Rylan’s rally reaps no rewards for Raiders vs. Royals; Riley returns

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid was frank in his postgame interviews, saying his team didn’t have the push it’s had for most of the season.

“We didn’t have a lot going on. Our legs weren’t there… We got a point, probably more than we deserved, but we got a point,” said Habscheid, who coached the Royals in their first year, 2011-2012. “We’re looking at the positive. We still got a streak going with consecutive games with points.”

The biggest positive for the Raiders 19-year-old goaltender Rylan Parenteau. He made 46 saves in the game, including at least three saves on breakaways.

Parenteau with his busy and effective night in goal, Parenteau now has a .952 save percentage in his last three games, stopping 99 of 104 shots on goal. He stopped all 24 shots he faced Wednesday in a 4-0 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings, for his second shutout of the season.

Parenteau’s game on Friday deservedly caught the eyes of his teammates.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a performance like that in a long time,” said Raiders defenceman Hunter Warner. “The athleticism, the saves he was making were just crazy. I couldn’t even believe it.

“Hats off to him, that was impressive.”

It was a big night for Warner as well, who scored his first WHL career goal of his career, burying a wrist shot after a lovely feed from Raider defenceman Brendan Guhle. That tied the game at 1-1 midway through the second period. Although it was Warner’s first in 39 career games, the

“It would have felt a lot better if we could have gotten the win, you know,” said Warner, who already has six points, doubling his rookie total from last season. “It was definitely a good feeling.”

Vladimir Bobylev scored the game winner in 2:08 into overtime, a low backhander through the wickets of Parenteau. Alex Forsberg and Joe Hicketts each had a goal and an assist in the game. The fact they added helpers on each other’s goals gave them both 100 career WHL assists.

Coleman Vollrath made 22 saves for the victory. Vollrath has appeared in 14 of the Royals’ 15 games this season.

Riley returns

The Raiders brought back their mascot Riley the Raider, as they unveiled him in the first period of Friday’s game.

The Raiders had been mascot-less since Nov. 21, 2014 when they decided to discontinue last year’s mascot Boston. Boston received national media attention for being stereotypical towards Middle Eastern cultures and lasted one game.

Riley is quite similar, but wears a green, visor-less hockey helmet to replace Boston’s Middle Eastern headdress.

Riley was also the name of the Raiders’ mascot when the team wore their pirate logo sweaters and was retired when the Raiders switched to their green jerseys to start the 2013-2014 season.

Catching up with the Challenge Cup

Raiders first round pick Cole Fonstad picked up a goal and an assist for Team Saskatchewan, but they still lost 3-2 to team B.C. Fellow Raiders first rounder Carson Miller also registered an assist in the game, on Fonstad’s goal.

Spencer Moe’s Team Alberta beat Team Manitoba 3-0. Manitoba features two Raiders draft choices, Justin Nachbaur and Lane Kirk. Team Alberta leads the tournament with a 3-0 record.

Spooky Swifty in town for Halloween

The Raiders will be back at it Saturday, playing the Swift Current Broncos on Halloween. Faceoff will be at the usual 7 p.m. start, despite being originally scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Warner hopes his team can regain their energy they’ve shown in the first part of the season.

“It will easy to pick it back up. We all trust each other to work extremely hard,” said Warner. “We just have to get it back tomorrow and prove ourselves again.”

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Rylan’s rally reaps no rewards for Raiders vs. Royals; Riley returns

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