for the 18-year-old Calgary product.
In total, the Bridge City Bunch and the Raiders combined for 77 penalty minutes. The blue and gold were 1-for-6 on the power play and surrendered a second short-handed goal this season when Parker Kelly scored on a third period breakaway. Prince Albert was 1-for-4 on the man advantage.
Rookie Blades forward Brandon Machado recorded his first career WHL point when he assisted on Paterson’s marker in the second period.
Ian Scott returned to the Raiders net after missing the previous nine games with a lower body injury, and stopped 30 of 33 shots. He was hurt early in the third period of P.A.’s first game of the season against visiting Moose Jaw.
Saskatoon won 45 of 70 faceoffs with Cam Hebig leading the way individually, winning 17 of 24 draws. Stallard was best at the dot for the Raiders, claiming possession on seven of 17 faceoffs.
Braylon Shmyr paced the Bridge City Bunch with five shots on goal while Czech defenceman Vojtech Budik was tops amongst players on both teams with seven shots on goal for Prince Albert.
The blue and gold added right winger Michael Farren to the list of walking wounded. The 17-year-old sophomore is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury suffered in Wednesday’s home loss to Vancouver. Farren joined forwards Logan Christensen and Tyler Lees, who are out with upper body injuries. Wingers Arjun Atwal and Matt Mosher were healthy scratches.
With Scott returning to the Raiders’ crease, 19-year-old Curtis Meger was scratched as the third goaltender as Nicolas Sanders was the back-up. Head coach Marc Habscheid decided to sit out defencemen Cody Paivarinta and Austin Crossley, plus right winger Nikita Krivokrasov.
