Aiden Oiring scores in the shootout against the Victoria Royals on Jan. 12, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Logan Lehmann

win column

Raiders victorious with shootout win over Royals

Jan 13, 2024 | 12:02 AM

The Prince Albert Raiders were triumphant on Friday night, downing the Victoria Royals 4-3 in a shootout at the Art Hauser Centre.

The game was the third consecutive contest that went to a shootout for the Raiders, having lost 6-5 to Vancouver on Tuesday and prevailing 2-1 against Saskatoon on Saturday.

The Raiders entered the third period up 3-1 and saw their lead vanish in the final minutes of the frame. In the end, Head Coach Jeff Truitt said that a win is a win.

“In the second period, I thought we got a lot better and pucks went in for us later in the period, which is great. We’re up 3-1 and the disappointing thing about it is that you got to be able to lock it down. In the third up 3-1, they comeback [and tie it] 3-3, turn the page again to a shootout, we get it, two points, we’ll take it for sure.”

The previous two shootouts that the Raiders played in saw either go to five-plus rounds while on Friday, Prince Albert only needed two shooters to claim the win, something Truitt was pleased to see.

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“They went in with purpose,” he continued. “They went in and understood that what we’ve done over the last couple games is that maybe some of the finesse and pretty stuff isn’t working, we got to go in and shoot and we talked about it. They did it here and we got rewarded.”

Aiden Oiring and Sloan Stanick were the two scorers in the shootout for the Raiders. Additionally, Stanick collected the games first star after netting a goal and an assist in regulation. Justice Christensen also had a goal and assist while Niall Crocker had a pair of helpers. Oli Chenier was the other goal scorer for P.A. and both Turner McMillen and Luke Moroz were the remaining assist getters.

Justin Kipkie and Tanner Scott both had two assist efforts for the Royals while finding the back of the net was Reggie Newman, Tyson Laventure, and Cole Reschny. Jaren Brinson and Dawson Pasternak also found the scoresheet with one assist each.

Max Hildebrand made 28 stops to collect the win and to help the Raiders improve to 19-18-0-3 on the campaign.

Prince Albert’s own Jayden Kraus got the nod in net for the Royals making 16 saves before being pulled after the second period. Braden Holt took over between the pipes and stopped all nine shots he faced as Victoria falls to 23-14-2-3 on the year.

COMPLETE BOX SCORE

Chenier continued to stay hot from last game, getting the Raiders on the board first for the second game in a row. While on the powerplay, McMillen got the puck at the point and fired a low shot towards the net that seemed to be going wide, but Chenier got the stick on it and deflected the puck into the goal.

The lead didn’t last long however as Victoria managed to tie. Off an offensive zone draw, Kipkie got the puck along the boards and found Newman in the slot who fired it home to knot it at one after one.

The score stayed the same through majority of the second period before the Raiders managed to double their lead in just over 30 second. The first happened when Moroz dropped the puck off for Crocker along the boards who then sent a cross ice pass to Stanick, one-timing it past Kraus to break the deadlock.

Then 32 seconds later, Crocker dumped off the puck for Christensen who walked in before ripping a shot that found twine to give P.A. a 3-1 lead after two.

Late in the frame, Victoria made things interesting. Former Raider Laventure potted his first with the Royals, making it a one goal game with a little over 3:30 to play. Then with two minutes left, Reschney got the puck in close and managed to get a weak backhander off that went off a Raiders defender and in to for overtime, knotted at three.

When the extra frame decided nothing, the game headed to a shootout where it didn’t take long to decide a winner.

Oiring opened the shootout with a goal while Reschny missed the goal on the opposite end. Stanick shot second for the Raiders and scored again to put the game on Pasternak’s stick. luckily, Hildebrand shut the door to win it for P.A., 4-3.

The win kicked off a three-in-three weekend for the Raiders where they will head to Regina on Saturday to face the Pats. Following a visit to the Queen City, Prince Albert will trek east to Brandon to battle the Wheat Kings in a Sunday matinee.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com