By Jeff D'Andrea

Predators prey on SWAT with goals and a ‘huge hits’

May 12, 2017 | 10:57 PM

The Prince Albert Predators scored more goals in Friday’s win over the Saskatoon SWAT, than they did in their entire home opening weekend.

The Preds beat the SWAT 19-9 to even their regular season record to 2-2 at the Kinsmen Arena. The Predators combined for 16 goals in a pair of losses to the pair of Regina sides, the Riot and Rifles, last Saturday and Sunday.

“We did a lot of things right in the first period, we did a lot of things offensively and defensively,” Predators head coach Tyson Fetch said. “We kept them out of the house and kept all their shots to the perimeter. They didn’t get any quality shots off really in the first and we really took it to them.”

The SWAT were able to find their scoring sticks and get seven by the Preds. The Predators still won the second period 9-7, but Fetch saw some things to clean up heading into the final frame.

“We stopped doing all the little things. All of a sudden, our defence instead of playing defence and figured they were scorers,” Fetch said. “They started taking the ball up, and instead of using 30 seconds on the shot clock, we’re using six or seven because they’re sprinting down and taking a shot. Some of them resulted in goals but not very many. We kind of took the foot off the pedal.”

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Just about every Predator found the scoresheet one way or another. Ashton Hall had four goals, while Ethan Beaulac had a hat trick.

Predators defender Travis Dryka didn’t score, but he may have delivered one of the biggest body checks in Predators history. Late in the third period, he steamrolled an unsuspecting Ryley Badger so hard, Badger’s body was at one point parallel to the floor, four feet above it.

After Dryka followed that up by another strong hit into the boards, that started all kinds of mayhem with three separate fights.

“That was a huge hit,” Fetch said, adding maybe one other hit by Predator Brody Low could have rivalled it. “Two in a row [Dryka] did, then he was triple teamed and some guys came to his rescue. It added some excitement for the fans I guess, but that hit was special.”

There will be a May 25 rematch between the two sides in Saskatoon.

Jeff D’Andrea is paNOW’s sports reporter. He can be reached at jdandrea@jpbg.ca or tweet him @jeff_paNOW.