By Drew Wilson

Raider road trip resumes in Everett

Oct 10, 2011 | 6:16 PM

The Raiders play game three of their six game road trip Tuesday in night Everett.

They will face a rebuilding Silvertip squad led by veteran forwards Tyler Maxwell and former Raider Ryan Harrison. The Silvertips also boast one of the best offensive defensemen in the WHL. Ryan Murray is projected as a first round NHL draft prospect and likely to play for Canada at the world junior hockey championships in Calgary and Edmonton. However, this s a young team with five-16 year old's and six-17 year old's on their 25 player roster.

Although Everett is off to a 1-2-0-2 start, their lone win was over Portland on Friday night. The Raiders are encouraged by their one and one start to the road trip. Co-Captain Mark McNeill said they have worked hard in both games but need to refine some defensive areas of their game.

“Every team is so good, the difference between winning and losing is so marginal in this league”, said McNeill. 

“It's been small little errors that have been costing us games and we just have to clean up some small little errors in our game and we will be good.”

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The Raiders haven't played since Saturday and McNeill said having two days off knowing they will be playing four games in five nights is valuble.

“Obviously the guys were a little tired after two days of travel and back to back games”, said McNeill.

“But it was good to have the day (Sunday) off completely and bond as a team and we had a really good practice today (Monday) and we are ready to go.”

The Raiders have played well in four of the last five games going .500 over that stretch and McNeill believes they are close to becoming a team that can go on a long winning streak.

“We've got a great group of guys in the room. The young guys are adjusting well to the league and that's really important”, said McNeill.

“We're beginning to find chemistry as a team and there are a couple of things we need to work on and we're looking to hopefully take a step in the right direction tomorrow (Tuesday vs Everett).”

Tyler Vanscourt has had a tremendous U.S. trip. The 19-year-old defenseman from California who will have some family in the stands has scored four goals in two games. Antoine Corbin scored two goals in Portland. The 19-year-old defenseman scored his first of the season in Friday's 5-0 win in Seattle. In fact, Todd Fiddler is the only forward to score for the Raiders in the last two games.

Meanwhiile Austin Connor is expected to miss his second straight game. The strapping six foot four 19-year-old winger from Beechy aggrivated an upper body injury sustained in training camp during a fight Friday night in Seattle.

Opening face off is at 8 p.m. (Sask time) with broadcast time on 900 CKBI and 900ckbi.com set for 7:30 p.m.

dwilson@rawlco.com