The Prince Albert Raiders and Edmonton Oil Kings met for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final the Art Hauser Centre this past weekend.
The Raiders were looking to take a 2-0 lead for the third-straight series, but it didn’t turn out that way.
Prince Albert got their first taste of overtime playoff action on April 20, which happened to be their first loss on home ice in the 2019 Western Hockey League (WHL) playoffs as Jake Neighbours lifted the Oil Kings to a 4-3 victory.
“Any shot’s a good shot and we had multiple chances and they threw it at the net and it went in so that’s the way it goes in the game,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said.
“You just have to feel sorry for yourself for a few hours here and then tomorrow’s another day.”
The Raiders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Oil Kings climbed back into the game before the end of the first period on a pair of power-play goals.
“We had the game by the throat there at the start but it’s early so we got to keep pressing and find a way to not take penalties,” Raiders captain Brayden Pachal said.
“We got to find a way to block those shots coming from the point and move guys in front of (Scott Ian) so he can see it.”
“You’re going to have little corrections from game to game, just like they are, and we made some adjustments. We were able to capitalize on the first two power plays and it was important for us,” Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer said.
The Raiders are a confident group heading to Edmonton, where they went 2-0 in the regular season.
“We’re confident going into Edmonton and we feel we can win in that building and we’ve done so. We just got to play our game when we get there,” Raiders forward Jakob Brook said.
Games 3 and 4 are at Rogers Place on April 23 and 24 before the seven-game series comes back to Art Hauser Centre for Game 5 on April 26.