Raiders’ backs against the wall

Jeff D’Andrea, paNOW

HALIFAX—After falling 6-3 to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies Monday at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, the Prince Albert Raiders find themselves in a 0-2 hole at the 2019 Memorial Cup.

It’s now a do-or-die situation for the Raiders as they will need to win Tuesday’s game against the Guelph Storm (1-1) to force a tiebreaking situation.

But losing two straight games and facing a do-or-die game, that’s all too familiar to the Raiders.

They had lost Games 5 and 6 at the 2019 Rogers WHL Championship Series against the Vancouver Giants, which forced a do-or-die Game 7. The Raiders pulled through with a 3-2 overtime victory. They also lost back-to-back games in both the Eastern Conference Finals against the Edmonton Oil Kings and in the second round against the Saskatoon Blades, before responding in big ways and winning those series.

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid knows his team has yet to lose three games this season and believes in his group.

“I just feel bad for the guys, because they probably deserved better,” Habscheid said. “Now our backs are up against the wall, but (we’re a) character group. Don’t count us out yet, we’ll be there.

“I thought we deserved better, we should have won that game. We had a lot of chances, we hit a lot of posts. I think we hit five or six posts,” Habscheid added. “I think we missed three or four open nets. It just didn’t go our way, but I liked a lot about our game tonight.”

It was a back-and-fourth game, as one would expect between the two top-ranked teams in the CHL throughout the season. Five minutes into the third, it was 3-3 with the game having been tied three times.

But Noah Dobson, one of the premier defencemen in the CHL, stepped up in the game-deciding play. He made a big contribution on the Huskies’ winning goal, intercepting a pass, cutting up ice and getting the only assist on Tyler Hinam’s winner, his second goal of the game. Dobson also capped off the game with an empty net goal.

“When the game is on the line, he’s always stepping up and making the right play. He wants to make a difference — that’s Noah Dobson,” said Huskies head coach and general manager Mario Pouliot, who also coached Dobson last year on the Memorial Cup-winning team from Acadie-Bathurst. “When the game is tight and the game is on the line, the better he gets. It’s as simple as that.”

Through two games, the Raiders have gone 0-7 on the power play. They were 0-3 on Monday against the Huskies and are looking for ways to make it click.

“I think maybe a little more intensity, moving pucks quicker,” said Raiders forward Noah Gregor, who had a goal and two helpers in the game. “We got a couple chances tonight, but there still needs to be some work done on the power play. I think we’ve got the guys that will be able to bring it and we’ve got a lot of skill.”

Tiebreaking scenarios

If the Raiders beat the Storm Tuesday and the Huskies (1-1) defeat the Halifax Mooseheads (2-0) on Wednesday, then the Raiders and Storm will play a tiebreaker on Thursday.

But if the Raiders defeat the Storm and the Mooseheads beat the Huskies, then there would be a three-way tiebreaking scenario between the Storm, Raiders and Huskies who would all have records of 1-2. A Raiders’ loss would see the end to their tournament.

Storm’s a brewin’

The Raiders will finish out their round robin against the Guelph Storm (1-1) on Tuesday 8 p.m. at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax. The game will start at 5 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

The round robin will conclude on Wednesday, as the hosting Halifax Mooseheads (2-0) will play the Huskies (1-1).