By Jeff D'Andrea

Broncos stomp out Raiders’ point streak

Feb 9, 2018 | 8:56 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders came into Friday’s contest against the Swift Current Broncos with points in their last nine games (6-0-3), their longest such streak since the 2003-04 season.

Their hopes of making it 10 straight games without a regulation defeat were crushed early by the Broncos, who scored the first five goals of the game to win 5-1 at the Innovation Credit Union i-plex.

Four of those goals came in the first period, with a pair coming off the stick of Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin. Giorgio Estephan and Beck Malenstyn piled on in that opening frame.

“They were shot up for the first period, but it wasn’t so much what they did, they just capitalized on our poor execution,” Raiders associate coach Dave Manson said. “I’m all for respecting the opponent, but I mean you have to be able to play your game too to force their hand a bit. I thought we just kind of sat back and watched the whole period.”

Kaden Elder added the Broncos’ fifth 1:43 into the second period. The Raiders did get on the board courtesy of Justin Nachbaur.

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That’s the Raiders first defeat in regulation since Jan. 17. They sit at 22-21-9-2 on the season.

Broncos goaltender Stuart Skinner has had the Raiders’ number since he joined the Broncos at the deadline. He stopped 29 of 30 Raiders shots on Friday, and shut out the Raiders with 29 saves on Jan. 12.

“I didn’t think there was enough traffic in front of him,” Manson said. “And he’s a big fella. If he’s going to be square to it, there’s a good chance it’s going to hit him.

“I thought we could have been in front of him a little bit more to make him work, but he had a pretty easy night.”

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Broncos, Glenn Gawdin (unassisted), 0:22

Welp, Gawdin dumps it in from centre, gets the clear after a weird bounce from the glass and puts it in 22 seconds in, 1-0 Broncos pic.twitter.com/YdE8MThauX

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) February 10, 2018

2-0, Broncos, Glenn Gawdin from Tyler Steenbergen and Artyom Minulin, 11:25

Gawdin with his 2nd to make it 2-0 pic.twitter.com/dBpViO40H0

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) February 10, 2018

3-0, Broncos, Giorgio Estephan from Beck Malenstyn and Tanner Nagel, 11:39

They’re not done calling Gawdin goal before Estephan immediately makes it 3-0 Broncos pic.twitter.com/AHXkurdWIA

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) February 10, 2018

4-0, Broncos, Beck Malenstyn from Giorgio Estephan and Matteo Gennaro (power play), 17:38

4-0 Broncos after the first period. Here’s Malenstyn’s tip to make it 4-0 on the power play pic.twitter.com/MBnrxjtKSE

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) February 10, 2018

Second Period

5-0, Broncos, Kaden Elder from Aleksi Heponiemi and Matteo Gennaro, 1:43

Elder makes it 5-0 Broncos under 2 minutes into the 2nd period pic.twitter.com/zoPXoQzuTc

— Jeff D'Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) February 10, 2018

5-1, Raiders, Justin Nachbaur from Sean Montgomery and Brett Leason, 13:58

Raiders get on the board. Nachbaur puts in the rebound, 5-1 Broncos lead with 6 minutes left in 2nd pic.twitter.com/FbiRvSRYap

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) February 10, 2018

Third Period

No scoring.

Busy weekend

The Raiders will have a rematch against the Broncos on Sunday at the Art Hauser Centre. That one is a matinee start at 4 p.m.

Before then, the Raiders will take on the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday at the SaskTel Centre.

On Friday night, the Blades fell 6-3 to the Brandon Wheat Kings to remain tied with the Raiders with 55 points. The Raiders remain in the second wildcard spot and have 18 games remaining, one more than the Blades.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW