Raiders with rough first inning on baseball night

They weren’t ready to play Friday’s game, the Raiders’ third game under new head coach Marc Habscheid. The Raiders won the first one for Habscheid on Saturday when he officially joined the team earlier that day, but they’ve gone 0-2 since as the team is still continuing to adjust to their new bench boss.

Habscheid willingly stomached the blame for the team’s stumbles out of the gate.

“We started poorly and that’s on me,” said Habscheid. “That’s the coach’s responsibility and that’s on me. They have to be ready to go, and that’s my fault.”

Although Raiders starting goaltender Nick McBride gave up three goals on the first five shots against, Habscheid stuck with McBride for the remainder of the first period. However, McBride got the hook after he surrendered the fourth Seattle goal to Keegan Kolesar 38 seconds into the second period—the 10^th shot McBride faced.

Although McBride got his milestone first WHL career shutout on Oct. 28 in a 5-0 win over the Kootenay Ice, he has struggled since. McBride has given up at four goals in each of his last three starts and is 0-3.

“We really didn’t give him a lot of support,” said Habscheid. “Some of them went in and sometimes you get some days like that. Sometimes I’ll go down to my ranch and by the time I leave, I’ve got nothing accomplished.

“It’s one of those days. We all have them. It’s not like we wanted to let those goals in, but they went in. He’s a good goalie, he cares, and he’ll be better.”

As the frustration built on both sides of the puck, the misconducts and penalty minutes started to rise—mostly on the Raiders’ side. The Raiders had 57 penalty minutes compared to the T-Birds’ 23, and three misconducts to the Thunderbirds’ one.

The one that hurt the most was Craig Leverton’s, who got an unsportsmanlike conduct, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct at the midway point of the game. Leverton was on an absolute tear heading into the game, with five goals and seven points in his previous three games before getting ejected from the game.

“Our guys care, but having said that, some things you can’t do. Leverton felt worse than anybody, he felt bad,” said Habscheid. “That’s okay, everyone makes mistakes. He knew he made a mistake and he’ll move on. He’s a good guy.”

Kozun cozy in the Thunderbirds goal

Former Prince Albert Minto Taran Kozun had one of the best seats in the house to witness the Thunderbirds’ six-goal explosion, the most they’ve scored in one game this season.

It was a good thing for him that the Thunderbirds gave him a lot of run support, because Kozun’s nerves always seem to fly when he plays in front of friends and family.

“It’s actually really nerve-wracking, the most nervous I’ve ever been is when I’m playing here,” said Kozun, originally from Nipawin. “It’s just a blast getting to see them after and getting them to watch me play.”

Kozun played on the 2010-2011 Mintos and played with current-Raiders Sawyer Lange and Jordan Tkatch. In Friday’s game, Lange scored the Raiders’ first goal in the second period, which caught Kozun off guard.

“When we played together, he scored quite a bit so I knew he would be shooting the first couple,” said Kozun, who made 33 saves in the victory. “On that last one, he caught me off guard and put it low-blocks—you have to give it to him.

“He made a pretty good shot, I wasn’t expecting him to do that.”

No Messier, Roach in

Raiders overage forward Marcus Messier was scratched in favour of 16-year-old Sean Montgomery. Habscheid said Messier was ill with the flu and couldn’t participate.

Curtis Roach played his first game since Sept. 21, in place of Raiders defenceman Brennan Riddle who was healthy scratched.

Two more next week

The Raiders will have two more home games Wednesday against the Regina Pats and Friday against the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Raiders will then jet off to Swift Current on Saturday to take on the Broncos.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders with rough first inning on baseball night

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