We head back to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan for Game 5 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship and it’s still anybody’s series. It’s 2-2 after both teams would split on the road. Carter Souch would draw into the lineup for the first time since Game 3 of the 2nd round. Will he be a difference maker? Only time will tell.
No surprises in goaltending. Myskiw vs Scott
Period 1
Edmonton would start the period all over the Raiders as they played a perfect first 10 minutes for a road start. Scott would make a couple good saves turning the Oil Kings away and keeping the game tied at 0-0.
Prince Albert would get the first opportunity in the game on the powerplay after a Parker Gavlas tripping minor at 10:02. They would make the Oil Kings pay. Aliaksei Protas would put one past Myskiw and give the Raiders a 1-0 lead early in Game 5.
They wouldn’t stop there, six minutes later Aliaksei Protas would literally slide another one past Myskiw as it looked like Myskiw fanned on playing it with his stick and it slid between his legs, the puck never left the ice from beyond the slot. Myskiw’s first big error of the series. Raiders sitting comfortably up 2-0 into the first intermission.
Period 2
Raiders come out in the second period simply looking like the better team, the majority of the first 10 minutes have been inside the Oil Kings end. It doesn’t help that the Oil Kings took a penalty 3 minutes in. Scott Atkinson also for tripping. Very hard to gain any momentum on the road when you’re handing powerplays over on stick infractions. Edmonton needs to be better.
It’s good to see the referees haven’t improved from Game 4. There weren’t any more details to recap in the second period. Back and forth both teams with no real good shots on net.
I’m going to take this time to rant. I’m all for letting the teams play and not calling the normal stuff that you would in the regular season. However, when it gets to the point where a players safety is affected and the cross checks and elbows start becoming dirty. It’s time to start calling them, it’s quite possible to call more than a stick infraction in the playoffs.
Period 3
Edmonton needs to get it going in the third, they don’t have any powerplays, that’s something they need to change. They have to start generating pressure in Prince Albert’s end so they can force Prince Albert to make mistakes and take penalties.
Edmonton comes out into the third period and it sure didn’t look they were trying to blow the doors off the barn. In a very important Game 5, the Oil Kings fell behind early and just… stayed there. The Oil Kings were only able to get 5 shots in both the second and third period. Not very good for a team that might get eliminated on Sunday now.
5:22 into the third period. Brett Leason extends the Raiders lead pushing the game to pretty much an unreachable level for the Raiders. 3-0 Prince Albert with under 15 minutes left in the game. They would finish off the game by putting a nail in the coffin.
Aliaksei Protas would complete the hat trick with 25 seconds left in the game, giving the Raiders a 4-0 lead and eventual win.
Three Stars of the Game:
3rd – Ian Scott 
2nd – Brett Leason
1st – Aliaksei Protas
