By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders’ comeback falls short, lose 4-3 to Blades in Young’s debut behind PA’s bench

Oct 29, 2011 | 11:53 PM

Ever since the Prince Albert Raiders announced Friday that associate coach Steve Young would step up to take the head coaching job, fans have speculating on paLIVE about what changes will result from the move and how the team would respond.

The Raiders themselves were wondering the same thing.

They headed into Saturday’s game against the Saskatoon Blades (9-4-0-1) as curious as their fans–the outcome was a 4-3 loss.

“I thought at our noon meeting today, the guys were pretty good and pretty positive but they were almost kinda wondering what was going to happen,” said Young. “I thought just before the game, they had a lot of emotion and a lot of focus, but they get on the ice and it’s ‘are we going to get back to our old ways, or what are we going to do here.’

“It was kind of Jeckyll and Hyde at times.”

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Their performance on the ice game also had a dramatic, split personality. Dr. Jeckyll showed up during 5-on-5 situations, where the Raiders made smart and though-out decisions with the puck, solid in their own end, got pucks deep and were notoriously physical. Their 5-on-5 play was also a big reason why the Raiders dominated the shot clock, 34-18.

But on special teams, Mr. Hyde reared his ugly head. The Raiders were 2-6 on the penalty kill, which has dropped down to 14th in the league after being as high as fifth a week ago. Although they were 2-9 on the power play, the Raiders made careless decisions with the puck, allowing for another shorthanded goal against. Josh Nicholls potted the shorty and had three other good scoring opportunities down a man. Both of his shorthanded goals this season have come in the Art Hauser Centre this season.

“I thought 5-on-5, we were a good hockey team tonight but special teams, we weren’t very good,” said Young. “That involves taking some penalties as well, but if there’s some positives tonight, 5-on-5 hockey is good and the first thing we want to work on here is specialty teams.”

The Raiders got out to the lead in the first period quickly thanks to a Mike Winther power play goal, receiving a nice cross-crease feed from Todd Fiddler, but the Blades scored the next four and had a 4-1 lead heading into the third period.

In the third period, the Raiders did score two goals thanks to clappers from defencemen Josh Morrissey and Antoine Corbin, making it a 4-3 hockey game with about six-minutes left. The remaining time in the game took place around Makarov’s goal but the Raiders could not find that fourth and tying goal to send the game into overtime.

Although the comeback fell a goal short, Young was happy with the resiliency the Raiders showed to in the final frame.

“We needed that for a lot of reasons,” said Young. “We’re in our home building, we have to play like that and these players need to see that they have chances no matter what the score is in the game.

“Anytime you can go positive— that’s what they need right now so that will be a positive.”

Winther, who scored the game’s first goal, thought the Raiders did enough in the third to at least push the game into overtime.

“We got a strong push in the third period and a couple of those chances could have gone either way,” said Winther, who hit the post on a rebound midway through the third. “It just didn’t go our way, I thought we deserved a better fate.”

Blades goaltender Andrey Makarov was a big reason why the comeback fell short as he made 31 saves and was the game’s first star. He made some highlight reel stops and stood tall especially in the third to keep the score in the Blades’ favour.

“Makarov has been fantastic in every game he’s played,” said Blades captain Duncan Siemens of his Russian teammate, who has a 0.922 save percentage and 2.63 GAA. “He digs in there, he battles through everything, never gives up and makes some tremendous saves. He keeps momentum or gives us momentum. He’s one of those goalies that does more than he has to sometimes, but he’s always on the doorstep and never takes a night off.”

Raiders goaltender Eric Williams made 14 saves from 18 shots.

The Raiders, (4-12-1-1), will face the Calgary Hitmen (5-6-0-1) Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre for their next game.

jdandrea@panow.com