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Ryder Ritchie fires a shot on goal against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Sept. 27, 2023. (Jeremy Champagne/Scramble Studio)
Raiders fall in Brandon

Chenier gets first career goal as Wheat Kings edge Raiders, 4-3

Sep 27, 2023 | 9:42 PM

Wednesday’s game against the Brandon Wheat Kings will be one that Prince Albert Raiders rookie Oli Chenier won’t soon forget.

The Winnipeg, Man. product notched career goal number one in the contest which saw the Raiders fall 4-3 to the Wheaties at Westoba Place.

Along with Chenier, Grady Martin and Krzysztof Macias also found the back of the net for P.A. The two also potted one assist each while Owen Boucher, Ryder Ritchie, and Easton Kovacs also collected a helper.

For Brandon, Roger McQueen scored twice and Nolan Flamand and Carter Klippenstein also tallied markers in the game. Rylen Roersma and Dominik Petr each had a pair of assists while Caleb Hadland, Brett Hyland, and Anthony Wilson had one.

Max Hildebrand took his first loss of the season in goal for the Raiders, 28 shots as Prince Albert falls to 1-2-0-0 on the campaign.

Meanwhile Brandon netminder Ethan Eskit made 24 stops to help the Wheat Kings improve to 2-0-1-0 on the year.

COMPLETE BOX SCORE

The Raiders put the pressure on the Wheat Kings early, creating plenty of scoring chances. However, it was Brandon who got on the board first thanks to Flamand’s third of the year.

Prince Albert’s efforts didn’t go unpaid as two minutes later, they answered right back. Boucher found Martin in the high slot who fired home his first of the campaign to pull the game back to even.

The Wheaties had an answer later in the frame when Roersma connected with McQueen from behind the Raider goal to put Brandon back on top. Tempers would flare as the clock hit zero when Martin and Luke Shipley decided to drop the mitts, both trading blows in the scrap.

In the second, Brandon continued to produce on offense scoring on with a pair of odd man rush goals from Klippenstein and McQueen making it 4-1 midway through. Following the goal, the rough stuff continued with Chenier and Klippenstein duking it out while other skaters on either side received roughing minors on the play.

To round out the middle frame, Ritchie fed Macias with a nice give-and-go pass to cut into the lead heading into the third.

The Raiders continued to rally in the final period. With 11 minutes to go, Kovacs’ point shot was blocked in front but, while falling down, Chenier was able to get enough on the loose puck to beat the Brandon netminder for the first of his career to make it a one goal game.

Unfortunately for P.A., that’s as close as they would come as the Wheat Kings take it 4-3. The Raiders now have a night off before welcome the Regina Pats to the Art Hauser Centre on Friday night. Puck drop is at 7:00p.m.

logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com