Raiders’ Gardiner clutch, Parker the pest in 4-3 OT win over Pats

When asked about Gardiner’s goal, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid made a quick comment but was quick to change the subject to two of his unheralded players in rookies Parker Kelly and Dylan Williamson.

He had good reason to do so.

The Raiders were down 3-1 early in the second period and were playing far from their best game.

That’s when Kelly changed the game. He be 5’10, 161 pounds, but Kelly staple-gunned Connor Hobbs into the boards right at the icing line with a hit that shook the Art Hauser Centre boards.

Kelly’s contact got the Pats in all kinds of trouble afterwards, as the Raiders were on a full two-minute, 5-on-3 power play. Pats forward Austin Wagner got an instigating penalty a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct with his fight with Kelly and Hobbs got a game misconduct, instigator and fighting major for starting the second fight of the sequence with Raider’s Williamson.

That swung all the momentum into the Raiders favour.

Jesse Lees scored on that long 5-on-3 man-advantage to make it a one-goal game, before Simon Stransky scored his second goal of the game with 38.3 seconds left in the second to tie it up.

Habscheid said Kelly’s initial bone-jarring hit and Williamson’s fearlessness to mix it up was a huge factor in the Raiders’ victory.

“You could just feel the bench rise emotionally from that—those two kids changed the whole game,” said Habscheid. “If they don’t get energy for us, we probably lose the game 6-1.”

“It makes me feel pretty good about myself,” said Kelly, after hearing about Habscheid’s comments. “Pretty slow start to the game, and we knew we had do something to spark the guys. It happened to be me and Willy out there—a good hit and it leads to something good.

“It makes you feel part of the group and that you contributed in your own way.”

Only four Raidergs registered points in the game, but they all had crazy, multi-point games.

Gardiner led the way with a goal and three assists. He now has 17 goals and 37 points in 23 games played to lead the Raiders.

Austin Glover had four assists, Stransky had two goals and defenceman Jesse Lees had a goal and an assist.

Adam Brooks had a goal and an assist for the Pats. Adam Berg and Chase Harrison had the other two Pat goals.

Musical chairs in goal

The Raiders announced in their pre-game lineups that they would start Ian Scott for the third straight game. But when the game started, Rylan Parenteau settled in between the pipes.

Habscheid explained after the game that Scott received an injury in warmup. Although Habscheid doesn’t believe the injury to be serious, it still warranted a last-minute goaltender swap.

“[Scott] should be okay, but he was hurt in warmup so we needed to make the switch,” said Habscheid.

Habscheid said he was impressed with how Parenteau responded, making 24 saves, including some absolute highlight reel spots in the second period with a glorious glove save on Jared McAmmond and a circus cross-crease save to rob Sam Steel of a sure goal.

Jordan Hollett, the 16-year-old goalie from the Pats, was busy in the game as he made 41 stops in just his fourth WHL career appearance.

Back in the spotlight

After a week out of the CHL Top 10 weekly ranking spotlight, the Raiders are back in for the fourth time this year. They squeaked into the 10^th position of the Week 9 list. The highest the Raiders have been ranked in the country this year was fourth overall in Week 6.

Mappin on the move

The Raiders reassigned 19-year-old forward Ty Mappin back to the Drumheller Dragons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. In his three-game tryout with the Raiders, Mappin scored one goal. Cal Babych, who was injured while Mappin was inserted into the lineup, returned to game action on Saturday.

Drew Warkentine sat out the game due to illness.

The Raiders will play the Calgary Hitmen Nov. 24 at the Art Hauser Centre for their next game.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders’ Gardiner clutch, Parker the pest in 4-3 OT win over Pats

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