Raiders captain Zack Hayes ties up Winterhawks forward Jack O'Brien. Keith Dwiggins/Portland Winterhawks

By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders Hockey

Raiders can’t comeback from 2-goal hole in Portland

Oct 23, 2019 | 11:08 PM

It took 11 games for the Prince Albert Raiders to lose their first game in regulation. Now a day later, they have two in a row.

The Raiders lost 4-3 to the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday, a day after a 3-1 defeat to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Raiders are now 7-2-3 to start the year. The Winterhawks are 7-3-0-1.

After a slow start in Seattle on Tuesday, Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt said he wanted to see a better first period showing against the Winterhawks. That didn’t happen, as the Raiders saw themselves behind the eight-ball, down a pair of goals after the opening 20 minutes.

“I thought our second and third periods were really good. Again, our first period, I don’t think we took charge of things. You’re getting down 2-0 after one period and we needed to make more plays inside,” Truitt said. “We turned the puck over a little bit in our own zone too. We got rolling in the second and third here a little bit.”

For the first time this year, Boston Bilous started a game and was unable to finish it. Bilous was replaced by rookie Carter Serhyenko after surrendering three goals on 17 shots halfway through the game. That’s only the third time in 11 appearances that Bilous conceded three or more goals. Serhyenko didn’t give up a goal in the final 29:17, making nine saves on nine shots.

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“It was a tough night for Boston. He had a lot of traffic in front, and some deflections that went in,” Truitt said. “We just had to change him, no fault of him, he’s done a great job for us. We just thought we’d make the change from there, and Carter came in and did a real good job.”

Reece Newkirk put together a monster performance for the Winterhawks. He scored twice and got assists on the other two Winterhawks goals. Newkirk scored five minutes into the game. Before the period was over, he picked off an errant pass from Raider forward Spencer Moe in Raider territory, and set up Seth Jarvis for the 2-0 lead.

The Raiders got back on the board with the first goal of the year from Jakob Brook, after being set up with a pass and great forechecking pressure from newcomer Reece Vitelli. That was Vitelli’s first point in his three games as a Raider.

Jake Gricius chased Bilous from the game when he scored the second Winterhawks’ power play goal, tipping home a cross-crease pass from Newkirk. The Winterhawks were 2-4 with the man advantage.

Jeremy Masella put the Raiders to within a goal in the third period. Newkirk scored an empty net goal late, before Tyson Laventure scored his first WHL career goal for the Raiders, but it came with 4.9 seconds remaining in the game. The Raiders fell 4-3 as a result.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Winterhawks, Reece Newkirk from Jaydon Dureau and Johnny Ludvig (power play), 5:02

2-0, Winterhawks, Seth Jarvis from Reece Newkirk, 18:22

Second Period

2-1, Raiders, Jakob Brook from Reece Vitelli, 8:04

3-1, Winterhawks, Jake Gricius from Reece Newkirk and Seth Jarvis (power play), 9:33

Third Period

3-2, Raiders, Jeremy Masella from Aliaksei Protas and Spencer Moe, 3:59

4-2, Winterhawks, Reece Newkirk from Jake Gricius (empty net), 19:21

4-3, Raiders, Tyson Laventure from Nolan Allan and Daniil Stepanov, 19:56

WHL Cup

Raiders prospect Niall Crocker scored a goal as Team B.C. defeated Team Saskatchewan 6-4. Team Sask defenceman Tre Fouquette is both a Raiders draft choice and a Prince Albert Minto.

Graydon Gotaas and Team Manitoba defeated 7-3. Manitoba’s Bryce Warkentine had a goal midway through the third period.

Day off then two more

The Raiders will take their last off day of the road trip on Thursday as they prepare for another pair of back-to-back games this week. The Raiders will take on the Spokane Chiefs on Friday before ending their trip against the Tri-City Americans on Saturday.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW