Raiders return from Christmas break with dominant win in Swift Current

The Prince Albert Raiders came back from the Christmas break without missing a beat.

The Raiders traveled to Swift Current and dominated the Swift Current Broncos 7-1 at the InnovationPlex,

Prince Albert led 3-1 after the first period and 5-1 after the second period.

Raiders’ head coach Ryan McDonald was pleased with the work fi the players in the first game back.

“Yeah a fantastic 60 minute effort, again just played very simple,  played very direct, played where we could take advantage of our opportunities,”  McDonald said.

McDonald said he was happy with the effort from all four lines and the defensive pairing.

“We were very efficient getting pucks out of our zone and took advantage of our opportunities in our offensive zone,” McDonald said.

“We created motion with them and again our guys did a tremendous job and fantastic looks at the net that the guys could capitalize on and a lot of goals came off of pretty foundational plays, zone forechecks, putting pucks on the net and finding those second opportunities,” he explained.

Daxon Rudolph got his first of two in the game to open the scoring for the Raiders 5:08 into the game. Brayden Dube made it 2-0 just over a minute later for the Raiders.

Trae Wilke scored the Broncos’ lone goal at 10:35 of the first period.

Prince Albert continued to roll as Riley Boychuck scored on a power play goal at 19:02 of the  first period.

Alisher Sarkenov added another Raiders goal at 17:03 of the second period, Rudolph added his second at 19;41 of the second period. McDonald said Rudolph showed his whole skill set in the game.

“Again just doing what Daxon does out there being very steady defensively and you saw he just toys with his offensive ability, the goal where he goes short side off of a great screen with a tremendous shot, the wy he moves pucks, the way he gets pucks going is awesome,”

In the third period Maddix McGagherty scored for the Raiders when Broncos goaltender Joey Rocha thought he had a rebound covered but McGagherty snagged the puck and put it past Rocha.

“Again that is we were extremely hungry, that one is just stick around the net after a great play to get it there and that never give and just stick it in to poke until it got in,”

Linden Burrett sealed the game for the Raiders with a goal at 11:09 of the third period.

The Raiders went one for tow on the power play while the Broncos went zero for five.

Dmitri Fortin made 17 saves for the Raiders and Rocha made 47 saves for Swift Current.

McDonald said the Raiders looked recharged after having the Christmas break in practice and on the ice Saturday.

“We had a good break where guys were able to get home and see their family and friends and rest and recharge and come back,We thought our first practice back last night was very snappy, crispy and we had guys that were ready and guys had a lot of energy and looked fantastic and you could see that today,” McDonald said.

The two teams meet again Monday at the Art Hauser Centre, puck drop is 7 p.m.

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