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Last game vs Prince Albert this season

Rebels lose first of four road games, 5-2 against Raiders

Feb 28, 2023 | 11:18 PM

The Red Deer Rebels lost 5-2 in their final game against the Prince Albert Raiders this WHL regular season on Tuesday night at the Art Hauser Centre.

This is game one of four in a five-night road trip across the Prairies.

In the first period, the Raiders’ Niall Crocker capitalized on an early power play opportunity, beating Rebels goaltender Kyle Kelsey at 5:22 after the Rebels’ Frantisek Formanek served a penalty for having too many men on the ice. It was Crocker’s 14th goal of the season, assisted by Keaton Sorenson and Ryder Ritchie. The scoreboard read 1-0 for the home team.

Again on a power play, Prince Albert’s Niall Crocker scored his 15th goal this season and second of the evening at 14:18, assisted by the same trio of Keaton Sorensen and Ryder Ritchie. Red Deer’s Hunter Mayo sat in the box for roughing, while the Raiders doubled their lead to 2-0.

Then with nine seconds left in the period, Prince Albert’s Landon Kosior scored his 17th goal this season with the help of Eric Johnston and Ryder Ritchie. The Raiders now led 3-0.

After 20 minutes of play, the Raiders outshot the Rebels 13-5.

The Rebels bounced back in the middle frame when Jace Isley scored his 27th goal of the season off a rebound from the pads of Raiders netminder Max Hildebrand. Assisted by Jayden Grubbe at 4:58, the Rebels were now on the scoreboard behind the Raiders 3-1.

At 16:10, however, Prince Albert’s Keaton Sorensen scored his 21st goal this season with Red Deer-native Harrison Lodewyk and Brayden Dube claiming the assists. The Raiders pushed their lead to 4-1.

But with just three seconds left in the period and the Raiders’ Landon Kosior sitting in the box for holding, Red Deer’s Jhett Larson tapped in a goal right beside the net. The power play goal was Larson’s 14th of the season and assisted by Hunter Mayo and Jace Weir, closing the Raiders lead to 4-2.

In the second period, it was the Rebels who had more shots on goal compared to the Raiders (13-4).

In the final period, Prince Albert solidified their win when Sloan Stanick scored his 20th goal of the season at 14:48. With the assists made by Eric Johnston and Hayden Pakkala, the home team won 5-2.

The Raiders slightly outshot the Rebels in the third period (6-3) and overall (23-21).

Prince Albert went 2/6 on the power play while Red Deer went 1/2 with the man advantage.

The Raiders received all three stars this game with Ryder Ritchie earning the third star for his three assists. Red Deer native Keaton Sorensen was awarded the second star for his two assists and one goal, while Niall Crocker was given the first star for scoring the first back-to-back goals of the game.

With the Rebels already holding a spot in the playoffs this year, their first place standing in the Central Division remains, with a record of 38-16-1-3. The Raiders are in fifth place in the East Division at 25-29-3-0.

The Rebels will be heading to the SaskTel Centre Wednesday night for their final game this regular season against the Saskatoon Blades. Puck-drop is a 6 p.m. MST with the broadcast live on 106.7 REWIND Radio.