With a chance to sweep their first-round playoff series, the Winnipeg Ice offence, which scored 10 goals on Tuesday night, was instead ice-cold on Wednesday.
The Ice fell 3-1 to the Prince Albert Raiders in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series and the Raiders are still alive, cutting the series deficit to 3-1.
It was a far cry from the 10-1 drubbing the Ice delivered to Prince Albert in Game 3.
After neither team scored in the first, Prince Albert’s Remy Aquilon opened the scoring 1:53 into the middle frame on a powerplay, giving the Raiders their first lead of the series.
It would stay that way until early in the third when Eric Johnston scored what would turn out to be the game-winner to put Prince Albert up a pair.
Winnipeg wouldn’t break the goose egg until the 18:51 mark of the third period when Mikey Milne scored his fourth of the series, but the Raiders added an empty-netter just 19 seconds later from Sloan Sanick.
READ MORE: Ice crush Raiders 10-1 to take 3-0 series lead
Matthew Savoie, who returned from injury after missing the last two games, added an assist for the Ice.
Ice coach James Patrick said his team got too cute at times offensively.
“I thought we had some point-blank looks and we were passing off the back side,” Patrick said. “Once they got the two goal-lead, they just lined four guys up on the blueline and we didn’t do a good enough job of getting pucks in.”
Winnipeg goalie Daniel Hauser made 20 saves in the loss.
Ice defenceman Carson Lambos said it was an example of a desperate Prince Albert team fighting to save their season.
“They weren’t going to roll over without a fight and we know how hard they can be to play in this building and that’s what we got tonight,” said Lambos.
“We went chin-to-chin with them and they ended up getting a couple of bounces and that was the difference.”
The Ice will have another chance to wrap up the series Friday night in Winnipeg as Game 5 takes place at the Wayne Fleming Arena with the puck dropping just after 7 p.m.
In other WHL playoff action, the Brandon Wheat Kings evened their series with the Red Deer Rebels at two after a 3-1 win Wednesday.
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