Raiders forwards Ilya Usau (left) and Ozzy Wiesblatt (middle) both scored power play goals in Brandon on Friday. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Everybody dance now!

Raiders’ hot power play comes up huge in Brandon; four game winning streak

Feb 22, 2020 | 10:51 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders power play has been red hot during their four-game winning streak.

Both of their goals Saturday came on the man advantage as the Raiders were able to sneak by the Brandon Wheat Kings 2-1 at Westoba Place. The victory puts the Raiders (32-16-5-4) up to 73 points, four clear of the Winnipeg ICE (34-21-1-0) and six ahead of the Brandon Wheat Kings (32-21-3-2) for first place in the WHL East Division.

In their four-game heater, the Raiders have scored twice on the power play in three of those four contests. The only one where they failed to score with the man advantage was on Feb. 15 in their 4-1 victory over the Wheat Kings, in which they were not rewarded with a power play. The Raiders are 6-14 in that span.

The Raiders started the second period with a fresh four-minute power play after Ben McCartney took a slew foot at the end of the first period. That quickly turned into a 5-on-3 when Dominic Schmiemann took a tripping penalty.

Ilya Usau was able to bang home the Raiders’ first goal with a rebound on that two-man advantage, putting the Raiders up 1-0—four minutes into the sandwich stanza.

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“We knew it too coming out. We didn’t want to just warm up to the power play, we wanted to get after it right away,” Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt said. “If you don’t, they get momentum from it and next thing you know, we’re missing passes and four minutes is gone. There had to be urgency early on this, and I thought the guys did a real good job.”

Then Ozzy Wiesblatt gave the Raiders a 2-0 advantage, after finishing off this a nice tic-tac-toe play on the rush with help from Aliaksei Protas and Brayden Watts.

Raiders goaltender Max Paddock made 19 saves on 20 shots for the victory in his hometown for his 10^th as a Raider. He needed just 14 appearances as a Raider to reach 10 wins, compared with the 29 appearances as a Regina Pat he had this year to reach that mark.

The only puck that got by Paddock (legally) on Saturday was off the stick of Wheat Kings defenceman and Prince Albert’s own Braden Schneider. After a broken play, Ridly Greig saucered it over to Schneider, who sniped one past Paddock to get the Wheat Kings back in the game early in the third. That was Schneider’s first goal against his hometown Raiders, and was his seventh goal on the season and 16^th of his career.

The Wheat Kings did have some close calls. Luka Burzan was a few inches away from tying the game with 4:18 left in regulation, but it was ruled that he kicked the puck in while it was still in the crease. In the WHL, players can kick in pucks, but only if they aren’t in the crease or airborne.

In the second period, Ben McCartney’s goal was waved off after he gloved it into the net.

“We did get some puck luck tonight with the disallowed goal, a crossbar and other opportunities,” Truitt said. “Six inches one way or another, a completed pass off the rush and they have a clean look. That does happen. Sometimes when we lose, we take a look at those things as well when we didn’t get it. We got some luck here tonight.”

Scoring Summary

First Period

No scoring.

Second Period

1-0, Raiders, Ilya Usau from Ozzy Wiesblatt and Aliaksei Protas (power play), 1:58

2-0, Raiders, Ozzy Wiesblatt from Aliaksei Protas and Brayden Watts (power play), 12:13

Third Period

2-1, Wheat Kings, Braden Schneider from Ridly Greig and Duncan Pierce, 4:18

Raids and Blades

The Raiders won’t play again until the weekend, when they’ll battle against the Saskatoon Blades in a home-and-home series on Feb. 28-29. The Blades will host the Friday leg at the SaskTel Centre, before both teams will head up to the Art Hauser Centre on leap day.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW