By Trevor Redden

Fonstad paces Raiders to weekend sweep of Pats

Sep 22, 2018 | 11:36 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders completed an opening weekend sweep of the Regina Pats with a 3-1 victory at the Brandt Centre Saturday night.

Trailing by one after the first period, the Raiders pushed the pace for the final forty minutes led by two second period goals from Cole Fonstad to take control.

Compared to Friday night’s game where Prince Albert led 4-0 after two, this one had a much different feel.

 “I thought that they bottled us up quite well, and we couldn’t get a lot of our speed through the neutral zone like we did last night,” said Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt. “In this league when you come off of losses, you know you’re going to come out and push hard the next night and that’s exactly what Regina did. We talked about that, they proved it, we had to push back and I thought in the second half of the game we did that.”

Near the midway point of the second period, Fonstad got the Raiders on the board when he converted a feed from Spencer Moe on a two-on-one rush, putting it between the legs of Pats goaltender Max Paddock to tie the game at one. The goal came on Prince Albert’s 17th shot of the night.

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With momentum looking to be on the side of the visitors, forward Justin Nachbaur was assessed a major penalty for cross checking which took him out of the game and sent the Pats to the man advantage for five minutes.

The Raider penalty kill was up to the task, ultimately killing off all eight shorthanded situations in the game, allowing the power play to go to work late in the second.

Fonstad secured his second goal of the game following a give and go passing play between Brett Leason and Kody McDonald that drew the Pats’ penalty killers to Leason, allowing Fonstad room to take the pass back door and put it away.

Leading by one after two, the Raiders power play struck again in the third with Leason scoring his second of the year with assists from Fonstad and Sergei Sapego.

“[We were] very timely on the power play. We needed those goals at the time that we got them and I thought that was key.  The five-minute penalty kill that we had to do, I thought the guys did a tremendous job and Ian Scott did a great job for us when he was called on. That was the difference,” said Truitt.

Through the two game weekend series, Prince Albert’s power play converted four times on 10 opportunities while the penalty kill was a perfect 10-for-10.

With a three-point night on Saturday, Fonstad currently leads the Raiders with two goals and three assists for five points in two games. Goaltender Ian Scott stopped 28 of 29 shots in the victory.

Kelly comes home

With no time to spare, Parker Kelly returned to his Raider teammates on Saturday after being reassigned from the Ottawa Senators following Friday night’s exhibition game. Kelly travelled from the nation’s capital to Regina on Saturday, arriving at the Brandt Centre shortly ahead of puck drop. The veteran forward did not participate in warm up but took to the ice for the first period.

“He brought that leadership and that enthusiasm and his work ethic and that’s exactly what he does. Kind of a crazy day for him coming from Ottawa, coming in here missing warm up and just hopping right in. Kudos to him, he wanted to play, and he did that so that’s a pretty special person there,” said Truitt.

Next up

The Raiders are off until Friday night when they start a busy three-game weekend with a home date against the Medicine Hat Tigers. Prince Albert will then head to Moose Jaw to take on the Warriors on Saturday before returning home to face Saskatoon on Sunday.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Pats, Aaron Hyman from Jake Leschyshyn, 9:58

Second Period

1-1, Raiders, Cole Fonstad from Spencer Moe and Jeremy Masella, 8:41

2-1, Raiders, Cole Fonstad from Brett Leason and Kody McDonald, 17:30

Third Period

3-1, Raiders, Brett Leason from Cole Fonstad and Sergei Sapego, 6:19

trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden