All you need to know about the Prince Albert Raiders' loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday evening can be encapsulated in a handful of numbers.
Four, 4-3 and the ugly one, 10-4.
Warriors defenceman Morgan Rielly scored twice and added an assist in his team's 4-3 victory at the Art Hauser Centre, giving him four goals on the week against the Raiders after a two-goal performance on Tuesday in Moose Jaw.
But it was the other number that will give Raiders coach Steve Young sleepless nights thinking about Saturday's two lost points that cost them first place.
After building a 3-0 lead in the first half of the game, a steady succession of penalties ultimately cost the Raiders. They gave up 10 powerplay chances while only drawing four.
The Raiders coach was careful with his words after the game.
"We have to be a disciplined hockey club," Young said. "We can't let things get out of hand."
He declined to comment on the quality of the penalties, which seemed to include some head scratchers.
It didn't start badly for Young's team.
Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring 11:20 into the first period when he broke in alone after a lovely pass from Dakota Conroy. He kicked the puck from his back skate to his stick and fired the puck through Moose Jaw goaltender Justin Paulic's legs.
Near the end of the first, Chance Braid added to the momentum with a vicious left hand that quickly ended a fight with Warriors defenceman Tyler Bell.
The Raiders extended their lead to 3-0 on a pair of goals by Jayden Hart. He scored his first 3:30 in the second period.
He won't get many easier ones than at 6:07 on the powerplay, when Paulic lay helplessly on the ice as Hart fired the puck into an open net.
"I thought we had good momentum going as a hockey club five on five," Young said. "The score was 3-1; if you keep that momentum going, you've got a better opportunity to win."
The Warriors got on the board at 15:25 of the second on a mixup between defenceman that left Brandon Potomak all alone in front of Raiders netminder Andy Desautels.
Rielly said the Warriors' first goal, which was scored by their third line, was key for his team.
"That was huge," he said. "We got a greasy one and I think after that we got a spark and played a bit better. I think it's huge when you have guys stepping up like that."
Thirty seconds later, Anthony Bardaro took the third of his four minor penalties. The team took seven in the last 24 minutes.
While that penalty kill disappeared soon after when Warriors forward Sam Fioretti took a minor, the worst was yet to come.
Bardaro was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, which was followed 22 seconds later by Mike Winther's delay of game call for putting his glove on the puck along the boards near centre ice.
The Warriors capitalized on the five-on-three powerplay with 28 seconds left in the period on a rebound goal by Rielly.
The Toronto first rounder scored his second powerplay goal of the game 5:15 into the third with a point shot that got past a screened Desautels.
Moose Jaw completed the comeback with another five-on-three powerplay goal, this one after Fioretti batted the puck at the side of the net off the pad of a diving Desautels. The game winner came at 11:15.
"It's hard to play shorthanded all game," Hart said. "I thought we battled pretty hard."
If there was one silver lining for the Raiders, it was a solid WHL debut for Gage Quinney, the Las Vegas product who the team called up for a few days. Although Quinney had less ice later after the game turned into a special teams battle, Young liked what he saw.
"I was happy with him," Young said. "I thought he did some good things with the puck and I thought he worked hard. For only being with us for two days, I thought he understood our structure pretty good too."
ICINGS: Moose Jaw outshot Prince 35-34 ... Riley Guenther, Joey Santucci, Tim Vanstone, and Austin Daae sat for the Raiders ... The teams finish their season series when they meet in Moose Jaw on Feb . 26 ... To make matters worse, the Saskatoon Blades rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to win 4-3 in Medicine Hat on Saturday. That put the Blades up two points in the standings, knocking the Raiders out of the top spot for the first time since September ... The Warriors scored three powerplay goals on 10 chances while the Raiders had one in four ... The Raiders next play on Wednesday when they visit Medicine Hat ... The attendance was 2,755 ...
