By Dropping the Mitts

Even strength, more like even weakness for Raiders

Oct 17, 2014 | 7:08 AM

After starting the year off with a two-game sweep over the Saskatoon Blades, the Prince Albert Raiders have stumbled into a quagmire. They’ve lost all of their last four games and are 1-5 in their last six games.

The biggest reason for that is their trouble scoring even-strength (ES) goals. In their opening week sweep over the Saskatoon Blades, the Raiders outscored the Blades 7-3 in ES situations.

But since then in their 1-5 slip-up, the Raiders are being outscored 5-20 in that department. That also includes an extent when the Raiders went 191:08 without scoring an even-strength goal.

On the year, they have 12 ES goals which is tied for third worst in the WHL. Also at 12 are the Lethbridge Hurricanes who have the least amount of total goals for (16) and lowest winning percentage at .188 in the WHL. Also below them are the Seattle Thunderbirds (11 ES goals) and the 2-6 rebuilding Blades (10 ES goals).

A big reason why the Raiders aren’t scoring a ton, especially in even-strength situations, is because they only really have a select few players that are piling up points.

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Forwards Reid Gardiner (five goals, eight points), Craig Leverton (four goals, seven points) and Jordan Tkatch (two goals, eight points) started the year on the same line—but that line was the only one producing. Raiders head coach Cory Clouston has since split them up to try and spark the rest of the team to score.

Defenceman Sawyer Lange (one goal, eight points) and the newly returned captain Josh Morrissey (a goal and an assist in three games) have also been producing on the backend. Solid blueline production has also been coming from Tomas Andrlik and Brendan Guhle, who each have four points in eight games.

But that’s about it for the Raiders in terms of notable and consistent production. Overage forward Jayden Hart has three points in six games (but did miss all of the training camp and preseason with a groin injury), and the rest of the Raiders’ roster has two points or less.

The most notable included in that list is overage forward Dakota Conroy. Conroy is coming off a 30 goal season but has started slow out of the gate with a goal and an assist in eight contests. Winger Gage Quinney, who looked excellent in the preseason and earned a promotion to the top line along with Conroy, has no goals and two assists through eight games.

There are also still five skaters on the Raiders that have yet to register a point—including Matteo Gennaro and Colton McCarthy who have played all eight games.

Very special teams

It should be noted that the Raiders have put up excellent numbers in both power play and penalty kill percentages. Their combined percentage is 110 per cent, ranking fourth in the WHL behind only the Swift Current Broncos (125.2 per cent), the Medicine Hat Tigers (113.4 per cent) and the Kelowna Rockets (113.3 per cent). The Raiders power play is ranked sixth at 22.0, and their third ranked penalty kill is working at a 88 per cent rate.

Although a good power play is essential to a team’s offence, it can’t be the only offensive source. Squads can’t wait for the opposition to take a penalty, just so they can have a chance to score.

Teams in this league have to be able to produce goals in even-strength situations as well, something the Raiders will need to sort out sooner than later.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea