Harrison Lodewyk plays the puck in the offensive zone against the Wheat Kings on March 7, 2023. (Mark Peterson Media)

By Logan Lehmann

Wheaties win by one

Raiders playoff chances dwindling, drop third straight

Mar 7, 2023 | 10:52 PM

PRINCE ALBERT, SK – The Prince Albert Raiders missed out on a crucial two points on Tuesday night, falling to the Brandon Wheat Kings 4-3 at the Art Hauser Centre.

The loss is the third consecutive for Prince Albert, putting them six points back of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and three points back of the Wheat Kings who are in tenth place.

“We did everything right in the first period,” explained Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt. “We gained momentum and offensive zone time because we kept it simple and got pucks behind them. We used our skating and we were on pucks, we outshot them pretty bad that period. Second period, we just got away from everything. We started getting selfish with plays where we didn’t get pucks in deep, turned over pucks in our half and in our own zone, it was a complete turnaround from what we did in the first period.”

Keaton Sorensen, Ryder Ritchie, and Sloan Stanick were the goal getters for the Raiders while Ritchie, Carter Anderson, and Eric Johnston collected assists.

Brandon scored all their goals in the second period and unanswered at that, courtesy of Dawson Pasternak, Ben Thornton, Calder Anderson, and Nolan Ritchie. Zakhar Polshakov, Andrei Malyavin, Rylen Roersma, Luke Shipley, Anthony Wilson, Anderson, and Logen Hammett all had assists in the game for the Wheat Kings.

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Tikhon Chaika made 22 saves for PA as they fall to 25-32-3-0 on the campaign.

Ethan Eskit turned aside 30 shots en route to his first career win to help Brandon improve to 24-28-8-0 on the year.

COMPLETE BOX SCORE

The Raiders opened the scoring late in the first thanks to a penalty shot. Sorensen was hauled down on a partial break and was awarded the rarely seen one on one opportunity and made no mistake. The veteran faked a shot and then went upstairs on the Wheat Kings netminder to give Prince Albert the 1-0 advantage going into the second.

The middle frame was all Brandon as they hung four goals on the Raiders. Pasternak, Thornton, Anderson, and Ritchie each found the back of the net all within seven minutes of one another.

PA did show some more life in the third with Ritchie scoring midway through the final period. With less than 30 seconds to go, Stanick scored against his hometown team to bring the Raiders to within one but time was against them as Brandon took it 4-3.

The Raiders now get set to host the Saskatoon Blades on Friday night for the final time this season. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann