By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders beat Blades 6-2 in exhibition play, free-agent Braid raises stock

Aug 31, 2011 | 11:24 PM

Preseasons don’t mean much in terms of wins and losses, goals or assists, but don’t tell that to Chance Braid .

The bruiser from Chauvin, AB is one of four 17-year-old free agent wingers looking for a spot on the Prince Albert Raiders and may have raised his stock Wednesday in the Raiders 6-2 exhibition win over the Saskatoon Blades.

It’s no secret that Braid needs to be tough and physical to be an asset to his team, and he certainly has been that.

After the game, he came out of the locker room sporting a bright, purple shiner under his left eye, but it wasn’t from his third period scrap with Blades forward Kyle Haas. It was an old war wound suffered from the weekend during Raiders’ Manson Cup scrimmage tournament.

“No, this is the (from) the first fight, I got in two this weekend,” said Braid. “Hopefully no more, we’ll see though.”

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He left open the prospect of dropping the mitts because that’s just the kind of player he is. No stranger to the rough stuff, Braid had 71 penalty minutes in just 32 games last season in the Albert Midget AAA Hockey League with the Lloydminster Bobcats.

However, he’s far from just a brawler. He scored 13 goals and 19 points in that time as well with the Bobcats and scored a shorthanded goal in the second period for the Raiders Wednesday. Of course, he got into the dirty areas as well and dug for the puck.

“I battled a lot harder than usual, did all the hard things I needed to do,” said Braid.

The three stars of the game weren’t named after the end of the game, but if they were, Norwegian import Jonas Knutsen would likely be the first star as he scored two goals including the second

Raiders’ shorthanded marker, registered an assist and was a game high +4.

“That’s great to get this start and to get some goals, too,” said Knutsen, after playing his first-ever WHL exhibition game. “I’m really happy with the opening.”

Although he looked a level above the rookie-game competition, Knutsen says he has a lot to learn before the start of the WHL regular season.

“There’s a lot of stuff I have to work on,” said Knutsen.

“I’m used to a bigger rink in Europe so a lot of work… I need to work hard, every guy needs to work hard here. It’s camp and stuff, but I’m still here.”

The two 18-year-old goaltenders in Cole Holowenko and Luke Lee-Knight shared the game and looked solid. Holowenko played the first half of the contest and stopped 13 of 15 shots. Lee-Knight stopped all 16 shots he faced and made a diving, desperation save on defenceman Tommy Stipancik halfway through the third period.

Blades goaltenders Adam Todd and Patrick Johnson each let in three goals on 21 and 16 shots respectively.

Raiders’ centre Shane Danyluk ended up with three points, a goal and two assists for the Raiders. Fellow Raiders sophomore Mike Winther had two helpers. Prince Albert local Sawyer Lange scored from the blueline in the second period for the eventual game winning goal.

The Raiders were 1/5 on the powerplay, with Luke Mahura scoring the man-advantage marker.

Ryan Graham and Ryan Olsen scored for the Blades.

Both teams will meet again Saturday at the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon.

jdandrea@panow.com