Raiders score early and often en route to 6-3 win over Tigers, knotting up WHL Eastern Final playoff

Prince Albert tied up its WHL Eastern Final Wednesday night, defeating Medicine Hat 6-3.

The Prince Albert Raiders pushed back hard Wednesday night, jumping out to an early lead and then hanging on to defeat the Medicine Hat Tigers 6-3 in front of more than 5,300 fans at Co-op Place.

The win tied the teams’ Western Hockey League Eastern Conference Final at two games apiece, with Game 5 back in Prince Albert Friday night.

Much of the damage Wednesday night was done by the middle of the second period, as the Raiders built a 5-1 lead on two goals from Daxon Rudoph and singles from Evan Smith, Aiden Oiring and Maddix McCagherty.

Medicine Hat got goals from Schaefer Gordon-Carroll and Ethan Neutens to make the score 5-2 after two periods, but Prince Albert got another from Max Heise nine minutes into the third made the score 6-2.

Gordon-Carroll added his second goal of the night with a little under five minutes remaining to complete the scoring.

Tiger goaltender Jordan Switzer was pulled in the second period after allowing four goals on 16 shots.

Carter Casey stopped 18 of 20 shots the rest of the way.

Michal Orsulak stopped 23 shots for Prince Albert to pick up the victory.

After the game, Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Dejardins said his team needs to play better.

“They’re a good hockey team. They play hard,” Dejardins said.

“For us it was good that we won Game 3,” he added. “It would have put us in a tough spot if we had lost both at home.

“We’ve played them enough. We know what to do. There’s no surprises when you play a team like this, you can’t make too many mistakes.

“I think we have to play a little bit better.”

Tickets for Game 6 at Co-op Place went on sale Thursday at noon.

Puck drop Friday in Prince Albert is scheduled for 7 p.m.