By Jeff D'Andrea

McDonald with monster performance against his old Cougars club

Jan 26, 2018 | 9:20 PM

Kody McDonald didn’t have a big red star on his calendar to mark the occasion when his Prince Albert Raiders would face his old team, the Prince George Cougars. In fact, he forced himself to not think about it.

But in the dressing room before the game, McDonald threw that tactic out the window.

“Probably a good half an hour before warmup, I started really thinking about it a lot. It really got me fired up. I could feel the heart racing,” McDonald said.

With that racing heart, McDonald went on to score a Gordie Howe hat trick, plus an extra assist to lift the Raiders to a 6-2 victory over his old Cougars club.  

“It was nice. When I was coming up on that team, that’s what I liked to do—fight a little bit, score and pass. It’s nice to get that against the old team,” McDonald said. “The first period was a little weird out there, and in warmup, but I thought it was a good game from all of us.”

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That’s McDonald’s third career game that he’s registered at least one goal, one assist and a fight (a Gordie Howe hat trick) in the same contest. He also has three traditional hat tricks in his career.

“He’s really good, he brings a lot of grit to our game which maybe we didn’t have enough of before,” Raiders centre Sean Montgomery, who had a goal and an assist on Friday. “He also can score and he’s a good guy in the room. We’re lucky to have him.”

McDonald was one of five players playing against their former teams on Friday at the Art Hauser Centre. Max Martin was the other Raider. Former Raider first round pick Rhett Rhinehart, as well as Austin Crossley and Josh Maser—all five were in the starting lineups of their respective teams.

With the win, the Raiders have three wins and an overtime defeat in their last four contests. The Raiders are now just one game under .500 with a 19-20-7-2. 

Capn’ Curt heating up

Curtis Miske scored in the third period, extending his point streak to six games. He has four goals and 10 points in that span. Miske, who has 16 goals and 36 points 48 games, credits being move to play with the Raiders’ leading point-getter Jordy Stallard as a big reason for the uptick in production.

“I think just playing with Stally, he helps a lot. He’s a really good player,” Miske said. “It’s that little confidence boost, I got that one and now they’re all starting to come. It’s huge.”

Stallard had a goal and an assist on Friday, as did Parker Kelly. Kelly now sits on 99 career points, 49 goals and 50 assists. Defenceman Vojtech Budik extended his point streak to five games with an assist on Kelly’s game winning goal (four goals, three assists).

Snipes and tucks

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Kody McDonald (unassisted, shorthanded), 3:51

Kody McDonald scores shorthanded against his former team, 3:51 into the first period. 1-0 Raiders. pic.twitter.com/VfYnUsSSzk

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

1-1, Cougars, Josh Maser from Aaron Boyd and Josh Curtis, 9:48

Major Maser with a laser. The former Raider ties the game with that trademark wrist shot of his. 9:48 into 1st, 1-1 game. pic.twitter.com/1QEajy7JOt

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

2-1, Raiders, Jordy Stallard from Sean Montgomery, 12:00

Jordy Stallard continues this goal festival. It’s 2-1 Raiders and we still haven’t hit our first period media timeout yet. Nice layoff from Montgomery to set that up pic.twitter.com/eeTyu2xDaJ

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

Second Period

2-2, Cougars, Liam Ryan from Ilijah Colina and Jared Bethune, 6:03

Both Raiders D try to take out Colina and miss, he finds Ryan in front of the net to tie the game at 2-2, 6:43 into second period pic.twitter.com/IjQorkktLt

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

3-2, Raiders, Parker Kelly from Kody McDonald and Vojtech Budik, 16:20

Parker Kelly scores his 20th of the year to give the Raiders a lead 3-2 with 3:40 left in the second period. Kody McDonald gets the assist to cap off his Gordie Howe hat trick pic.twitter.com/tlRt4ljjdB

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

Third Period

4-2, Raiders, Curtis Miske from Jordy Stallard, 1:21

Capn’ Curt extends his point streak to six, and extends the Raiders’ lead to 4-2 early in the 3rd period. pic.twitter.com/u0N1hvLJCP

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

5-2, Raiders, Cole Fonstad from Parker Kelly and Kody McDonald, 8:36

Welcome back from the Top Prospects game, Cole Fonstad makes it a 5-2 game for the Raiders. McDonald with another assist, his 3rd point of the night pic.twitter.com/UOFVaCLIoj

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

6-2, Raiders, Sean Montgomery from Brett Leason (power play), 10:20

Snipin’ Sean Montgomery gets in on all the fun too, 6-2 Raiders pic.twitter.com/MDB4eGpGbu

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 27, 2018

Lineup notes

Fresh off of playing in the 2018 CHL/NHL Sherwin-Williams Top Prospects Game in Guelph, Ont., a night before, Cole Fonstad was inserted in Friday’s lineup for the Raiders. Fonstad got to the rink around 5:30 p.m., with not too many moments to spare. Fonstad scored in his return.

Princes to take on the Kings

The Raiders will wrap up their weekend on Saturday when they take on the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Art Hauser Centre.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW