Raiders romp on weary Wheat Kings

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (586 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A tired Brandon Wheat Kings had the perfect start at Art Hauser Centre on Saturday, but the other 59 minutes weren’t as good as they fell 7-3 to the Prince Albert Raiders in Western Hockey League action.

Sloan Stanick of Rapid City, Niall Crocker and Krzysztof Macias each scored twice — the latter in front of visiting family from Poland — with Oli Chenier also sniping for Prince Albert (25-23-3-0). Brandon (26-20-5-1) received its goals from Nolan Flamand, Brett Hyland and Dominik Petr in front of a crowd of 2,428.

Brandon, which beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 4-1 on Friday and made the seven-hour trip to Prince Albert on Saturday morning, simply weren’t at the top of their game, Wheat Kings general manager and head coach Marty Murray said.

“I think it’s hard,” Murray said. “It’s a hard schedule to play at home and then travel. We’ve had three weeks of it and it’s probably taken a toll. We get tired and the decision making and awareness go down the drain.”

But they certainly had a promising start. Ten seconds into the game, Caleb Hadland outmuscled big Raiders defenceman Easton Kovacs for the puck near the boards and set up Flamand at the net for a tip-in to give Brandon a very, very early lead.

At the other end, Brandon goalie Ethan Eskit made a terrific save a minute later on a two-on-one to keep his team ahead, but the Raiders tied it three minutes 57 seconds into the game when Stanick got the puck near the blue-line, skated in a couple of steps and put a shot through traffic and under Eskit’s arm.

Prince Albert took a penalty 59 seconds later and Brandon cashed in on the ensuing power play. Andrei Maliavan didn’t get much on a shot from the point but it hit a body in front of the net and Hyland knocked in the loose puck past Prince Albert goalie Max Hildebrand.

Less than two minutes later, however, Eskit made a shoulder save on a point shot by Doogan Pederson, but the puck came out to Macias, who was left all alone in the slot for the fourth goal in the first 8:30 of the matchup.

The Raiders then took the lead 2:20 later when Chenier had the puck tipped to him on the power play by Roblin’s Brayden Dube and scored his team’s third goal on their 10th shot.

Petr nearly tied it minutes later on Brandon’s second power play when he hit a crossbar on a one-timer, and on a second occasion when Hildebrand plucked the puck out of the air with his glove.

The Raiders extended the lead 8:29 into the second period after a one-timer by Roger McQueen missed the net, the puck came back down the ice and Crocker scored a shorthanded goal to give his team a two-goal lead.

Brandon went back to the power play late in the period, and while the man advantage didn’t connect, Petr found the mesh with a one-timer one second after it ended to pull Brandon back within a goal at 4-3.

A pair of blown calls proved to be impactful early in the third period. After Brandon got away with a stretch of having too many men on the ice — Rylen Roersma had to skate a good distance to get off the ice — the Raiders essentially put the game away after a missed offside call when Macias got his stick on a shot from the point to make it 5-3.

They added a pair of late insurance goals on the power play, when Stanick made a perfect pass to Crocker for a deflection over Eskit’s shoulder, and four minutes later Stanick was found in the slot on another power play to make it 7-3.

“They wanted it but more than we wanted it,” Murray said.

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured F Nick Johnson (upper body, day to day) and D Seth Tansem (healthy scratch) … With Luke Moroz and Ryder Ritchie out due to injury, the Raiders dressed 11 forwards and seven defencemen … Eskit made 38 saves for the Wheat Kings, with Hildebrand stopping 21 shots for the Raiders … Brandon went 1-for-4 on the power play, with Prince Albert scoring three goals in five chances … The Wheat Kings fell to 7-13-3-1 on the road this season … Flamand led the Wheat Kings with four shots on net … Dube led the Raiders with seven shots and Stanick had five … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Prince Albert won 38-31 … The Wheat Kings hold a 3-1-0-0 edge in the season series. They still have four games left to play … Brandon returns to action when it visits the Moose Jaw Warriors on Thursday and hosts the Calgary Hitmen on Friday.

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