Raiders busy week starts on home ice with Hitmen

In the last five games, the Raiders are 4-0-1, and they’re on five days of rest after beating the Seattle Thunderbirds at home last Friday 4-3.

Before that, the Raiders earned a 4-2 win on home ice over Brandon, a 7-2 win on the road over Swift Current, a 3-2 win at home over Everett, and finally their most recent loss 5-4 in overtime in Brandon.

As for the Hitmen, they’re on three days’ rest and sit 2-2-1 in their last five games, most recently having lost 3-2 in a shootout on home ice against Kamloops on Sunday.

Before that, the Hitmen lost 5-2 on the road to Red Deer, then won 5-4 in overtime over Saskatoon, and then a pair of games with the Medicine Hat Tigers where they won 5-2 on the road, and lost 5-4 at home.

Season Series and Team News:

Wednesday serves as the first of four matchups between the Raiders and Hitmen this year. Last season, the Hitmen took the season series with three wins, all three of which were one goal games and two decided in overtime. The Raiders won the final game of the year 3-1 in a game that served as a momentum builder heading into the final month of the year.

For Raider news this week, the Raiders signed prospect Benjamin Green, re-assigned defenceman Hubert Clarke, and forward Athens Shingoose is missing the U17 World Hockey Challenge due to injury.

In Hitmen news, forward Julien Maze scored his career 150th point in the game on Sunday against Kamloops. While the Hitmen don’t have any players at the World Hockey Challenge, assistant coach Brad Moran is at the tournament as an assistant coach with Team Canada Red.

On special teams, the Raiders powerplay didn’t change at all, still sitting fifth in the league, still operating at 25 per cent. The penalty kill still has climbed one spot up to 19th in the league and 76.8 per cent.

Calgary is one of the few teams with a better powerplay than the Raiders right now, ranked second in the league at 28.6 per cent. Their penalty kill has also been solid, sitting in the top half of the league at ninth, leading the league with four short handed goals, and operating at 81.8 per cent.

Leading Scorers:

Brock Cripps continues to pull away at the top of Raiders scoring with 1G-18A-19P, and his 18 assists lead the league by four. After that, Alisher Sarkenov’s three-point-night propelled him into second with 9G-7A-16P, then Ben Harvey sits third with 6G-7A-13P, and finally Brandon Gorzynski rounds out the top four with 8G-4A-12P.

Scoring streaks:

Brandon Gorzynski: eight games, 7G-4A
Brock Cripps: seven games, 1G-14A
Alisher Sarkenov: seven games, 6G-6A
Riley Boychuk: four games, 1G-3A (2G-5A in last seven games)
Jordan Murray: three games, 0G-4A

Along with Henry Chmiel earning his first point in the WHL last game, four other Raiders just had streaks snapped. In the last four games, Benett Kelly has 1G-3A, Jonah Sivertson has 3G-0A, and Owen Corkish has 0G-3A. Ben Harvey has 1G-2A in the last three games.

Leading the Hitmen in scoring is Pittsburgh Penguins sixth round pick Carter Sanderson with 15G-8A-23P, who also sits second in the league in both points and goals. Charlie Kresl sits second with 2G-14A-16P, followed by Julien Maze with 6G-9A-15P, and finally Russian import Artem Katsuro sits fourth with 7G-7A-14P.

Scoring streaks:

Carter Sanderson: four games, 2G-3A (only been held pointless twice in 13 games)
Grady Anaka: two games, 2G-0A

Julien Maze just had a point streak snapped where he posted 3G-4A in three games. Bode Laylin also just had four game streak snapped with 1G-4A.

Goaltending:

Michal Orsulak comes into the week with a record of 5-4-2 on the year, along with a save percentage of 0.895 and a goals against average of 3.11. As for Steele Bass behind him, he has a 1-2-1 record, along with a 0.883 and a 3.12.

The Hitmen are also lucky enough to return two goaltenders from last year with time split nearly evenly between Aidan Hesse and Eric Tu. Hesse has played nine games so far for a 5-3-1 record, a 0.899 save percentage, and a 3.36 goals against average. As for Tu, he comes in with a 3-3-0 record, along with a 0.876 and a 3.95.

The Raiders host the Hitmen for the first time this season on Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre starting at 7:00 p.m. You can listen in on 900 CKBI starting at 6:30 p.m. with the Brandt Raider Radio pregame show.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Raiders busy week starts on home ice with Hitmen

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