By Jeff D'Andrea

Swashbucklin’ Raiders win another wild one; Gardiner the OT hero over Tigers

Oct 3, 2015 | 10:22 PM

The new 3-on-3 overtime format institued by the Western Hockey League is sure fun to watch, especially if you’re a Prince Albert Raider fan.

The Raiders are a perfect 3-0 in games that go beyond the regulation 60 minutes of play. Their latest win was 5-4 overtime victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday, a day after beating the Vancouver Giants 5-4 in a shootout and a week after beating the Saskatoon Blades 6-5 in overtime. But as much as fans appreciate, the Raiders would rather win a game in regulation.

“I think guys are sick of playing 3-on-3 to be honest,” said Raiders assistant captain Reid Gardiner, who had two goals and an assist. “It’s kind of a slow death. We battled hard in the second game in two nights.

“It was nice to come out with the two points—maybe next time we can do it in 60 minutes instead of 65.

Gardiner showed his displeasure of overtime by ending it just 18 seconds into the extra frame. Just after a power play had expired, Gardiner scored on a one-timer from a Jesse Lees pass. Gardiner didn’t get as much as he wanted on the shot as his stick broke, but it still evaded Tigers goaltender Evan Johnson.

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“It kinda broke as soon as I shot it,” said Gardiner, who leads the Raiders with four goals and tied for team lead with eight points. “I don’t think the puck was going very fast but good passes by Leeser and [Hunter] Warner to get the puck to me.”

The Raiders power play has been a huge factor in all three of their wins. They’ve gone 7-18 (38.9 per cent) in their last three games and have scored 46.7 per cent of their goals with the man-advantage (not including the shootout win goal).

Lees shares the point with winger Gardiner for power play situations and that has worked wonders. Both Lees and Gardiner scored the Raiders’ first two goals on the power play, assisting on each other’s markers.

“We’re both two guys that like to have the puck on our sticks, so we move it around pretty well,” said Lees, who ended the game with a goal and two assists. “When we find that open lane, both of us are confident enough to get it through on net and hope it goes in or create a little havoc in front of the net.”

Their offence may be on fire. They may be on a three-game winning streak and are currently sitting atop of the WHL East Division. But make no mistake, the Raiders game is far from perfect. For as many pretty goals they’ve scored themselves, they’ve conceded after a turnover or a defensive zone breakdown. But the Raiders don’t want to put up the clamps just yet, as they’re trying to establish their offensive game early in the year.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve talked about the process. We wanted to open things up to let our guys feel confident about scoring,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. “We’ve scored some goals but we’ve let in some goals. Are we going to play this way at the end of the season? No, we’re going to tighten things up.

“It’s tough to open it up midway through and teach the guys to score, that has to be done early. You can always tighten up as the season goes on. It may sound crazy, but that’s the plan and the way we want to do things. We could tighten it up real easy, but then we lose our ability to score goals—we don’t want to do that.”

High scorers

The always dangerous top line for the Tigers was true to form. Steven Owre had a pair of goals for the Tigers, while captain Cole Sanford had a goal and an assist and Trevor Cox had two helpers. Matt Bradley also added a tally for the Tigers.

Gardiner had two goals and an assist for the Raiders, Lees had a goal and two assists. Cal Babych and Austin Glover also found the back of the net.

Simon Stransky had three assists for the Raiders, while defenceman Hunter Warner had two. Parker Kelly got his first WHL career point with an assist, a day after rookie defenceman Cody Paivarinta completed the same feat.

Low attendance once again

For the second straight game, the Raiders’ announced attendance was under the 2,200 mark. The Raiders had 2,159 on Saturday’s game, after 2,147 on Friday. The Raiders had 2,627 on their home opener on Sept. 26.

Home of the brave

The Raiders will take on the Kootenay Ice on Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre before getting their U.S. road trip over and done with Oct. 10-17. They’ll face the Seattle Thunderbirds Oct. 10, the Everett Silvertips Oct. 11, the Portland Winterhawks Oct. 13, the Tri-City Americans Oct. 14, the Spokane Chiefs Oct. 16 before playing Kootenay on the way back on Oct. 17.

The next home game for the Raiders is Oct. 23 against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea