Raiders finish round one with dominant win in Prince Albert

By Nick Nielsen

The air was electric well before the puck dropped on Tuesday night at the Art Hauser Centre as fans waited for game seven between the Prince Albert Raiders and the Edmonton Oil Kings. The crowd only waited seven minutes for the game’s first goal, and the volume never came down as the Raiders went on to win 5-0 and complete the comeback after being down 3-1 in the series.

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The Oil Kings started with some pressure to try and get the Raiders off their game, but a high sticking penalty to Parker Alcos gave the Raiders their first opportunity of the night. As the penalty expired at 7:40, Rilen Kovacevic sent the puck to Lukas Dragicevic, who fired on the goal. The puck squirted past the goaltender, and Aiden Oiring cleaned up the loose change into the back of the net for his sixth goal of the series.

Then, at 13:43, Ty Meunier scored on an unassisted effort. The Raiders were heavy on the forecheck and as a result the puck came out of the corner and right to Meunier’s stick with an open lane to the goal. Meunier closed in tight before roofing a wrister for his first of the playoffs.

The Raiders killed off two penalties in the second period, one with a little help from the post on a Landon Hanson shot, but the Raiders hung onto their two-goal lead.

At the 18:32 mark, the Raiders got on the board again. Oiring and Jackson Kostiuk picked up assists for getting the puck back to Lukas Dragicevic at the point, and he fired off a defender for his fifth of the playoffs.

As the Raiders scored, Riley Boychuk drew a roughing call from Roan Woodward on the celebration. The powerplay for the Raiders slowed down a touch, and the Oil Kings as a result had their best chance of the game shorthanded when Miroslav Holinka stole the puck for a breakaway, but Max Hildebrand stared him down and stopped both Holinka and the rebound from Adam Jecho to preserve the shutout.

With the Raiders on their third powerplay of the game, Prince Albert scored once again at the 10:33 mark. Daxon Rudolph worked the puck to Dragicevic on the right side point. He fired towards the goal, and a picture-perfect tip from Niall Crocker deflected it into the back of the net for his fifth of the playoffs.

At the 14:22 mark, Raiders fans got their exclamation point at the end of the night when their chosen enemy Marshall Finnie went to the box for holding. It took the Raiders’ powerplay seven seconds, at 14:29, to get the puck from Dragicevic on the right, Rudolph in the middle and to the left for Kovacevic who shot the puck into his former team’s goal for his fourth of the playoffs.

The Oil Kings took a too-many-men penalty in the final minute, and Linden Burrett got the puck on the right point with a lane to shoot, but instead decided to back out to centre while cheers rang out in the Art Hauser Centre well past the final buzzer.

The Raiders’ powerplay went 2/5 and was one second away from going 3/5, while their penalty kill went a perfect 2/2 to close out the night.

After Kovacevic put up four points in game six, Tuesday night was Dragicevic’s turn with a goal and three assists. That brings him to a team-leading five goals, seven assists and 12 points in the first seven games of the playoffs.

Oiring is right behind him in scoring after the first round of the playoffs with six goals and five assists for 11 points, including a goal and an assist during game seven. His six goals have Oiring sitting third in goals in the playoffs.

Hildebrand earned his first shutout of the playoffs, stopping all 30 shots faced in game seven. Through seven games, Hildebrand’s save percentage sits at 0.941, good for third after the first round.

The Raiders will have a quick turnaround, as the Medicine Hat Tigers lie in wait for round two, which starts on Saturday.