Raiders forward Parker Kelly celebrates his second goal of Sunday's 4-2 defeat to the Vancouver Giants. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff.

By Jeff D'Andrea

One shot, one opportunity

The opportunity players grow up dreaming of

May 13, 2019 | 2:00 PM

Growing up, a hockey loving kid puts a net on their shoulder, grabs a stick and a plastic orange puck from the garage and lets their mind wander.

He dreams of scoring the winning goal in Game 7 of the finals to give their team the cup, an accomplishment nobody can take away from them.

Tonight at the Art Hauser Centre, one player will live his boyhood dream.

The Prince Albert Raiders and Vancouver Giants have that opportunity, Monday night, 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

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“It’s huge. It’s something you dream of your whole life,” Raiders captain Brayden Pachal said. “It’s time for us to control the opportunity and not shy away from it.”

Of course, the Raiders had two opportunities to finish the series before this point but the Giants were able to pick up key wins with their backs against the wall to keep this series going. They won Game 5 with a final score of 4-3 at the Langley Events Centre, and Game 6 by a score of 4-2 to force this do-or-die scenario. The one positive for the Raiders is that they’ve yet to lose three straight games this season.

Whether he’d like to admit it or not, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid has been around the game of hockey for an eternity. He broke into the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers in the early 1980’s and played with the greatest player that’s ever lived—Wayne Gretzky. He’s won a Memorial Cup as a head coach with the Kelowna Rockets, alongside current Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt.

He’s won two World Championships and is a two-time WHL coach of the year. He certainly has some wisdom to share with his players.

But ahead of the crucial Game 7, Habscheid doesn’t feel like he has to give an empowered, rah-rah speech. He has tremendous respect for his players, and feels they already know what to do. During the press conference after Game 6 while sitting in the middle of his captain Pachal and assistant captain Parker Kelly, he said as much.

“They’re like my step-kids, you gotta show them the way and be the shepherd for them and guide them in the right way—but the two guys beside me are examples of winners. They know what it takes,” Habscheid said. “It doesn’t take a lot of wisdom from me, they’re smart.

“There are some things we can fix. We’re playing at home. We worked all year for home ice advantage, we have it. We like our crowd, we like our team. A couple things we’ll fix, but we’ll be fine.”

Giants head coach Michael Dyck feels the same way about his group.

When asked about what he told his players in the second intermission after suffering a late period goal, Dyck showed confidence in his group.

“That we just got to focus on the little things, and that was pretty much it. It wasn’t a Knute Rockne speech or anything like that. It was ‘stick with it,’” Dyck said. “Our focus has always been on the process, it’s never been on the end result. It’s helped us maintain a level of focus.”

More weekly honours

For the third straight week and seventh time this year, Raiders goaltender Ian Scott was named as the WHL Eli Wilson Goaltending Goaltender of the Week. Scott stopped 112 of 121 shots in four games this week against the Giants for a .926 save percentage and 2.29 goals against average.

And Raiders forward Brett Leason received the WHL On the Run Player of the Week honours. He scored two goals and two assists for the Raiders. He was also on an eight-game scoring streak heading into Sunday night’s game.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW