Saturday night’s alright for fighting as Raiders fall to Broncos

The Raiders got on the board though at the 19:52 mark on the powerplay. Maddix McCagherty got the first assist by working puck back to Brock Cripps at the left point. Cripps skated towards the slot, pulling two defenders with him, then laid a perfect backhand pass to the tape for Ben Harvey, and he hammered the onetimer home for his second of the season.

After 1: Raiders 1 – 2 Broncos, shots 12-10 Broncos

There had been some big hits during the game already, and a hit that Broncos defenceman Yuri Vlasenko threw up high on Kyle Obabaifo caused Kade Corbet to take exception, and Corbet quickly dropped the gloves for the game’s first fight.

After that, a hit Raiders defenceman Benett Kelly threw on Sawyer Dingman in the corner of the Raiders zone upset Dingman, and once he stood up Dingman made a straight line out from the corner towards centre ice and threw a huge blindside hit on Ben Harvey. That lead to everyone on the ice dropping the gloves in a full line brawl. At the end, Carsyn Dyck was the lone Raider on the ice not ejected from the game for taking part in the first fight, and Dingman despite earning 19 minutes of penalty on the play got to stay.

That meant the Raiders were without the services of the other four men on the ice that fought: Ben Harvey, Malaki Martin, Benett Kelly, and Hubert Clarke, while the Broncos lost Kayd Ruedig, Jacob Beaulieu, Hyde Davidson, and Carter Moen.

After 2: Raiders 1 – 2 Broncos, shots 12-3 Raiders, 22-15 Raiders

The Broncos got their game winner early in the third. At the 4:28 mark, former Raider Ty Meunier carried the puck up the ice on a 2-on-1 and fed Jace McFaul on the backdoor to restore the Broncos two goal lead.

At the 11:24 mark, the Raiders scored again on the powerplay. Riley Boychuk started the play with a cross ice feed to Connor Howe, who spun towards his backhand to protect the puck and put a backhand on goal. Owen Corkish on the goal line cleaned up the rebound for his first goal of the year.

The Broncos got two more before the end of the game though, first at 17:14 mark when Zach Pantelakis dumped a puck in to the corner and it bounced out to the slot perfectly for an Oliver Torkki onetimer. Then at 18:07, just as the Raiders had pulled their goaltender, Brendan Rudolph hit the empty net to seal the Broncos first win over the Raiders in over a calendar year.

FINAL: Raiders 2 – 5 Broncos, shots 16-10 Raiders, 38-25 Raiders overall

Ben Harvey now has goals in each of the first two games of the season after his powerplay goal, posting 2G-3A on opening weekend. His line mates are right with him with Maddix McCagherty posting 1G-3A and Connor Howe adding 2G-1A on opening weekend.

Steele Bass in his first start of the season made 20 saves on 24 shots faced for a 0.833 save percentage.

The Raiders have the rest of the week off before kicking off a home-and-home series with the Saskatoon Blades starting at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday.

nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Saturday night’s alright for fighting as Raiders fall to Broncos

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