Raiders forward Aliaksei Protas celebrates a goal with Spencer Moe and Brayden Watts. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Viper Bites

Protas takes points lead after going beast mode in Moose Jaw

Nov 2, 2019 | 10:10 PM

The Viper of Vitebsk has taken over.

Aliaksei Protas led the way offensively with a two-goal, four-point night as his Prince Albert Raiders defeated the Moose Jaw Warriors 5-1 on Saturday. That’s the Raiders’ fourth straight win on the season, improving their record to 11-2-3 on the season.

With that, Protas moved into the WHL lead in points with 26 through his first 16 games. He also has 12 goals, which is ranked second in the league.

Protas’ development since he’s come to Prince Albert has been obvious and noticeable. Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt said he was really impressed with Protas’ second half of the season and especially his playoffs where the Belarussian scored 12 goals and 22 points in 23 postseason games.

“Then in the offseason of course, he gets drafted and signed by Washington, he goes to development camp and now he gets to learn from the pros there. He goes to training camp and sees what [Alex] Ovechkin does and what all those other guys do, as well,” Truitt said of Protas. “He’s taking it to a huge level here. To me, he’s not that far away. He’ll have a great year this year, and Washington may have a decision to make next year.”

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Raiders rookie goaltender Carter Serhyenko made his second WHL career start and got the victory. In fact, he was 2:48 away from registering a shutout, but that was ruined by Warriors forward Ryder Korczak, who tipped in a point shot to beat Serhyenko. That was the only puck that got by him in 33 Warrior shots.

He’s only played two and a half games, but Serhyenko has been sharp. He’s only surrendered three goals on 68 shots, with a .956 save percentage and a 1.20 goals against average.

“He’s a very calming influence in that crease. He’s not jittery at all. He’s business-like, he’s a quiet guy and he just goes amongst his business. He knows his angles well, he’s reacting to shots well and he’s reacting to traffic that might be in front of him extremely well. For a young goaltender, he sure has been great.”

The Raiders had a 3-0 lead after the first period thanks to goals from Brayden Watts, Aliaksei Protas and Evan Herman.

Spencer Moe, fresh off his two-goal game against the Regina Pats on Friday, opened the scoring in the second period. Protas scored on the power play, extending the Raiders’ lead to 5-0.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Brayden Watts from Aliaksei Protas, 5:49

2-0, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Kaiden Guhle and Brayden Watts, 6:07

3-0, Raiders, Evan Herman from Ozzy Wiesblatt, 17:24

Second Period

4-0, Raiders, Spencer Moe from Aliaksei Protas, 4:09

5-0, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Landon Kosior and Ozzy Wiesblatt (power play), 5:22

Third Period

5-1, Warriors, Ryder Korczak from Cole Jordan, 17:12

Rollin’ Nolan

Raiders defenceman Nolan Allan and Canada Red defeated Russia 4-3 at the 2019 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Swift Current.

Allan and Canada Red will take on Sweden on Monday for their next game.

Big tests next week

The Raiders will likely face their biggest challenges of the season next week in Alberta. They’ll take on the Edmonton Oil Kings (11-1-3) on Tuesday at Rogers Place. The Oil Kings are tied with the Raiders with 25 points, and are the only WHL team above the Raiders in the CHL Top 10 rankings, and only team with a better winning percentage (.833 to .781).

It doesn’t get much easier after that, as on Wednesday, the Raiders head down to Calgary to face the (8-4-1) Hitmen.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW