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Raiders again slow out of the gates in loss to Oil Kings

Nov 27, 2015 | 9:02 PM

After their flat start in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Calgary Hitmen, the Prince Albert Raiders’ top priority on Friday game was to get out of the blocks quickly.

That did not happen. The Raiders conceded the first three goals of the game to the Edmonton Oil Kings, on their way to a 5-1 loss at the Art Hauser Centre.

The loss is now the Raiders’ second straight defeat, but despite the mini-slump, the Raiders are still on top of the WHL East Division with a 15-7-2-1 record.

In those games, the Raiders have been outshot a combined 26-13 in first period action, including a 12-7 advantage for the Oil Kings on Friday.

“We just haven’t been prepared as well as we’ve wanted to, our starts have sucked,” said Raiders captain Tim Vanstone. “We can’t wait for other teams to dictate how we’re going to play, we got to do it the other way around and dictate the game.”

Just 11 seconds after the Oil Kings killed off their first penalty of the night, Lane Bauer scored to draw first blood in the game. Just 15 seconds after that, Dario Meyer doubled the Oil Kings lead.

The Oil Kings made it a 3-0 game early in the second as Raiders goaltender Ian Scott couldn’t handle a Dysin Mayo point shot, as it caromed off his glove and right to Brandon Baddock who crashed the crease. That did it for Scott’s night, who surrendered three goals on 14 shots in his first game back from a two-game absence due to injury. Scott was injured in warmup before Saturday’s 4-3 overtime win against the Regina Pats.

“Our goaltending wasn’t very good, our defence wasn’t very good, our forwards weren’t very good and I thought our coaching was terrible,” said Habscheid. “So, there you go. We win as a team, we lose as a team.”

Matteo Gennaro scored the lone goal for the Raiders, 2:37 into the second period on the power play. Aaron Irving made it 4-1 heading into the final period. Bauer got his second of the game late in the third for the 5-1 final score.

The Oil Kings won the specialty teams battle on both sides, going 2-6 on the power play and went 4-5 on their penalty kill. The Raiders were 0-5 on the power play on Tuesday against the Hitmen, but were 4-4 on their PK.

“They scored on their specialty teams and we haven’t as well as we wanted to,” said Vanstone. “That’s why we’re losing.”

Movember battle

Luke Coleman’s Movember campaign just keeps getting better and better.

He’s raised $2,000 heading into Friday’s game. Not only is that the most among all players in the CHL, but it’s second overall only behind Mofficial Bruce Skilliter.

Coleman is also the only player ranked in the top five for CHL donations as the rest are Mofficials.

The Raiders are the third ranked team in the CHL Network, raising a total of $3,167.

Oddly enough on the Raiders’ Movember game, they hosted the Oil Kings who headed in Friday’s game with the most Movember money raised with $3,927. Andrew Koep has raised $1,250 of that himself, second most among CHL players behind only Coleman.

Road swing

With that, the Raiders wrap up a four-game home stand and will head on the road for five straight games. They’ll head to Swift Current on Saturday to take on the Broncos, then head to Alberta to face the Calgary Hitmen Dec. 3, the Lethbridge Hurricanes Dec. 4, the Red Deer Rebels Dec. 6 and the Oil Kings Dec. 8

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea