Raiders forward Aliaksei Protas is watched closely by Rebels forward Josh Tarzwell as he tries to break out of his own zone. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders and Rebels

Rebels outlast the Raiders

Nov 9, 2019 | 10:25 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders sure looked like a team that was playing their fourth game in the past five nights on Saturday.

The Raiders dropped a 3-2 decision to the struggling Red Deer Rebels, who came into the game with just one win in their past 11 games. The Rebels were also finishing out their six-game road trip

“We were gassed tonight. We made mistakes in the third period on their goals and just couldn’t come back,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said. “We didn’t have a lot of snap on our legs. I thought their goalie played well and we didn’t do enough to win.”

It’s been a long couple of weeks for the Raiders. After going 2-2-1 on their U.S. road trip, the Raiders had just one home game on Nov. 1, before heading back to face the best two teams in Alberta in Edmonton and Calgary.

It may have been a taxing part of the schedule, but Raiders captain Zack Hayes still wanted to see more from his team.

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“We don’t really want to use that as an excuse,” Hayes said. “Every game, we come ready to play with the best effort we can. I don’t know if our best effort was there tonight. Those were long road trips, but we don’t want to use those as an excuse.”

The Raiders opened the scoring with Aliaksei Protas scoring from in tight after the Rebels couldn’t clear it. That’s Protas’ 13^th goal of the season. Spencer Moe got the assist, extending his point streak to seven games (six goals, 12 points).

But the Rebels were able to keep the Raiders at bay, and headed into the third with a 1-1 tie when Chris Douglas scored, finding some room through the pads of Raiders goaltender Carter Serhyenko.

After Dawson Barteaux regained the lead for the Rebels with a point shot that found a way in on the power play. The Raiders were able to tie it up with a shorthanded goal from Brayden Watts on a 2-on-1 with Ilya Usau, and appeared to get the momentum from that.

But Dallon Melin had other ideas. He scored the eventual game winner 1:03 later to give the Rebels the victory. Rebels goaltender Ethan Anders made 31 saves on 33 shots. Serhyenko made 24 saves on 27 shots in goal for the Raiders.

Rollin’ Nolan

Nolan Allan got an assist in Team Canada Red’s 6-2 win over Sweden to secure fifth place at the 2019 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge on Saturday in Swift Current.

That was Allan’s lone point in five tournament games.

Canada Red was 2-1 in their pool, but lost to Canada White 3-2 in overtime on Thursday, to get relegated to the placement games.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Spencer Moe and Brayden Watts, 4:52

Second Period

1-1, Rebels, Chris Douglas (unassisted), 8:53

Third Period

2-1, Rebels, Dawson Barteaux from Ben King and Arshdeep Bains (power play), 4:22

2-2, Raiders, Brayden Watts from Ilya Usau (shorthanded), 12:24

3-2, Rebels, Dallon Melin from Jace Isley, 13:27

Looking ahead

The Raiders will head down to the province’s capital to take on the Regina Pats on Saturday, before heading back home to play the Calgary Hitmen on a rare Sunday evening game. Saturday’s game will start at the normal 7 p.m. start time, but Sunday’s will start a little earlier at 6 p.m.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW