Tikhon Chaika watches the puck go into the corner after turning the puck aside. (Mark Peterson Media)
Win Column

Chaika posts shutout to help lift Raiders past Hurricanes

Oct 5, 2022 | 10:31 PM

PRINCE ALBERT, SK – Tikhon Chaika was flawless in net on Wednesday night, helping guide the Prince Albert Raiders to a 3-0 win against the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the Art Hauser Centre.

The import netminder made 29 saves in the win to secure his first shutout of the new season as the Raiders improve to 2-3-1-0 on the campaign.

“My teammates make my work easy,” he said. “They were really good defensively and I owe it all to them and the preparation.”

Head coach Jeff Truitt said that he thought his team played well in the third and was happy about his teams no-quit effort.

“You win with a good goaltender and Chaika stood tall for us here tonight,” he said. “I thought we gave up a lot of turnovers that led to shots but we weathered the storm. We were still turning pucks over in the third but give our guys a lot of credit for grinding it out and being opportunistic scorers, which was key for us tonight.”

Despite the good third period, PA only managed two shots in the opening frame, something he wasn’t very fond of.

“In one word, it was awful,” he said. “It wasn’t acceptable. I mean again, it didn’t seem like we knew where we were going at times and (we were) surprising guys with passes and it shouldn’t happen. Turnovers led to it, soft plays. We can’t play that way.”

Landon Kosior netted himself a goal and an assist in the win while Carson Latimer and Keaton Sorensen also added third period markers. Sloan Stanick also had a two-point night, adding a pair of helpers in the third.

Lethbridge goalie Jared Picklyk stopped 17 of 19 shots as the Hurricanes now fall to 2-2-0-0 on the year.

COMPLETE BOX SCORE

The first and second periods came and went without anyone finding the back of the net, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any highlight reel plays in the first forty minutes.

Hurricanes goalie Picklyk had a few good stops in the first two periods, but it was Chaika who stole the show. He did his part to keep the Raiders in the contest by stopping multiple for-sure goals by flashing the leather and turning aside more than a handful of shots with the blocker.

Chaika’s stellar performance mixed with the pressure of the PA offence led to the games first goal while on the powerplay.

A Stanick shot was blocked in the slot but Latimer was there to pick up the puck and fire it past the clueless netminder to put the Raiders up by one.

The Hurricanes one-goal deficit would quickly become two not too long after. It all started with Stanick who put a Lethbridge defender in a spin cycle before attempting a wraparound. The puck bounced around infront for a second before Sorensen put it across the lead to extend the lead.

The Raiders would add a shorthanded empty-netter to seal the shutout victory, 3-0.

Prince Albert is on the road for the next three games and they will start the road trip on Friday night in Swift Current against the Broncos.

logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann

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