With three periods of playoff hockey completed, the St. Albert Raiders bolted into the series lead with an impressive 4-1 victory over the Leduc Oil Kings.
After a scoreless first period Wednesday at Akinsdale Arena, the Raiders pounced on Leduc’s defence with two quick goals early in the second.
The sudden change in offensive output could be related to overcoming the first period jitters, according to goaltender Tanner Kovacs.
“We kind of got our feet wet and then in the second period we really got our feet moving and that’s when we really took it to them,” said Kovacs. “We got pucks and bodies to the net and guys down deep and battled it out.”
Captain Shane Brolly believes it was an overall effort by the Raiders that made them a strong opponent to face.
“It’s our depth. We can roll out all four lines,” said Brolly, an offensive catalyst in the win. “We’ve got some guys sick and hurt right now but with our depth we can put lots of guys out in any situation.”
Raiders’ head coach Sandro Pisani said the Raiders will have to improve if they hope to close out the rest of the five game series.
“Early on we weren’t executing as well as we could have. I think we could contribute some of that to the layover and their forecheck, but we got better as the game went on,” said Pisani.
With a chance to seal the deal on the shutout with two minutes remaining in the third, things took a sudden turn for the worse for the Raiders. A seemingly harmless clear by the Oil Kings in their own end found the back of the net past Kovacs. While such a play could have a negative effect on many goaltenders, Kovacs says it’s important to just forget about it, otherwise it could affect the entire team later on in the series.
“It was probably the most embarrassing moment in my life. I just lost track of it. It didn’t bounce at all,” said the top netminder in the midget AAA league with a 1.95 GAA. “We’ll be back in Leduc in a couple days so you just have to forget about it.”
After the game was out of reach in the third, the Oil Kings started to take an endless amount of trips to the penalty box. The penalties, including a questionable hit from behind, is a sign they were tying to send a message to the Raiders.
“The last five minutes they tried to take some liberties and some extra shots,” said Pisani. “When that happens we just need to stick to our game plan.”
Game two in the north division semifinal was played Friday in Leduc, but the score was unavailable at press time. Game three goes Sunday at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale. If needed, game four is Tuesday in Leduc at 7 p.m. and game five is Thursday at 7 p.m. at Akinsdale.
In the north standings, the second-place Raiders (20-10-4) finished four points ahead of the third-place Oil Kings (17-11-6). The Raiders had a first-round bye and the Oil Kings swept the sixth-place Lloydminster Bobcats (12-17-5) in two games.
Last year the Oil Kings eliminated the Raiders in five games in the north semifinal.
