Raiders goaltender Max Paddock dives out of his crease to clear a rebound against his former Pats. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

P.A.'s Paddock

Paddock gets Pats on the back from his new team, Protas goes nuts

Feb 18, 2020 | 10:49 PM

Even though he only had to make 15 saves on the way to a 5-2 Prince Albert Raiders victory, it was an exciting, weird and nerve-wracking game for Max Paddock.

After playing 114 games for the Regina Pats across four seasons, it was Paddock’s first ever time suiting up against him on Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre.

“It was a weird feeling and a little bit of nerves too, just off of me practicing with some of those guys for four years now,” said Paddock, who was traded from the Pats to the Raiders on Jan. 9. “They know my spots pretty well. So it was good that way. There was a little excitement too, playing against your old team.”

As fondly as Paddock looks back at his time with the Pats, and the unforgettable friendships and memories he’s made with his former teammates and those around the team, he is really liking where he is at the moment.

He’s been in Prince Albert for about five-and-a-half weeks, and he’s already been named as WHL Goaltender of the Week twice. He won the award this past week, his second honour in the past three.

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Paddock’s numbers have skyrocketed as well since the Jan. 9 trade from the Pats to the Raiders. His .941 save percentage as a Raider is 36 points better than it was in Regina this year. His 1.52 goals against average is more than twice as small as the 3.31 prior to the deal. He had 10 wins in 29 appearances with the Pats, he has nine in just 13 games with the Raiders.

“I’m super happy. I think the goalie of the week thing is a team award. We gave up 13 shots to Swift Current, and guys blocked shots too,” Paddock said. “You see that save Reece [Vitelli] made at the end of the Brandon game. Things like that, they all add up. Everybody contributes to that award.”

Helping contribute to the Raiders’ win on Tuesday in a huge way was Aliaksei Protas. He tied a season high by scoring four points, netting the first two goals of the game and then added another two assists.

Protas, a noted soccer player in his native Belarus and who teammates call one of the better sewer ball players on the team, used his feet for the second time this year to generate a goal. He legally kicked in the Raiders’ second goal with his left foot in the first period.

Earlier in the year, Protas used his right foot to force a 2-on-1 rush, getting an assist on Brayden Watts’ goal in a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Jan. 24.

“First of all, I love soccer,” Protas said. “My strong foot is probably my right, but I can play left as well. It was kind of automatically, I just kicked it because I had no option to shoot it with my stick.”

Protas loves scoring too. After tearing up the WHL by storm in the first two months, Protas’ production slowed a little bit. From Jan 25 to Feb. 8, he had four points in seven games—well below the league-leading points he had prior to representing Belarus at the Division 1A World Juniors in December.

But this weekend Protas’ production exploded. He had two-goals and two assists on Tuesday, a goal and a helper on Saturday and a one-goal, three-point night on Friday.

“He’s got to score. Everyone’s got roles, some block shots and win faceoffs and play defensively, but he’s there to put points on the board,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said. “Sometimes it’s a glorious job, but if you’re not doing it, everybody looks at you and says ‘what’s wrong.’ It’s a difficult position to be in, it really is, but he’s a talented kid.

“It’s a learning time for him,” added Habscheid. “When he wasn’t scoring, he was worried about different things he shouldn’t worried about. But he wanted to do the right things.”

Ozzy Wiesblatt had a three-point night for the Raiders, scoring a goal and adding two helpers. He also eclipsed the 100-point milestone in his career as well. Wiesblatt has 101 points in his first 121 games as a Raider.

With the victory, the Raiders once again broke a tie for first place in the WHL East Division with the Winnipeg ICE. The Raiders (31-16-5-4) now sit at 71 points through 56 games played, two ahead of the Winnipeg ICE (34-20-1-0) and six points up on the Brandon Wheat Kings (30-20-3-2). Both the ICE and Wheat Kings have played 55 games so far in the season.

Big Rig

Former Raider great Chris Phillips is getting his jersey retired tonight by the only NHL team he played for for 1,179 games—the Ottawa Senators. While he was with the Raiders in 1996, the Senators drafted Phillips with the first overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft. Phillips remains just one of two Raider players to be drafted first overall in the NHL, the other being Mike Modano in 1988.

Phillips played for the Raiders in 1995-97 before getting traded at the 1997 deadline to the Lethbridge Hurricanes. He had 13 goals and 66 points in 93 games for the Raiders in that time.

Buskey and Brooksy

On the Pats’ side, it was special game for Donovan Buskey as he returned to the Art Hauser Centre wearing Pats colours. Although Buskey was forced to take the loss, he made 34 saves on 38 shots. Some of his stops were of top quality, including his beauty on Daniil Stepanov.

Another Regina Pat that really wanted to get on the ice on Tuesday was fellow former Raider Jakob Brook, who went over to Regina in the big Paddock trade between the two teams. Brook is recovering from a knee injury and wasn’t cleared by the Pats’ medical staff for the game, but is listed as day-to-day and could return to action as early as Friday.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Zack Hayes and Spencer Moe, 12:38

2-0, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Ozzy Wiesblatt and Landon Kosior (power play), 18:44

Second Period

2-1, Pats, Riley Krane (shorthanded, unassisted), 3:37

3-1, Raiders, Ozzy Wiesblatt from Aliaksei Protas and Ilya Usau (power play), 15:17

Third Period

4-1, Raiders, Ilya Usau from Ozzy Wiesblatt, 5:58

4-2, Pats, Kyle Walker from Austin Pratt and Steven Zonneveld, 8:22

5-2, Raiders, Spencer Moe from Aliaksei Protas (empty net), 19:04

Wheat Kings again

The Raiders just have one game on their schedule this weekend. They’ll make the long trek over to Westoba Place to face the Brandon Wheat Kings on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The next weekend, the Raiders will have a home-and-home against the Saskatoon Blades, with the away leg at the SaskTel Centre on Feb. 28 and the home leg at the Art Hauser Centre on Feb. 29. The Raiders will also take on the Moose Jaw Warriors on March 1 on home ice at 6 p.m.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW