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Raiders power play sputters in loss to Pats

Dec 30, 2017 | 9:02 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders forget to plug in their power play, and couldn’t get it started Saturday. 

The Raiders sputtered 0-9 with the man advantage and gave up a shorthanded goal as the game winner in their 2-1 defeat to the Regina Pats at the Art Hauser Centre. That’s the Raiders’ fourth straight loss as they fall to 13-17-5-2. The Pats get back to a .500 record at 18-18-3-0.

In a fitting conclusion to the game, the Pats’ got their game winning goal shorthanded late in the third period. Jake Leschyshyn stripped Raiders D-man Max Martin of the puck and scored to put the Pats up 2-1 with 6:17 left in the game.

“We had a lot of great looks—but it was a microcosm of the game—we had point blank shots, didn’t score. Hit posts, hit legs and blocked shots,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said. “Structurally, I thought it was okay but we didn’t score. And then we gave up that shorty in the end—game, set, match.”

“I think our first couple power play were pretty good,” Raiders captain Curtis Miske, who scored the lone Raiders goal, said. “We got pucks to the net, but we’re getting a little too cute. We have to be more ‘meat and potatoes’ I guess. That’s what decided the game today, it’s not the one play at the end. We were 0-9 on the power play; that should be a couple of goals.”

After struggling to put together goals after the holiday break, Habscheid decided to shuffle up the Raiders’ top two scoring lines,

Pats goaltender Tyler Brown made 47 saves in goal to stymie the Raiders. Habscheid did tip his hat to Brown’s performance, but also added his team may have made him look a little bit better by not being clinical in front of goal.

During their four-game losing streak, Habscheid has shuffled the scoring lines.The Raiders were carried offensively in the first half by the Jordy Stallard, Cole Fonstad and Parker Kelly line, but have split it up to try and find a spark.

“It’s not going the way it should, so you have to move guys around,” Habscheid said. “Sometimes it gets stale, so you have to find some new partners.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Pats, Jared Legien from Matt Bradley, 0:56

Second Period

1-1, Raiders, Curtis Miske from Zack Hayes and Jordy Stallard, 0:57

Third Period

2-1, Pats, Jake Leschyshyn (shorthanded, unassisted), 13:43

World Juniors Boys

The Pats were without a number of regulars, including Sam Steel, who scored a goal in Team Canada’s 8-0 win over Denmark at the IIHF World Junior Championship.

The Pats gave Josh Mahura a bit of a break to be with his family, after he missed the holiday break by getting called up to Team Canada to potentially replaced the injured Dante Fabbro. Mahura was sent back to the Pats after Fabbro recovered.

The Raiders are missing Vojtech Budik who’s with Team Czech Republic. Budik had a pair of assists in the Czech’s 6-5 win over Belarus to improve to 2-1 on the tournament.

New Year’s rematch

The Raiders will head down for a rematch in Regina against the Pats. They’ll return to the Art Hauser Centre on Jan. 5 to play the Red Deer Rebels and Jan. 6 to face the Red Deer Rebels.

 

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW