By Drew Wilson

Raiders win in Manson debut; whip Warriors 6-3

Oct 31, 2014 | 11:23 PM

It was a day and evening filled with adversity.

The Prince Albert  Raiders spent part of a Thursday night off following a tough loss in Lethbridge with a team buiding session that had players joking afterward. The light-hearted atmosphere ended abruptly with the news just before Friday morning breakfast that head coach Cory Clouston had been fired.

The players went to practice moments after being informed by general manager Bruno Campese.

There was also adversity on the ice. Despite a fast physical start with the Raiders hitting every Moose Jaw Warrior in sight, even one of the linesmen was the victim of a MacKenze Stewart hit. However a Tanner Eberle shot that deflected off a Prince Albert stick and an Eberle deflection of a Torrin White shot seconds later staked the Warriors to a 2-0 led before the game was eight-minutes old.

The Raiders seized some momentum after Stewart KO-ed Moose Jaw’s Linden Penner in a fight in which had both combatants were swining for the fences. Rylan Parenteau also made his biggest save of the game on a first-period breakaway that denied Eberle an early hat trick. That momentum translated into the Raiders first goal just past the 15-minute mark when Craig Leverton deposited a Gage Quinney rebound on a Prince Albert power play.

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The visitors equallized when Simon Stransky stole the puck from Warrior Captain Brayden Point and pushed home his own rebound with Sawyer Lange sniping the go ahead goal less than a minute later, just past the midway point of the period. The Raiders extended the lead after Leverton slid in a backhand rebound after a power move to the net by Darcy Zaharachuk and Jayden Hart’s relentless rush to the net paid dvidends at 19:50 of the second period when a Jordan Tkatch rebound bounced off the overage winger and into the net before it was knocked off its hinges.

Jack Rodewald’s goal early in the third gave the Warriors some new life which was snuffed out by Josh Morrissey’s seeing eye wrister from the left point that found twine with Mackenze Stewart providing the screen.

The Warriors never threatened after that as the Raiders handed interim head coach Dave Manson a 6-3 win in his bench boss debut.

The Prince Albert boys poured 39 shots on the Warrior net while Rylan Parenteau made 20 stops for his first WHL victory.

The Raiders were 1/4 on the power play and 4/4 on the penalty kill.

Manson told the 900 CKBI post-game show audience they were determined to keep working no matter what happened and they stayed positive despite the early 2-0 deficit calling the victory a total team effort. He also said giving the fourth-line power play time late in the game was a decision based on the score (three-goal lead) and a reward for their strong play all game.

It’s not known if Manson will be back in charge Saturday night at home against the Blades as Campese said earlier in the day they hope to have a new Head Coach in place within a day or two.

All Raider games can be heard on 900 CKBI.

dwilson@panow.com

On Twitter: @RaidersVoice