Raider goaltender Carter Serhyenko stopped 28 of 29 Warrior shots in a 5-1 victory in Moose Jaw Saturday night. (Lucas Chudleigh/Apollo Multimedia)

By Trevor Redden

Sensational Serhyenko

Raider rookies rise to the challenge in win over Warriors

Dec 7, 2019 | 11:16 PM

Depth came through on Saturday night for the Prince Albert Raiders in a 5-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors.

First it was rookie forward Michel Horon, acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds in November and playing in his seventh game with his new club, scoring the first two goals of his Raider career to put the visitors ahead 2-0 in the first period.

Then it was rookie goaltender Carter Serhyenko protecting that lead the rest of the way, facing 11 Warrior shots in the opening twenty minutes with multiple high quality chances sprinkled throughout. Serhyenko allowed just one goal to give his team the lead after one.

The lone Warrior marker came in the final minute of the first as captain Owen Hardy tucked one five-hole from in tight, bringing stuffed animals flying from the stands to the ice on Teddy Bear Toss night at Mosaic Place.

From that point forward, Serhyenko stopped the remaining 18 offerings from Moose Jaw, picking up his fourth win of the year and keeping his goals against average at an incredible 1.59 through seven games played.

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“He had to have a great night for us. We gave up a couple 2-on-1s with bad pinches on the blue line, didn’t quite have our F3 there,” assistant coach Jeff Truitt said on the CKBI postgame show, emphasizing the importance of Serhyenko’s play early on.

“In the first period we were losing corner battles and they were wide open in front of our net. We gave up some real quality opportunities in that first period, if it wasn’t for him it was going to be a runaway early.”

Evan Herman extended the Raider lead in the second period with the first shorthanded goal of his career, finishing a beautiful play by Jakob Brook to make it 3-1 for Prince Albert. Altogether, the penalty kill finished a perfect six-for-six on the night after killing seven-of-eight versus Kelowna on Friday.

“It’s so important. Everybody looks at their special teams stats because it’s going to be the difference more nights than not,” Truitt said. “Penalty killing is all about hard work, sacrifice, blocking shots, and you need your goaltender to stand tall and he certainly did.”

From there the Raiders would continue to find some breathing room with Tyson Laventure scoring his fourth of the year to make it 4-1 later in the second, and Daniil Stepanov finding the back of the net in the third period against his former team.

All five Raider goals came from players aged 18 or younger, who came into the night with no more than five goals on the season. On top of that, the rookie Serhyenko earned third star billing with his stellar performance.

“I think [the production from throughout the lineup] is huge. As an athlete you always feel better when you can contribute. Sometimes you don’t get the minutes, but when you do you want to capitalize,” Truitt said.

“These guys were seeing more regular shifts tonight because we’re down a bit in numbers, but still our depth, we’ve talked about it most of the year, our depth has to come through when the older guys might not be clicking. Tonight was a great example of that.”

The win was the 19^th of the season for the Raiders, pushing their point total to 42 through 29 games. Prince Albert sits atop the East Division with a seven-point margin on second-place Winnipeg.

Scoring summary

First period

1-0, Raiders, Michael Horon from Cole Nagy and Tyson Laventure, 3:16

2-0, Raiders, Michael Horon (PPG) from Evan Herman and Nolan Allan, 10:14

2-1, Warriors, Owen Hardy from Brayden Tracey and Ryder Korczak, 19:23

Second period

3-1, Raiders, Evan Herman (SHG) from Jakob Brook, 5:35

4-1, Raiders, Tyson Laventure from Ozzy Wiesblatt, 7:14

Third period

5-1, Raiders, Daniil Stepanov from Reece Vitelli and Kaiden Guhle, 13:07

Holiday week

It’s a busy schedule ahead for the Raiders with four games in five nights coming up ahead of the Christmas break.

The first three are on home ice, with Medicine Hat coming to town on Wednesday, Winnipeg on Friday, and Kamloops on Saturday.

Saturday’s game will be Max Martin’s first trip back to Prince Albert after being dealt to the Blazers earlier this season.

On Sunday, the Raiders head into the break with an afternoon meeting against the Saskatoon Blades at SaskTel Centre.

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trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden