Raiders' forward Ozzy Wiesblatt settles the puck down at centre ice in the team's beautiful throwback jerseys they wore for Saturday's game. (Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D’Andrea

Raider Hockey

Raiders can’t dig themselves out of early hole against Warriors

Feb 20, 2022 | 8:53 AM

The Prince Albert Raiders seem to be one of those teams that need to get punched in the mouth a few times before they realize they’re in a fight. But then, they fight like hell afterward.

The problem with that is they’re getting hit in the face at the beginning of games in the scoreless and having rallying late, and not the other way around.

That trend continued as the Raiders fell behind 3-0, before falling 4-2 to the Moose Jaw Warriors Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre, with great chances and crossbars and pressure in the third period.

“It’s that inconsistency that we are having right now. We’re suffering from it, so we have to figure that out,” Raiders assistant captain Remy Aquilon said on his team’s starts at times this season.

The Raiders remain at 37 points (17-26-2-1). The Warriors add to more points as they now have 63 (29-17-3-2) as they’re pushing to get in the WHL Eastern Conference top three.

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By the eight-minute mark of the second period, the Warriors were up 3-0. They scored twice in the first, with Matthew Gallant’s shot sneaking through a screen, and Josh Hoekstra scored on a partial breakaway after both Raiders defenceman both attacked the puck and missed in the Warriors’ zone.

As he did in Friday’s 5-4 overtime defeat to the Regina Pats, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid identified some plays throughout the game as “blunders” and big mistakes that have cost his team, despite being happy with how hard his team has worked and tried. When asked what the cause of those critical errors was, Habscheid said it was akin to when a team struggles in a certain area for a stretch of games.

“The game is interesting. There’s parts of the schedule where you can’t score, then there’s parts of the schedule that you can’t help but score. Then your defence and your goaltending struggles, or you’re taking bad penalties or whatever. There’s ebbs and flows throughout the season,” Habscheid said. “Now, we make a big mistake and it ends up in our net, or we get a chance and we hit crossbars—that’s where we’re at right now. We rely on our experience, I guess, and we just have to work our way through it.”

Maximus Wanner would give the Warriors the 3-0 advantage, side-stepping a check and scoring from the slot during 4-on-4 action. Trevor Thurston would get his first as a Raider, sneaking from the blueline and scoring on the same 4-on-4 span.

Evan Herman then showed some of that Raider fight. After getting taking down with a one-leg shoot wrestling move by Warriors defender Majid Kaddoura in the corner and was held to the ice. Herman eventually broke free, tagged up at the blueline and one-timed a pass from Carson Latimer in the top corner to make it a 4-2 game.

The Raiders threw everything at the Warriors with the extra attacker, as Herman hit the crossbar, and Wiesblatt almost scored from the rockstar zone in the corner, but the Warriors hung on to a 4-2 victory.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Warriors, Matthew Gallant from Majid Kaddoura from Eric Alarie, 4:05

2-0, Warriors, Josh Hoekstra from Jagger Firkus, 18:54

Second Period

3-0, Warriors, Maximus Wanner from Jagger Firkus and Lucas Brenton, 7:49

3-1, Raiders, Trevor Thurston from Sloan Stanick and Reece Vitelli, 8:26

4-1, Warriors, Jagger Firkus from Ryder Korczak and Brayden Yager, 19:13

Third Period

4-2,

Up next

The Raiders will head over to Medicine Hat to take on the Tigers on Family Day Monday, with an early 3 p.m. start.

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Jeff.dandrea@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW