By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders lose to Hitmen 4-2; catching up with Loch

Nov 5, 2014 | 9:11 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders got 38 shots on goal, not including four posts and a disallowed goal, but still didn’t pick up the win against the challenging Calgary Hitmen—losing 4-2 Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre.

Although new Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid knew the game was winnable and some of the Raiders’ decision making was poor especially in the second period, his postgame message was positive overall. He liked the energy and knew it would take more time than just two practices for the Raiders to completely gel in his new systems.

“It was just ‘keep your heads up,’ we knew we weren’t going to win every game,” said Habscheid, 1-1 since joining the Raiders on Saturday. “A lot of good things we saw, it’s a work in progress.

“Those decisions, you can’t make perfect decisions after two or three days, it takes time (practicing with new coach). The intent was good, they’re trying to make plays and hang on to pucks, those are all good things. The other things we can fix.

“When you’re trying to change things, it takes time.”

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Although his message is an encouraging one, some of the players in the battle are still a little frustrated.

“Games like this are tough to swallow,” said Raiders forward Craig Leverton. “We played pretty well, we had a lapse in the second but other than, it was a good game.

“We had a couple posts, those could have been goals but you can’t dwell on those too much.”

Although Leverton had one of those aforementioned posts, he also had both of the Raiders goals to keep their hopes very much alive in the contest.

There were some tough breaks against the Raiders in the game, which surely helped in Leverton’s frustrating.

The Hitmen’s second goal was shortly after an icing call was waved off. Raiders defenceman Tomas Andrlik slowed down in his pursuit of the puck thinking an icing call was coming. Adam Tambellini was quick to check him and get the puck over to rookie Jordy Stallard for his first career goal.

After Raiders forward Dylan Stewart celebrated what would be a disallowed goal in the third which would have made it 3-2 Raiders, Radal Fazleev scored on the ensuing faceoff to make it 3-2 Hitmen. For their fourth goal, Raiders captain Josh Morrissey stepped on the puck at the offensive blueline, leading to an Adam Tambellini goal the other way.

“It’s part of the game, that happens,” said Habscheid. “Those were tough breaks but there’s going to be a game down the line where they go in our favour.

“It will all even out before we know it.”

‘Loched’ in

Although it happened nearly eight months ago, P.A. product and Calgary Hitmen defenceman Loch Morrison is still in triumphant shock after winning the Telus Cup with the Prince Albert Mintos.

It was back on Apr. 27 in Moose Jaw where his Mintos won in triple overtime in the longest game in Telus Cup history over les Grenadiers de Châteauguay.

To this day, Morrison still has difficulty describing his emotions after teammate Dakota Boutin ended the game deep into triple overtime.

“I still can’t explain the feeling,” said Morrison. “It’s still like… wow.”

Morrison was one of the strongest overall defencemen at that tournament, also pitched in with two goals and four points in the seven games.

But perhaps the most impressive stat for Morrison in that tournament were his penalty minutes. Although he finished second in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League last year with 122 penalty minutes in 40 games, Morrison took just one minor penalty in the complete seven-game Telus Cup tournament.

“Obviously, I struggled last year doing that but coming to the Telus Cup, I thought to myself ‘we can win this thing,’” said Morrison. “Me and my dad (then head coach Ken Morrison) had our chats and I was pretty determined not to take any penalties.”

“It was awesome. There were the top teams in Canada in midget. It’s not as fast as the WHL, but it’s similar. It was a good experience, just being around Hockey Canada and everything. It was pretty amazing.”

Penalty minutes certainly aren’t an issue this year with the Hitmen, as Morrison has just 17 through 15 games as a rookie this season.

He found himself on top defence pairing Wednesday with Travis Sanheim, a first-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Flyers in last year’s NHL Entry Draft.

“It’s getting to be pretty good here consistently,” said Morrison, who has two points and is +2 on the year. “It’s obviously faster than midget and I think I’ve adapted to that. There’s always those little things you have to keep working at and I’ve been doing that.

“It’s been going good.”

Raiders home stickin’

Wednesday’s game against the Hitmen is the Raiders’ second in a five-game homestand. They still have home contests Friday against the Seattle Thunderbirds, Nov. 12 against the Regina Pats and Nov. 14 against the Moose Jaw Warriors. The puck drops at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre for each game.

All games will be broadcasted live on 900 CKBI, with coverage starting at 6:30 p.m.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea