Raiders defenceman Sergei Sapego does the bird celebration during the Raiders' 6-4 win over the Red Deer Rebels Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Belarusian Beauties

The Sniper and Viper of Vitebsk lift Raiders over Rebels

Mar 23, 2019 | 10:59 PM

It was a Belarusian parade to the scoresheet for the Prince Albert Raiders Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre.

Sergei Sapego and Aliaksei Protas, known collectively as the Sniper and the Viper of Vitebsk, Belarus, both scored two goals and an assist each as the Raiders beat the Red Deer Rebels 6-4. In the process, the Raiders take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven WHL opening playoff round series.

There was a lot that went on in the game Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre. Raiders breakout star Brett Leason got a major penalty and was ejected from the game in controversial fashion. Rebels’ goal machine Brandon Hagel scored a hat trick and taunted the Raiders bench after his second goal. And the hulking, stay at home Raiders defenceman Jeremy Masella actually drew a penalty shot (he missed).

But Sniper and Viper had the biggest impact on the game. Not only did they team up for four of the Raiders’ six goals of the contest, but they each their assists on each other’s goals.

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“Just about my assist, I saw my Belarusian friend just yell at me in Russian. [I thought] ‘why not’ and I just passed to him,” Protas laughed.

“I like playing with Alex, because I can call to him in my language,” Sapego said. “It’s easy to play for me and Alex.”

Leason ejected

The Raiders had a 3-1 lead early on in the second period when Brett Leason took a five-minute major penalty for checking Rebel Cameron Hausinger from behind, and was ejected from the game.

Hausinger laid on the ice with little to no motion for several moments and was helped to the bench while the officials decide to award a major penalty. It looked like Hausinger was going to the dressing room to get evaluated, but he seemed to change his mind and took his spot quickly on the bench. He was back out on the ice after missing over a minute of game time, and finished the remainder of the contest.

Raiders head coach Habscheid disagreed with the infraction requiring a major penalty, and said Hausinger made the hit look worse than it was.

“It’s amazing he recovered that quick, he’s out the next shift. That’s playoffs. That’s embellishing. It’s too bad they embellish like that and the officials, they’re two good officials, but they fell for it,” Habscheid said. “It’s too bad, because we lost a good player.”

The Rebels were able to gain a lot of momentum from the major penalty, especially their top scorer in Brandon Hagel who scored a hat trick.

Two of Hagel’s goals were on the power play and one was shortly after Leason’s major penalty had expired. On Hagel’s second goal, he taunted the Raiders bench and needed to be restrained and redirected by one of the linesmen.

“We have to stay out of the penalty box against him but it was interesting. When he got his [second] goal, he taunted our bench,” Habscheid said. “That fueled our guys, so we thank him for that. Our guys don’t take taunting too much and he taunted us. He went down the whole bench and taunted us the way by. Our guys took note of that.”

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Dante Hannoun and Brett Leason, 6:08

2-0, Raiders, Sergei Sapego from Noah Gregor and Dante Hannoun (power play), 8:32

2-1, Rebels, Chris Douglas from Ethan Sakowich and Brett Davis (power play), 14:55

3-1, Raiders, Sergei Sapego from Aliaksei Protas and Dante Hannoun, 16:19

Second Period

3-2, Rebels, Brandon Hagel (unassisted, power play), 8:00

3-3, Rebels, Brandon Hagel from Jacob Herauf and Dawson Barteaux, 9:00

4-3, Raiders, Brayden Pachal (unassisted), 11:14

Third Period

5-3, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Noah Gregor and Sergei Sapego, 2:08

6-3, Raiders, Ozzy Wiesblatt from Spencer Moe and Max Martin, 7:47

6-4, Rebels, Brandon Hagel from Dawson Barteaux and Cameron Hausinger (power play), 10:24

Heading to Red Deer

Both teams will head to Red Deer for Games 3 and 4 at the Centrium on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tune in to CKBI to hear the live call from Trevor Redden and Marty Ring. Yours truly will be there as well, delivering game previews, live updates, GIF highlights and post-game reaction from coaches and players.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW