By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders don’t hit back vs. T-Birds

Jan 9, 2019 | 9:11 PM

When the Prince Albert Raiders flew out of the gates and went 26-1, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid talked about how his team was able to avoid “bigshot-itis,” and avoid having a big head.

That wasn’t the case on Wednesday as the Raiders fell to the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-1.

“I talked about big shot-itis. I think we had a little bit of that tonight. I think we got what we deserve,” Habscheid said. “I just thought we weren’t very good. They wanted it more and they were way more desperate. Every time we got touched or hit, we’d look at them like ‘what are you guys doing?’”

For the Raiders, that’s their third loss at home in the past four games after starting the season a perfect 17-0 at the Hauser. The Raiders are 35-5-0-1 on the year. The T-Birds picked up their lucky 13^th win of the season (13-21-4-0).

Heading into Wednesday’s game, Thunderbirds forward Jaxan Kaluski had never scored more than two goals in a season. He upped that on Wednesday alone as Kaluski scored his first career hat trick to lead the T-Birds to victory.

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Kaluski started it with a nasty wrist shot over the glove of Ian Scott, 1:23 into the second period.

Just 1:23 into the period, the Thunderbirds draw first blood on a great glove-side shot by Jaxan Kaluski. 1-0 Seattle pic.twitter.com/jgZBd5NUUw

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 10, 2019

The only goal for the Raiders was scored by Jeremy Masella, his second of the season, in quick response 45 seconds. Dante Hannoun got the assist on the play, his 250^th career point.

Raiders tie it up. Puck squirts out to Jeremy Masella and he claps in his second goal of the year. 1-1 just two minutes into the second. pic.twitter.com/BtAIkAx4b7

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 10, 2019

Kaluski took over the rest of the period, as he put home a rebound off the end boards to restore the Thunderbirds’ lead eight minutes into the second period.

Jaxan Kaluski scores his second goal of the period, taking that Lee shot off the end boards and putting it in. 2-1 T-Birds lead as we near the 2nd period media timeout. pic.twitter.com/os1Wou5mFP

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 10, 2019

The hat trick was completed after the Raiders had a bad line change, leading to a 2-on-1 with Noah Philp, who slid it over Kaluski late in the third period.

Bad line change from the Raiders leads to a 2-on-1 and Jaxan Kaluski finishes off his hat trick. He only had 2 goals in 37 games all year heading in. pic.twitter.com/s3XtZzS40n

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) January 10, 2019

Matthew Wedman ended it off with the empty net goal.

Leason Top Prospects

Brett Leason was named Team Orr in the 2019 Sherwin-Williams CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game. Leason will join Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid, who will serve as an assistant coach on Team Orr.

Leason and Habscheid will head to Red Deer for the game on Jan. 23. The Raiders have been represented at the Top Prospects Game every season since 2010.

Nice ring to it

Ian Scott received a few Christmas gifts around the holidays. He made Team Canada for the 2019 IIHF Under-20 World Junior Championship, and he signed his first professional hockey contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But another special gift was Scott received the 2018 Calder Cup championship ring, after joining the AHL’s Toronto Marlies for their playoff run last year. Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas, who also managed the Marlies last year, personally presented Scott with the ring.

While in Vancouver with Team Canada, @IceScott99 received his Calder Cup hardware from the Toronto Marlies.

Hear him discuss that moment during the first intermission tonight on @CKBI. pic.twitter.com/kkx7HudZWa

— Trevor Redden (@Trevor_Redden) January 10, 2019

“I saw a bunch of pictures from guys from the Marlies. I knew it was coming. I was just patiently waiting. It was real exciting to see what it looked like,” Scott said. “My dad thought it was pretty cool just being able to see those guys, because he always sees them on T.V. Seeing Dubas walk down and sit down and talk with us was pretty cool for all of us.”

pic.twitter.com/FeTXNoWjtG

— Trevor Redden (@Trevor_Redden) January 10, 2019

Scoring Summary

First Period

No scoring.

Second Period

1-0, Thunderbirds, Jaxan Kaluski from Andrej Kukuca and Simon Kubicek, 1:23

1-1, Raiders, Jeremy Masella from Dante Hannoun, 2:08

2-1, Thunderbirds, Jaxan Kaluski from Jake Lee and Sean Richards, 7:54

3-1, Thunderbirds, Jaxan Kaluski from Noah Philp, 17:06

Third Period

4-1, Thunderbirds, Matthew Wedman (empty net), 19:45

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW