By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders fall to Tips 2-0 despite great show from Parenteau

Jan 2, 2015 | 9:29 PM

Prince Albert Raiders goaltender Rylan Parenteau was so good on Friday night, his performance made a huge impression on Travis Huntington, the voice of the Everett Silvertips.

“I don’t care what happens in this game, Rylan Parenteau is the first star,” Travis Huntington after Parenteau made one of his 41 stops on 42 Silvertip shots.

But even Parenteau’s dazzling body of work in goal wasn’t enough as the Silvertips scored on  him once and added a late empty netter for a 2-0 win.

Parenteau kept the Raiders in the game by making some saves he had no business making. His best included a flashy glove save to rob Silvertip captain Kohl Bauml on a 2-on-1 in the third, and when he made snow angels in the crease to rob Nikita Scherbak in the opening frame.

“I’m definitely feeling really good about my game and my teammates are helping me out a lot,” said Parenteau. “I’m looking to finish the season strong and help the team get into the playoffs.”

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Although his team showed heart and desperation by blocking shots for Parenteau, especially Jesse Lees’ to save a sure goal to Patrick Bajkov in the third, there hasn’t been a lot of offensive support for the Raiders’ goalies in recent games.

After being shutout Friday, the Raiders have scored just one goal in their last three games and have gone four games without an even-strength goal.

“Rylan played good, there’s no doubt, but we’re having a tough time scoring goals right now,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. “But the thing is, we did some good things and we got our defencemen involved tonight in the offensive zone more than we have in a long time.

“We produced chances, they went to the net and pucks are laying there, but it’s like there’s a force field on the goalline right now.”

The Silvertips have been a tough beat in recent years and have continued that into this season. The ‘Tips have led the WHL U.S. Division since Oct. 24, are 22-11-3-1 on the year and have surrendered just 101 goals through 37 games.

Raiders forward Austin Glover knows as well as anyone that the Everett Silvertips are a tough team to score against. Like defencemen Jesse Lees and Colton Heffley, Glover came from the Kelowna Rockets in December knows all about how tough the Silvertips can be to create offence against.

“Coming from Kelowna, I’ve played against this Everett team quite a bit and they’re really solid defensively and don’t give up much chances,” said Glover. “For us to play like we did tonight, I think that’s definitely a positive step for our team.

“It’s a new year, we want to make some changes and get that winning culture here.”

Little scoring summary

Silvertips goaltender Carter Hart made 26 saves for his second career shutout. Ben Betker broke the deadlock with under a minute left in the second period, before Carson Stadnyk filled the empty net in the final minute.

A lot of Contact

Friday’s game featured seven alumni of the Saskatoon Contacts, five of which were on the 2011-2012 Contacts who won the SMAAAHL championship and got bronze at the 2012 Telus Cup national championships. On that club were Raiders Glover, Parenteau and Reid Gardiner, and Silvertips Carson Stadnyk and Dawson Leedahl.

”We had a pretty special team that year,” said Glover. “It’s fun to go around the league and play those guys.”

Also former Contacts were Silvertips Kohl Bauml and Raiders forward Craig Leverton, who celebrated his 20^th birthday on Friday.

Down two D-men

The Raiders announced Friday morning that two of their defencemen will be unavailable in the immediate future.

They reassigned 17-year-old defenceman Curtis Roach to the Flin Flon Bombers of the SJHL. Roach appeared in just seven games with the Raiders this season.

The other big piece of news was that Tomas Andrlik will be out for four months with an ankle injury. Habscheid said Andrlik experienced the injury in a freak accident while skating with his billets on an outdoor rink.

What lies ahead

The Raiders will play the Moose Jaw Warriors down in the Friendly City on Saturday, before hosting the Tribe Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre. The Raiders will stick around in P.A. to play the Swift Current Broncos on Jan. 9, before taking on the Regina Pats in the province’s capital on Jan. 10.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea