Brown’s OT winner sinks Raider comeback in loss to Pats
The Prince Albert Raiders would give anything they had in a comeback, but they couldn’t pick up two points as they lost 4-3 in overtime to the Regina Pats during WHL action at the Art Hauser Center on Friday night.
When they came into play on Friday, the Raiders had conceded 46 goals in the first half, the most they have conceded in any period this season.
The trend would continue as visiting Regina Pats would score three goals in the first frame.
Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt says the Raiders underperformed their penalty shootout skills early in the competition.
“Our penalty had to be improved in the first third. We gave them two straight away and we didn’t generate much momentum or anything like that in the first. We chased the game in the first. Second and third, I felt we were really good. We had a much harder time there. Coming back from 3-0 is never easy, we did it and we would have liked to get that extra point but we didn’t. I was satisfied with two thirds of the game, but not in the first third.”
Regina would start the first third with 7:06. Easton Armstrong would get a powerful break from left wing and swipe a wrist shot past Max Hildebrand to score his 13th goal of the season with the high gloves to put the Pats 1-0 early on. Luke Bateman would pick up the lone assist.
The Pats would double their lead at 2:58 p.m. with a power play marker from Borya Valis. Tanner Brown and Alexander Suzdalev would pick up the assists.
The strong period for the Pats as the Washington Capitals’ Alexander Suzdalev scored his 21st goal of the season on the power play to increase Regina’s lead to 3-0. Tanner Brown would pick up his second assist of the period on goal.
Neither team would find the back of the net in the second third. Shots would favor the Raiders 12-8.
Truitt says he saw some good signs from the Raiders despite not scoring in midfield, and he was impressed by the character the Raiders showed in a third-period comeback.
“We were just talking about it in the dressing room. You do not give up. This is where we need to delve. There are two options, it either goes away or you start building momentum and doing good things. Two thirds of that game, even though we didn’t score in the second period, we still did good things. We were outstanding in the third third and we have to build on that.”
It wasn’t long before the Raiders broke through in the scoring column in the third period. After just 1:35, Harrison Lodewyk would make a powerful pass to Carson Latimer in mid-ice, who would go clean with a wrist shot past Pat’s goaltender Drew Sim with the low-glove side to reduce the deficit to 3-1.
Corbin Vaughn would be sent off for a high stick double minor at 6:39 and the Raider power play would get to work.
Landon Kosior recorded his side’s 8th power play goal and 12th of the season with a 7-11 to cut Regina’s 3-2 lead to just one. Sloan Stanick and Ryder Ritchie would record assists for the game.
The Raiders would equalize with Gabe Ludwig’s fifth goal of the season at the 15:08 mark of the third period. Carson Latimer would pick up the lone assist.
However, the Regina Pats would thwart the Raider comeback and walk away from the contest by two points. The winner of the game would be the aging Tanner Brown at the 3:41 mark of the five-minute 3-on-3 overtime frame.
With the loss in overtime, the Raiders fall to 10-20-3-0 in the season while the Pats improve to 18-16-1-1.
On the net, Max Hildebrand took the loss for the Raiders with 25 saves while Drew Sim made 41 saves to earn the win for Regina
The Pats and Raiders will face off again on New Year’s Day at the Brandt Center in Regina. Puck falls at 4 p.m.
