Raiders can’t stop, won’t stop and win seventh straight

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“This year, we just have that confidence, yet not cockiness, to just hold the lead and play all the way through for 60 minutes.”

Jennifer McGregor

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Confidence definitely shouldn’t be an issue for the Raiders. In the CHL Top 10 rankings released on Wednesday, the Raiders were ranked fourth overall, ahead of the Seattle Thunderbirds (seventh) and the Brandon Wheat Kings (eighth). The Raiders are also on top of the WHL standings with an 11-2-0-1 record. They are also one of four teams in the league to have an undefeated home record.

If anything, the Raiders are making sure their confidence isn’t too great. Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid’s mantra is to keep improving.

“We want to keep growing as a group and growing as individuals, getting better,” said Habscheid. “They haven’t awarded any trophies yet, but we’re proud of where we are. It helps the guys gain confidence and for those guys that are moving on, it helps them get noticed.

“We have goals as team that we want to accomplish, and to do that we have to improve. We know that. The guys have been great in the room and our leadership has been great. We just want to keep going.”

Wednesday’s game was scoreless for the first half hour until Raiders forward Matteo Gennaro banged home a rebound in front of the net through the wickets of Tyler Dea.

The Raiders entered the third period with a slender 1-0 lead but added to it as Prince Albert’s Drew Warkentine scored the first goal of his WHL career.

“It feels pretty good, getting my first WHL goal here in my hometown,” said Warkentine, who laughed as Raider captain Tim Vanstone joined the post-game media scrum, using his hat as a make-shift microphone. “Everybody around the team is real nice, they’re all great guys. It’s a plus being first in the WHL.”

Raiders assistant captain Reid Gardiner continues his tear as he scored a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0. That was Gardiner’s 24^th point of the year, tying him for the league lead with Moose Jaw Warrior Brayden Point. Gardiner also has 10 goals, tying him for third in the league.

Simon Stransky scored his seventh goal of the year late on the power play to make it 4-0. Six of Stransky’s seven goals have been on the power play.

Scholar Schioler

The Raiders are now down to 12 forwards now that Dane Schioler has left the team. The Raiders announced in their pre-game notes that Schioler is going to pursue his education.

The 19-year-old Schioler had an assist in eight games played.

Youngsters

The Raiders have five players playing at the 2015 Western Canada Under-16 Challenge Cup that got underway Wednesday in Calgary. Cole Fonstad and Carson Miller are on Team Saskatchewan, Lane Kirk and Justin Nachbaur are on Team Manitoba and Spencer Moe is on Team Alberta.

Nachbaur had two goals in Manitoba’s 4-3 win over Saskatchewan kick off the tournament. Carson Miller had a goal for Team Sask.

Moe was Alberta’s player of the game in their 6-3 win over B.C. Moe had two assists and had a +2 rating.

Home stickin’

Wednesday’s game was the Raiders’ first of a five-game home stand. They will play two more games this weekend, Friday against the Victoria Royals and Saturday against the Swift Current Broncos. The Raiders will then play the Calgary Hitmen on Nov. 4 and Nov. 6 against the Red Deer Rebels.

All games will be at the Art Hauser Centre and start at 7 p.m. That also includes Saturday’s game against the Broncos; the time for that game has been changed to 7 p.m. from the original start time of 3:30 p.m.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea