Raiders’ penalties bite them vs. Blades; Olynek faces old squad

The Raiders have taken the sixth least amount of penalties in the WHL, but have only killed off 71.4 per cent of them this season, 16^th overall.

“We’ve been a pretty disciplined team, but we took a couple bad ones and it cost us,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said. “But that wasn’t the end of it. We didn’t score any goals. You won’t win a game if you don’t score any goals. We had some chances but their goaltender played well.”

Blades’ goaltender Logan Flodell, who hails from Regina, made 31 saves for the shutout victory and was rightly the game’s first star. Raiders got another decent outing from Ian Scott, who stopped 24 of 26 shots and was the game’s third star.

“Scotty played great for us,” Raiders assistant captain Nick Heid said. “It was just a matter of too many penalty kills. He played great and he’s a great goalie.”

The Raiders put their line combinations in a blender to try and create some more energy, but to no avail.

With their second straight defeat, the Raiders fall to 2-4 on the year. The Blades improve to 3-2 on the season.

Olynek goes quickly from Raider to rival

Kolten Olynek was still officially on the Prince Albert Raiders’ roster until Wednesday, when the team announced his release. A day later, he got to play against the Raiders as part of his hometown WHL club, the Saskatoon Blades.

The Blades picked up Olynek off of waivers on Wednesday, and immediately inserted him into the lineup against the Raiders for Thursday’s contest. He’s the fourth Blades 20-year-old, but Ryan Graham is out with a lower body injury.

Needless to say, Olynek was fired up for the contest to play against the Green and Gold, the club he played 49 games with dating back to last season.

Olynek was engaged both physically in the game, and chirp-wise between whistles despite still being close with a lot of the Raiders.

“I’ve never been the type of guy to let guys off easy,” Olynek said. “You can be friends before and after the game, but on the ice, I represent the Saskatoon Blades now and [the Raiders] are the opponent tonight.”

Although he was released, Olynek has no hard feelings towards the Raiders. In fact, he appreciated how the situation was handled by the team, especially by general manager Curtis Hunt.

“Me and Curtis Hunt had that talk. I said if you guys want to make that decision, just do me a favour and do it early so I can find somewhere else to play. He did that and I’m grateful for that,” Olynek said. “That shows that they cared about me there and I really appreciate that, too.

“It was a great time. I really miss the organization, the team and all the guys,” Olynek added. “I have no disrespect for the organization. It was a decision they had to make. Of course, I wish I could have ended it off there but I’m a Saskatoon Blade now and I’m excited to start my journey with them.”

Broncos then Brandon

The Raiders play the Swift Current Broncos on the road on Saturday. They’ll be off until the following Friday for a home-and-home against the Brandon Wheat Kings. The Raiders will play the Wheaties on Oct. 14 in Brandon, then Oct. 15 back at the Art Hauser Centre.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders’ penalties bite them vs. Blades; Olynek faces old squad

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