Raiders top visiting Wheat Kings 5-2

The Prince Albert Raiders showed no mercy to the injury-riddled Brandon Wheat Kings at Art Hauser Centre on Saturday, beating them 5-2 in Western Hockey League action.

Prince Albert (39-7-5-0) received its goals from Benett Kelly, Connor Howe, Braeden Cootes, Alisher Sarkenov and Aiden Oiring, with Prabh Bhathal and Cameron Allard replying for Brandon (28-22-1-0) in front of a crowd of 2,697.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his club, which fell 5-4 to the Calgary Hitmen on Friday night at home and made the 660-km journey to Prince Albert on Saturday, faced an uphill climb against the Eastern Conference’s top team.

“You talk about adversity but this takes the cake with the travel,” Murray said. “We’re probably still feeling the effects of the U.S. trip to be honest with you. Travelling here with the injuries and short bench, we knew it was going to be a tall task.”

The injury-riddled Wheat Kings played without forwards Caleb Hadland, Joby Baumuller, Carter Klippenstein, Chase Surkan and Easton Odut, along with defencemen Merrek Arpin and Dylan Ronald. Former Okotoks Oilers forward Brett Wilson, who will be with Brandon for the rest of the season, made his debut and callup defenceman Easten Turko of McCreary played his second game of the weekend. That left the visitors with 10 healthy forwards and seven defencemen.

Prince Albert opened the scoring five minutes five seconds into the game off the rush when the defenceman Kelly jumped into the play, went to the net and redirected a pass by Brandon goalie Filip Ruzicka. They made it a 2-0 six minutes later after a Brandon turnover high in the Prince Albert zone when Howe broke in, outwaited a Brandon defender and ripped a shot into the top of the net.

Ruzicka was under siege after that, with a pair of stops on Linden Burrett on a back-door feed and then a flashy glove save on defenceman Matyas Man on the next shift as the Raiders took a 13-5 advantage on the shot clock. Just after Brandon went to the game’s first power play, the big Czech goalie again used his trapper to deny Cootes on a short breakaway.

The Wheat Kings got on the board 5:32 into the second period when defenceman Nigel Boehm threw a shot on net that hit the pad of Prince Albert goalie Michal Orsulak, bounced out, glanced off the skate of Bhathal and ricocheted into the net for the rookie’s third goal of the season and eighth point in his last 11 games.

The Raiders were relentless after the Wheat Kings drew closer, and made it 3-1 at the 9:39 mark when Cootes was set up for a quick shot off the rush in traffic.

Before the middle frame ended, the hosts made it 4-1 when they forced a turnover in the neutral zone and raced in on a two-man breakaway, with Sarkenov electing to shoot and tucking the puck inside the far post.

The Wheat Kings drew back within a pair on the power play 5:20 into the third period when they entered the Raiders zone and Allard received the puck up high. The rookie defenceman had all kinds of time, calmly skated in and wired a shot over the blocker of the left-handed Orsulak for his first power-play goal in the WHL.

But two minutes later, the Raiders went to a 92-second five-on-three and cashed in when Oiring popped in a rebound.

Ruzicka, who was sensational all night, made another terrific glove save when Riley Boychuk was left all alone with 10 seconds remaining. It was one of his 42 saves on the night, while Orsulak stopped 20 shots for the Raiders.

“He played well,” Murray said of Ruzicka. “I thought there were a couple of shots that you might think a goalie could have had, but they were real good shots and you can’t fault him at all. He made some real good saves, including some saves on backdoors, where they’re generally easy tap-ins. I thought Filip competed hard and did his thing and did the best he could to give us a chance to hang around.”

Brandon went 1-for-2 on the power play, with Prince Albert scoring once in four chances.

ICINGS: Wilson wore No. 22 in his Brandon debut. On his first shift, he was welcomed to the league with a couple of borderline shots by Oiring and then a heavy hit by Brandon Gorzynski as he held onto the puck to successfully get it deep … The Raiders hosted their billet appreciation night so the game didn’t begin until 7:11 p.m. It took two hours, 20 minutes to play … Wheat Kings defenceman Gio Pantelas, who almost never fights, bloodied the rugged Raiders defenceman Burrett in a spirited tilt late in the third period … Luke Mistelbacher led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … In the faceoff circle, Prince Albert won 34-22 … The Wheat Kings head to Moose Jaw to meet the Warriors on Tuesday, and then host the Raiders on Friday.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com