Raiders ‘push rope’ just enough to pass the Hurricanes
When asked to explain how the Prince Albert Raiders beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 on Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid referenced something that the team’s athletic therapist Duane “Puff” Bartley said during the game.
“I think Puff had it the best. During the game, he said it was like ‘pushing rope’ today. That’s kind of the way it was—it was difficult,” Habscheid said. “I thought we missed passes, overskated pucks. We were fighting it the whole game, just not in a rhythm.
“We pushed the rope straight enough and long enough to get the win,” Habscheid said, ever dedicated to the analogy. “When you do that, you can’t try to do too much, you have to really simplify and play the right way. You have to play pucks forward, gain lines, gain real estate and grind away and find away.”
For the Raiders, the victory evens their record once again at .500 with a 13-13-5-2 record. All of their last six games have been one-goal games, with three of them coming via shootout or overtime decisions.