Hayden Pakkala and Cole Peardon celebrate after connecting on the Raiders third goal of the first period against Swift Current on Oct. 29, 2023. (Mike Horn/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Logan Lehmann

Rock 'em Sock'em

Tempers boil over as Raiders double up Broncos in scrappy contest

Oct 29, 2023 | 1:08 AM

The Prince Albert Raiders managed to pull out a 4-2 victory over the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday night in what was a chippy game at the Art Hauser Centre.

Fueled by a three-goal first period by Prince Albert and some nasty hits by a pair of Swift Current forwards in the second, tempers flared in the third as multiple incidents, including a line brawl, resulted in more than a handful of ejections and one match penalty.

“When you’re down, I guess you try to drag a team into the mud and hopefully you get on the right side of the powerplay,” said Raiders Head Coach Jeff Truitt when asked about the physicality in the third period. “It wasn’t unexpected, but those things happen. It’s junior hockey, it’s going to happen and our guys stood tall for us. The two points is what we needed and that’s what we got.”

Niall Crocker and Jacob Hoffrogge both had two points in the game with Crocker netting a goal and an assist while Hoffrogge potted himself a pair of helpers. Brayden Dube, Hayden Pakkala, and Ryder Ritchie were the other goal scorers for the Green and Gold while Krzysztof Macias, Sloan Stanick, Cole Peardon, and Aiden Oiring each collected assists.

For the Broncos, Clarke Caswell had a pair of points with a goal and assist while Tyson Laventure lit the lamp against his former team, along with Mathew Ward and Josh Fluker who also netted assists in the game.

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Between the pipes for the sixth game in a row for the Raiders was Chase Coward who made 19 saves to help Prince Albert improve to 8-5-0-1 on the campaign.

In goal for Swift Current was Joey Rocha who stopped 33 shots as the Broncos fall to 7-7-1-0 on the year.

COMPLETE BOX SCORE

The Raiders got the party started six minutes into the contest. A scrum behind the Bronco goal resulted with Macias coming away with the puck who attempted a wrap-around and was stopped by Rocha, but Dube was on the opposite side of the cage to put it home.

Prince Albert kept on the gas and a short time later, their efforts paid off again. Hoffrogge put the puck on net with a shot that took a bounce off Crocker and landed on his stick. He then batted the puck home to make it 2-0. The Raiders weren’t done as less than two minutes later, Crocker found Peardon along the boards who then fed a slot pass to Pakkala to finish off the nice play.

However, Swift Current broke the goose egg late in the frame when Ward connected with Caswell with a pretty pass making it 3-1 going into the second.

The Raiders would get their three-goal lead back midway through the second. While on the man-advantage, Oiring sent a cross ice pass to Ritchie who fired home his team-leading ninth of the season.

The Broncos would score to cap off the period when former Raider Laventure cut the lead back down to two heading into the third.

Although no goals were scored, the third period was still filled with action as tempers boiled over not once, but twice.

The first happened with just under ten minutes to play when Broncos forward Van Eger ran over Coward, who was okay following the incident and remained in the game. The ensuing line brawl resulted in five total ejections, three for Swift Current and two for Prince Albert.

(Mike Horn/Prince Albert Raiders)

The second happened with 31 seconds remaining on the clock when another Broncos forward, Caleb Wyrostok, was hit hard by Raiders captain Eric Johnston. The two both fell to the ice and got up simultaneously when Wyrostok then intentionally high-sticked Johnston in the face, resulting in another scrum with Harrison Lodewyk and Ryan McCleary dropping the gloves. As a result of the senseless play, Wyrostok was kicked out of the game and given a match penalty for intent to injure.

Harrison Lodewyk and Ryan McCleary drop the mitts. (Mike Horn/Prince Albert Raiders)

The Raiders would hang on for the 4-2 victory.

“We battled hard and we took care of each other when liberties were being taken,” said Truitt on his team’s performance. “Our guys responded, helped each other out that way – that’s a team effort and that’s good to see out of our guys that when things like that happen, our guys are responding. But I thought in the first period, I thought it should have been five or six nothing with some of the chances that we missed but it was a game that we needed to respond to and we did.”

Prince Albert is in action again on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Moose Jaw to take on the Warriors at 2:00 p.m.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com