Raiders forward Jakob Brook and Rockets forward Matthew Wedman battle for a loose puck. Lucas Chudleigh/Apollo Multimedia.

By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders and Rockets

Raiders’ Habscheid criticizes ‘soft calls’ in defeat to Rockets

Dec 6, 2019 | 10:49 PM

Prince Albert Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid usually uses a “no comment” or a “I don’t want to talk about the referees” after a game where his team may take more penalties than his opponents.

But Habscheid took another strategy on Friday after a 2-1 loss to the Memorial Cup hosting Kelowna Rockets at the Art Hauser Centre.

Habscheid said that officials Adam Byblow and Aydon Brown seemed to be chatting with Rockets head coach Adam Foote throughout the game—who in his playing days won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche.

“I don’t blame referees or anything, but there were three soft calls. And they talked to [Foote] all night. I don’t know if they wanted to get his autograph because he’s a Stanley Cup champion or what, but it didn’t look good,” Habscheid said. “They talked to him all night. He ran line changes, he did whatever he wanted. He slowed the game down and they just let him do it… Our guys are accountable. Yeah we lost, but that was not good. I’m just glad the supervisor was here tonight.”

The Raiders ended up shorthanded eight times throughout the game, which included three separate two-men disadvantages. All of them happened in the third period and all of them occurred back-to-back-to-back. Adam’s youngest son Nolan Foote scored the game winner on the first 5-on-3 power play. That ties him for the WHL lead with eight.

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“You got to be disciplined, but at the same time, soft calls are soft calls. I’m not going to get upset at my guys for that,” Habscheid said. “You push them and they fall or they get tapped on the hands. That’s fine. If that’s a slash, then that’s a slash on us too. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a good job tonight.”

The Raiders held the Rockets to 15 shots throughout the game, despite taking 16 total minutes of power play time to the Rockets. They had almost double the shots themselves, but could only muster one past Rockets goaltender Roman Basran. That came off the stick of Ozzy Wiesblatt, who outwaited Basran and dangled in a highlight reel goal on the near post.

Wiesblatt played as the Raiders’ top centre in the absence of Belarusian centremen Aliaksei Protas, who was tied for the WHL lead in points with 42 before he left, and Ilya Usau—both of whom are with Team Belarus preparing for the Division 1A World Juniors in Minsk starting on Saturday.

But Habscheid wanted more than just Wiesblatt contributing, especially when the Raiders are missing two important pivots down the middle.

“He’s 17, but he’s a good skilled and he makes good plays, same with [Spencer] Moe,” Habscheid said. “We need everybody contributing. He’s 17, but there’s guys that are 19 years old that need to step up.”

The Raiders called up last year’s first rounder Niall Crocker to their roster. He took warmups, but didn’t play in the game as 20-year-old Brayden Watts was able to play. Watts was a game-time decision after suffering a lower body injury on Saturday.

The Rockets were also missing some important pieces of their puzzle. Dillon Hamaliuk, the second round pick of the San Jose Sharks, missed the game due to illness. Overager Kyle Topping is nursing a lower body injury, while Liam Kindree has an upper body injury. And Pavel Novak, the Rockets’ second leading scorer, served his seventh of an eight game suspension after checking Kamloops Blazers forward and former Prince Albert Minto Kyrell Sopotyk from behind on Nov. 11 in Kamloops.

The loss puts the Raiders at 18-6-3-1 on the season. The Rockets are 15-8-1-2.

Scoring Summary

First Period

No scoring.

Second Period

1-0, Rockets, Dallon White from Alex Swetlikoff and Jake Poole, 3:31

Third Period

1-1, Raiders, Ozzy Wiesblatt from Landon Kosior (power play), 6:19

2-1, Rockets, Nolan Foote from Matthew Wedman and Kaedan Korczak (power play), 13:27

Warriors up next

The Raiders will get right back at it on Saturday, when they head down to Moose Jaw to face the Warriors. The Raiders will then close out the first half with four games next week, Dec. 11 at home against the Medicine Hat Tigers, Friday at home against the Winnipeg ICE, Saturday at home against the Kamloops Blazers and Sunday on the road against the Saskatoon Blades.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW