By Trevor Redden

Consecutive losses

Penalties plague Raiders in second straight loss to Wheat Kings

Feb 17, 2019 | 12:30 AM

A 5-1 deficit proved to be insurmountable for the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday night as they fell 6-3 in Brandon, suffering their first set of back-to-back losses this season.

Penalty trouble plagued the Raiders in the early going with the Wheat Kings striking three times on six power play opportunities by the early part of the second period, ultimately building a 5-1 lead with 8:14 still remaining in the middle frame. By the time it was all said and done, the Wheat Kings had nine power plays compared to four for Prince Albert.

“We got undisciplined, but it’s frustrating when you’ve got to kill nine, and at bad times. When the game is tight or within reach, you’ve got to have everybody on the same page,” assistant coach Jeff Truitt said. “Right now we’re fighting it a little bit but our discipline has got to be better.”

Brandon was opportunistic on their chances, scoring twice on their first seven shots on starter Boston Bilous, who was then replaced by Brett Balas.

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“It’s not his fault, but we’ve got to change things. The lines change, the defensive pairings change, you’ve got to do something to try to ignite things,” Truitt said.

It was a tough spot for Balas to step into as he faced just three shots in the first 13:23 of action, with two of them finding their way home on Brandon power plays. From there, Balas settled in and stopped 14 of the final 15 shots he faced.

“He got more and more comfortable, and our guys in front of him tightened the belt loops a little bit and realized we’ve got to protect our guys a little more,” Truitt said. “We’ve got two young guys in there doing their best and you’re giving up backdoor tap-in goals and things like that, we’ve got to help them too.”

This was Bilous’ fourth straight start since Ian Scott sustained a lower body injury that has kept him out of the lineup for the last week. Forward Brett Leason also remained out due to injury for the fourth straight game.

Down 5-1 in the second, the Raiders briefly seized momentum when Wheat Kings netminder Jiri Patera fumbled a long wrist shot from Justin Nachbaur that found it’s way over the pad and into the net to make it a three-goal gap. However, four penalty calls against Prince Albert left them on the kill for virtually the final five minutes of the period with much of it being a two-man advantage.

The Raiders penalty kill tightened up and kept the deficit at three, allowing Nachbaur to strike again on a power play in the third to cut the Brandon lead to two. It was all Raiders in the final 20 minutes as they outshot the Wheat Kings 20-5, but Patera held the fort until Ben McCartney sealed the contest with an empty net goal from his own blue line.

“We give our guys a lot of credit for coming back and making things interesting here in the third and giving a glimmer of hope that something great can happen, but it wasn’t meant to be here tonight and we’ve got to re-set,” Truitt said. “We want to get ourselves going here for the postseason and something like this is sometimes good for a team. You’ve got to re-set, re-think, and re-focus and hopefully Monday afternoon we can do that.”

Scoring summary

First period

1-0, Wheat Kings, Cole Reinhardt from Stelio Mattheos and Luka Burzan, 2:20 [PP]

1-1, Raiders, Dante Hannoun from Cole Fonstad and Ozzy Wiesblatt, 7:28

2-1, Wheat Kings, Stelio Mattheos from Zach Wytinck and Luka Burzan, 10:12

3-1, Wheat Kings, Stelio Mattheos [2] from Cole Reinhardt and Luka Burzan, 19:59 [PP]

Second period

4-1, Wheat Kings, Luka Burzan from Zach Wytinck and Cole Reinhardt, 3:35 [PP]

5-1, Wheat Kings, Stelio Mattheos [3] from Luka Burzan, 11:46

5-2, Raiders, Justin Nachbaur from Zack Hayes and Jeremy Masella, 12:03

Third period

5-3, Raiders, Justin Nachbaur [2] from Aliaksei Protas and Max Martin, 5:17 [PP]

6-3, Wheat Kings, Ben McCartney, 17:34 [EN]

Fonstad hits 200

Saturday night was Cole Fonstad’s 200^th career WHL game, all played with the Raiders.

Fonstad was selected fifth overall in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft and recalls his first game as a 15-year-old affiliate like it was yesterday.

“It was pretty cool because it was in Moose Jaw where I was playing midget. I got the call the night before and I told my buddy that I was billeting with and I couldn’t really sleep that night,” Fonstad said. “My whole team got to watch my first game so that was pretty cool too.”

“Habby let Carson Miller and I play a lot more than most kids do their first game, so it was definitely a memorable one.”

With the setup on Hannoun’s first period marker, Fonstad busted a two-game pointless drought and now has 61 points in 57 games played this year.

Next up

The Raiders are back in action on Monday as they welcome the Moose Jaw Warriors for a 4 p.m. Family Day matinee. The game is the first of a five-game homestand for Prince Albert. Altogether, the Raiders will play eight of their final 11 regular season games on home ice at the Art Hauser Centre.

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trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden