Is lightning striking twice?

You get a strange and queasy feeling of déja vu from Saturday night's injury to Raider goalie Jamie Tucker. The 19-year-old veteran suffered a deep cut to the thumb on his blocker hand after a high speed goal crease collision with Regina Pat captain Garrett Mitchell. Tucker made six saves and was confident in the first period when the incident happened. Tucker didn't return and may not be back in the line-up for some time. It was in January of last season when Brandon's Shayne Weibe ran Raider goalie Garrett Zemlak who missed several games with a concussion. That incident had a great bearing on the late season slump that cost the Raiders a playoff spot.

I'm not saying history will repeat itself, but there are similarities. Zemlack was one of the best goalies in the WHL last year when he was knocked out cold. The after effects of the concussion and time missed had a definite impact on Garrett's game down the stretch. Mind you he still played well enough to earn team MVP honours. Tucker has been playing his beat hockey since coming to the Raiders in January of 2010. He has improved steadily since a first half slump that began on the B.C. road trip.

Eric Williams who played in Friday night's 4-3 win over Lethbridge had to come off the bench cold and the Pats took advantage with four quick goals on the type of shots Eric has stopped in the past and will again in the future. The 17-year-old rookie was the last line of defence after a five minute stretch of turnovers, bad line changes and a myriad of other mistakes caused by an entire Raider team who appeared to be affected by the Tucker injury. To William's credit, he got better as the game wore on and made some excellent and a couple sensational saves in the third period when the Raiders got into penalty trouble.

There were already two fights and some bad blood brewing before the Mitchell-Tucker collision and three more fights followed in the second period. In addition to that incident, there was a vicious cross check to the back of Raider forward Brandon Herrod which was missed by the officiating crew (who suggested Herrod took a dive … check the video folks).

Once the nastiness subsided, the Raiders outplayed, out chanced and outscored the Pats, but couldn't recover from deficits of 4-1 and 5-2 suffering a 5-4 setback in a winnable game. You could easily argue if Tucker wasn't hurt, the Raiders leave Regina with a victory. Igor Revenko alone had several chances including a goal mouth deflection that barely missed an open net. Earlier Todd Fiddler was robbed by Regina goalie Matt Hewitt on what looked like a sure goal in the dying seconds of the second period. The Pats also scored their final goal moments after Mark McNeill rung one off the post.

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I'm not for a moment suggesting the collision was deliberate. Referee Regan Vetter must have felt it wasn't calling a two minute goaltender interference penalty on Mitchell. Last year Wiebe got a five minute major and three game suspension. However, goal crease collisions or dog piles around the net happen every game. I have no idea what the solution is but more injuries are inevitable when all you get for crashing into a goalie (without premeditation) is two minutes in the box. There is little incentive for slowing up when approaching the crease at high speed.

If the game wasn't so crucial to the Eastern Conference playoff race, it could have gotten very very ugly.

In other footnotes from the weekend … Holy Hanna Harrison Ruopp. The 17-year-old second year defenseman is blossoming. He got three assists in Regina in addition to throwing several hits including a bone crusher on Shane Neigum, whom he then traded punches with after the clean hit. Ruopp also had a strong game against the Hurricanes on Friday night and should again garner attention from NHL scouts. Meanwhile Andrew Herle has scored on consecutive nights due to his grit, heart and willingness to go to the net.

The Raiders host Swift Current on Wednesday in another crucial Eastern Conference head to head clash before making a Friday night trip to Saskatoon.

Get the latest on all of these issues Monday night at 6 p.m. on 900 CKBI's faceoff.

dwilson@rawlco.com