Raiders fall 6-1 in Saskatoon

The Prince Albert Raiders couldn’t contain the firepower of the Saskatoon Blades on Friday night, falling 6-1 at SaskTel Centre. Turner McMillen was the lone goal scorer for the green and gold in the loss, as the club saw a brief two game winning streak come to an end.

Saskatoon got set up on their first powerplay early in the game and scored the first goal of the contest 1:31 into the opening period. Tanner Molendyk took a pass at the point from Egor Sidorov and fired a slapshot on net, With Easton Armstrong providing a screen in front, Max Hildebrand couldn’t find the puck as it hit the back of the net. The goal was Molendyk’s seventh of the season, and it gave the Blades an early 1-0 lead.

The Raiders responded to tie the game with 1:36 left in the first, and it came via the shorthanded variety as Turner McMillen made up for his penalty that led to Saskatoon’s goal earlier in the period. With the puck cleared into the neutral zone, McMillen turned on the jets and sped past a Blades defender and found himself in on a breakaway. Barreling down the left wing, the overage forward cut in towards the net and buried a backhand shot past the right pad of Evan Gardner, tying the game at 1-1 with his sixth goal of the season. It was his third goal scored against Saskatoon in four games this season.

The early goal from Saskatoon and the late goal from Prince Albert left both teams deadlocked at 1-1 heading into the second period.

Saskatoon took a 2-1 lead 3:39 into the second period, scoring their second powerplay goal of the night. Rowan Calvert tipped home a shot from the low slot after a hard pass from Alexander Suzdalev from the right circle.

Fraser Minten gave the Blades a two goal lead with 5:40 to go in the middle frame, as he came into the Raider zone on a breakaway. The forward was hooked from behind, but it didn’t matter, as he was able to tuck a backhand shot five hole past Hildebrand. Minten’s 16th goal of the season made it a 3-1 game after 40 minutes.

The Blades were really able to pull away in the third period, as they scored three goals in the final frame to win by a 6-1 final. Tyler Parr, Rhett Melnyk, and Misha Volotovskii scored the third period goals for Saskatoon, as the Raiders fell to 23-25-1-3 on the season.

The Raiders are back in action tomorrow night at home against the Brandon Wheat Kings. Puck drop is at 7pm.