Raiders captain Zack Hayes has a cannon, and is finally unleashing it on the power play. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Hayeser with a laser

Secret weapon no longer, Hayes strikes again on the power play

Feb 1, 2020 | 10:27 PM

The jig is up.

Zack Hayes isn’t just the rugged defender that he and the Prince Albert Raiders would have you believe.

He’s been hiding his missile launcher of a slap shot throughout his career, and for some reason has waited until this weekend to unleash it on the power play.

After going 256 games without a power play point, Hayes now has now in his last two games. After getting his first on Friday night in a 4-1 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes, he scored another one on Saturday in a 4-1 road win over the Swift Current Broncos.

In the second period, Hayes unloaded on a one-timer on the power play for the eventual game-winning goal.

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Actually, Hayes could have had a pair. In the first period on the power play, his would-have-been laser beam goal was disallowed as Ozzy Wiesblatt took a slashing penalty in front of the net.

When Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt was asked about whether or not Hayes reminds him of current Montreal Canadiens defenceman Shea Weber and his famously heavy slap shot back in their Kelowna days, Truitt went along with the comparison.

“You know what, it does have a distant thought about Shea back in the day when he was in Kelowna and he just loaded them up and shot,” Truitt said. “Zack’s got a heavy shot, we’ve always known that, but we didn’t quite know until yesterday, that it was his first power play point.”

Hayes has even gotten the Raiders out of their slump on the power play. They were in a 1-16 stretch with the man advantage dating back to Jan. 18 into the third period of Friday’s game. Since they decided to put Hayes on the power play, the Raiders are now 2-4 on with the man advantage. Coincidence? I think not.

Kaiden Guhle also certainly deserves credit. He got primary assists on both power play goals on Saturday. Jeremy Masella scored on a power play in the second period and Evan Herman got an empty netter late in the game.

Carter Serhyenko got the win in goal for the Raiders, making 23 saves on 24 shots and was named the game’s third star. His shutout bid fell short with 6:34 remaining in the game when Matej Toman recovered a blocked shot and put it in the corner.

“He was in control from early on. He was square to the puck, there wasn’t a lot of rebounds and he was controlling the shots too, putting them in the corner,” Truitt said. “He was involved an awful lot, going out to get pucks behind the net, stopping pucks for defencemen, making reads. I think that’s good for a young goaltender to get out there and feel some pucks early, which he did.”

With the win, the Raiders extended their winning streak to three games and their points streak to 11 games (7-0-1-3). The Raiders’ record extends to 27-14-5-4 for 63 points, which is now four points clear of the Winnipeg ICE for first place in the WHL East Division. The ICE lost their third straight game on Saturday, 4-1 to the Edmonton Oil Kings on the road.

Scoring Summary

First Period

No scoring.

Second Period

1-0, Raiders, Ozzy Wiesblatt from Kaiden Guhle and Zack Hayes (power play), 0:45

2-0, Raiders, Zack Hayes from Kaiden Guhle and Brayden Watts (power play), 8:28

3-0, Raiders, Jeremy Masella (unassisted), 12:25

Third Period

3-1, Broncos, Matej Toman from Garrett Sambrook and Hayden Ostir, 13:26

4-1, Raiders, Evan Herman (empty net), 18:14

Road continues

The Raiders will have three more road games before they return home on Feb. 14 against the Broncos. They’ll take on the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday, the Calgary Hitmen on Friday and the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW