Even without their leading scorer, the Winnipeg Ice closed out the weekend at Wayne Fleming arena like they have for much of the Western Hockey League season: Winning.
Saturday’s victory over the Prince Albert Raiders was much more lopsided than their 3-1 win on Friday. When combined with that victory, it gave the Ice a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.
The Ice tallied goals from five different goal scorers in a 5-2 victory.
It didn’t take the Ice long to get on the scoresheet.
Carson Lambos shuffled a pass across the blueline to Nolan Orzeck and the defenceman fired a wrister past Raiders’ goaltender Tikhon Chaika. The Ice 1-0 lead came just before the midway mark of the opening period.
Minutes later, Lambos began another eventual scoring play. Breaking up a Raiders pass, Lambos gave to Jakin Smallwood who put one through Chaika’s five-hole. 2-0 home team.
Prince Albert slowed Winnipeg’s momentum less than two minutes later. Landon Kosior slipped one by Daniel Hauser for his first of the playoffs.
The Ice got the last laugh in the first period though — with only four seconds left on the clock.
Owen Pederson notched his second goal of the playoffs, tipping a point shot that came off the stick of Ben Zloty. That gave Winnipeg a two-goal lead heading into the locker room.
Zach Benson added to Winnipeg’s lead just 2:10 into the second period.
Benson raced around the Prince Albert net and fired a wrist shot past Chaika from a terrible angle. Carson Lambos started the play once again, collecting his third helper of the night.
Shortly after the 4-1 goal, Conor Geekie picked up a loose puck off the far boards in the neutral zone and split the Raider defence to make it 5-1.
Both teams engaged in numerous scrums after the whistle throughout the first two periods.
Zach Benson and Jack Finley were most notably involved for the Ice.
The second period buzzer sounded as Winnipeg was outshooting Prince Albert 25-13.
Reece Vitelli found the scoresheet early in the third period for Prince Albert, scoring for the second time during postseason. That put a bow on the scoring for rest of the game.
The series shifts to Prince Albert on Tuesday for game 3 at 7 p.m. central time.
Game 4 goes on Wednesday night.
If a game 5 is necessary, it’ll take place at the University of Manitoba on Friday at 7 o’clock.
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