By Jeff D'Andrea

Scott shuts out the Tigers as Raiders’ roll continues

Nov 14, 2018 | 9:32 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders needed to dig in defensively on Wednesday to get the win. They were able to do just that as they fended off an energetic Medicine Tigers (9-10-1-2) side for a 2-0 victory. That’s the Raiders’ 11^th straight victory, and improves their record to 18-1 on the year.

Raiders goaltender Ian Scott was in the mix on just about everything. Not only did he have a 43-save shutout, but he also had one of the hits of the game on Tigers forward Bryan Lockner and he almost scored a goal.

As the Tigers were pushing with the extra-attacker, Scott looked at their gaping net and tried to fling it in. But instead, it hit the low-hanging Hauser scoreboard.

“He thought he was Marty Brodeur at the end there with the shot,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid, citing the legendary New Jersey Devils goalie, who’s the only goalie to score three goals in the NHL. “I thought it had a pretty good chance. He got some good weight on it and she was going. But then the clock obviously got in the way. That was the end of that.”

Although Scott also thought he would have scored, he was more concerned with his team getting the two points.

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“I thought it was a pretty close game. They pushed us pretty hard,” Scott said. He now has three shutouts on the year and six in his career. “We hadn’t played in a while, so I thought it was a good test for us. We have to win those games, so it was good.”

It’s pretty hard to have a great penalty kill without a great goalie. It starts with Scott, who has a .946 save percentage, 1.50 goals against average and a 15-1 record.

But Scott has help offensively from the forwards as well, which have made this penalty kill so dangerous.

Brett Leason scored a shorthanded goal in the second period (his third shorty of the year), which was the Raiders’ 11^th goal while down a man this year. They’re back up to +4 on the season, having given up just seven goals on their PK (7/82). The Raiders are the only WHL team with double-digit shorthanded goals, and a penalty killing percentage above 90 per cent (91.5%).

If the Raiders are able to continue scoring more goals shorthanded than they give up, they will absolutely shatter the WHL record. They’re on pace to finish the year at mindboggling and math-defying +14.

In the WHL internet era going back to the 1996-97 season, the team that finished the best in that regard were the 2007-08 Tri-City Americans… at -20. The Americans scored 22 shorthanded goals and gave up 42 power play goals against that year.

The man who runs the penalty kill unit is assistant coach Jeff Truitt, or “Truey” as he’s better known as throughout the dressing room.

“I think first off, Scotty in net really helps us out and he’s the biggest part of our penalty kill, but Truey is great on giving us a lot of video and coaching on how to run our PK,” Raiders forward Noah Gregor said, who has two shorthanded goals himself this year. “All our guys have a lot of pride in our penalty kill. We always have the skill to take it the other way if we can, and our coaches are good with letting us take it up the ice and take our chances when we have it.”

Scoring Summary

First period

No scoring.

Second period

1-0, Raiders, Brett Leason (shorthanded, unassisted), 8:58

Leason with an absolute snipe continues his unbelievable point streak, scoring in now 19 straight games (18 goals, 41 points). This is also the Raiders’ 11th shorthanded goal this year, Raiders lead 1-0 over the Tigers at the 2nd period timeout pic.twitter.com/S0znrvl3E9

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) November 15, 2018

Third period

2-0, Noah Gregor (unassisted), 11:16

Noah Gregor tries the Forsberg one-handed deke, that doesn’t work on the Danish Sogaard, so Gregor just sneaks it in on the near-side anyway. 2-0 Raiders with over 8 to play pic.twitter.com/DVKthrXmiG

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) November 15, 2018

Five alive

On Wednesday, the Raiders found themselves on the top of the Kia CHL Top 10 Weekly Rankings—for a fifth consecutive time.

As this is the ninth week of the season, that means the Raiders have been ranked the first for more than half of the rankings so far this year.

Hey Riley!

There may be a rowdy section cheering for the opposition on Friday at the Art Hauser Centre. Prince Albert’s Riley Sawchuk and his Tri-City Americans will come into town then to face the Raiders.

Barring a trade, or a Raiders-Americans matchup in the league finals, this will be Sawchuk’s last WHL career game in his hometown rink, as he’s 19 years old and American teams only visit once every two years.

After facing the Americans (12-6), the Raiders will head over to Brandon on Saturday to take on the Wheat Kings (9-4-3-3).

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW