Raiders goaltender Ian Scott looks to make a save while Oil Kings forward Andrew Fyten deflects a shot into the back on the net off his shinpad in Game 2. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Open Season

Raiders’ Habscheid said it was ‘open season’ on his goaltender in Game 2

Apr 21, 2019 | 1:59 PM

Prince Albert Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said too many liberties against his goaltender Ian Scott went undetected by the officials in Saturday’s 4-3 overtime defeat to the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Habscheid criticized the officiating crew of Mike Langin and Steve Papp for allowing too much contact against Scott occur without penalty.

“One thing that concerned me a little bit was it was open season on our goaltender,” Habscheid said. “We depend on the officials to defend our goaltender, because we have no recourse anymore these days. He was getting bumped and stuck and ran all game. We expect them to take care of that and they didn’t. That was real disappointing.”

Habscheid also thought there was goaltender interference on Andrew Fyten’s power play goal that tied it up late in the first period.

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“That’s part of it, [Scott]’s got to battle through that. But that’s when you depend on the officials to make those calls,” Habscheid said. “It can’t be open season on goaltenders. If it is, just let us know. But that can’t happen.”

There is a fine balance between running the goalie and getting more traffic in front of the net. After getting shutout 1-0 in Game 1, Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer did make the latter a priority.

“Their D do a really good job getting into ya. They box you out early and they tie you up. We found it really tough in Game 1 to get in front of the net,” Lauer said. “As you make changes and make adjustments during the series as it goes along here, that was one tonight. We had to find ways to get to him and make things difficult for him. We did it a couple times. Did we do it enough? I don’t think so. We need to do more of that and create that second or third opportunity. If we do that, we’ll be okay.”

That strategy seemed to work at times for the Oil Kings in Game 2. After finding themselves down 2-0, the Oil Kings stormed back with a pair of their power play goals in the first period. Both goals had several Oil Kings in front of Scott.

“It was just shots with traffic, we have to find a way to block those shots coming from the point and move guys in front of Scotty so he can see it,” Raiders captain Brayden Pachal said. “We’re confident. It was one game, an overtime loss. But we’re looking forward to next game.”

Games 3 and 4 will be at Rogers Place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Game 5 will be back at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW