Letter of Marque
Can’t Fight Their Demons
Article written by french sport journalist Evok
S35G35

<div align="center">Prince George Firebirds 4 || Halifax Raiders 0</div>

The next Raiders game was finally at home, after a 4 matches road trip. The players had the opportunity the sleep in their own bed and wind out a little. However, they quickly had to prepare for the next game that would oppose them to the Prince George Firebirds. An early skate and some video reviews and they were ready.

The game didn’t start like Halifax would have liked. Barely more than a minute into the game, Lucas VanDenBroek managed to beat the Raiders’ back up goaltender Larry Enticer right over the shoulder. It took another two minutes before the Firebirds scored again when Jay Beagle Jr. scored his 4th of the season. The Raiders were now 2-0 in the game, but toward the 7th minutes mark, they had a great opportunity. Arthur Dayne was punished for roughing against Cloud McCarthy. Unfortunately for them, Halifax faced a wall at defense and didn’t even manage to shot on the goal during that time. After that, the Raiders started to get undisciplined. The first one was Dwayne Wyder who was punished for roughing at 12 minutes into the match. They managed to kill the penalty, but as soon as Wyder got out of the box, it was Kevin St. Lauren’s turn to go into the sin bin for Slashing. To finish, with 2 minutes 30 seconds remaining into the period, Montek Ramrap was given a 2 minutes for hooking. The penalty kill unit of the Raiders performed properly during those penalty and Enticer stayed solide. After the first 20 minutes, the Firebirds had tested Enticer 16 times already while the Raiders only managed to shot twice on Artom Zhumbayev.

During the second period, the play was clearly in favor of the Firebirds. First of all, Kristy O’Sullivan managed to deflect a shot by Xander Green which manage to slip pass Entier. The Coach's speech during the intermission didn’t manage to calm the Raiders’ play and they managed to get again some bad penalties. 11 minutes into the period, Chuck Bernstein was sent to the penalty box for hooking and the penalty kill unit was sent on the ice. They managed to keep the Prince George offensive at bay, but still faced more shots that they wanted. Toward the end of the period, Ramrap was sent once again in the penalty box for a hooking call. During the remaining time, the Firebirds didn’t manage to cash on the man advantage. During the period, the Raiders only managed to get 2 shots on the Firebirds net while they faced 14.

The last leg of the game was once again clearly in favor of the Firebirds, outshooting the Raiders 10-3. It started with King Hanley who deflected a shot by Arthur Heikki right under the glove of Enticer. The Firebirds now had a 4 goals lead on the Raiders, setting the game almost out of reach with 15 minutes remaining in the period. What really put the game out of reach was when Hans Sørensen was punished for tripping around 15 minutes into the last period. This was the 6th penalty in the game for Halifax which put a big dent on their offensive. With the Raiders on the penalty kill for the 2 of the last 5 minutes of the game, they didn’t manage to get even one goal in the game and were faced with a shutout in favor of the Firebirds.

The unsung hero of the match for the Raiders was Trucker Grogan. The big defenseman was a juggernaut on the ice, blocking 2 shots and delivering 3 hits. No one on the raiders managed to score so it’s not surprising that Grogan didn’t get a point during his 23 minutes on the ice.