Raiders 3 Rebels 0 (Prince Albert leads best-of-seven series 1-0)
It was all Prince Albert in the opener.
The Raiders, in front of a packed house at the Art Hauser Centre, showed why they were the top team in the WHL from start to finish in the regular season.
In the opening game of the best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference quarterfinal, Prince Albert was better than the Red Deer Rebels in every area from the outset.
“We were at the fight, but we weren’t in the fight,” said Rebels assistant coach Brad Flynn.
“We would get to pucks but we didn’t compete as hard as we should have and as hard as we talked about we needed to, to be successful against this team. Obviously, everybody knows where PA finished in the standings. If they are a grittier, more physical and harder working team than us, then it’s not a good recipe for our success.”
Prince Albert made it look easy and took a 1-0 series lead with a dominant 3-0 win Friday, limiting the Rebels scoring opportunities throughout the game and capitalizing on their own.
Ian Scott, who had as many regulation losses this season as he did shutouts, posted 21 saves for his first career WHL playoff shutout.
“It was a good game. That’s exactly what we were expecting coming into the first game of playoffs. It was emotional, fast and hard-hitting,” said Scott.
“We were playing well defensively. Real structured. The buy-in to block shots was huge. Numerous guys getting in the lane.”
Despite being outshot 12-5 in the opening frame, it was a decent road period for the Rebels until one misstep cost them with less than a minute left.
A failed clearing attempt led to Alexi Protas feathering a pass past two Rebels’ defenders right onto the tape of Dante Hannoun, who had an easy tap-in past Ethan Anders. The tally came with just 32 seconds left in the first.
“You don’t like giving up a goal in the last minute, obviously. It’s a tough goal to give up. You gotta have a short memory and be refocused for the second. We came out in the second and we got some momentum,” added Flynn.
That momentum lasted until midway through the period when Prince Albert padded the lead. A point shot from Brayden Pachal got through traffic and after Anders made the initial save, Ozzy Wiesblatt got loose and buried his first career WHL playoff goal.
Other than a few chances on the power play, the Rebels inability to generate much offensively caught up to them late in the second. Raiders overage forward Sean Montgomery was left uncovered in front of the Red Deer net and deposited a nice pass from Justin Nachbaur that made it 3-0.
Red Deer was outshot 27-14 through two periods.
After only four shots in the third period, the Rebels pulled their goalie for the final two and a half minutes but were unable to solve Scott.
“In the third, we only gave up one shot. We were in the battle a little bit more but we need that for 60 minutes,” Flynn said.
The three stars were Ian Scott (1), Ozzy Wiesblatt (2) and Zack Hayes (3).
Game 2 goes Saturday in Prince Albert, before the series shifts to Red Deer. Game 3 is Tuesday at the Centrium with puck drop set for 7 p.m. and Game 4 is Wednesday.
With files from Lucas Punkari/ Prince Albert Daily Herald