Noah Gregor has been a dominate force for the Raiders. (Vincent Ethier/CHL Images.)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Noah Gre-goal

In Noah we trust

May 21, 2019 | 12:01 PM

HALIFAX—The Prince Albert Raiders may find themselves in a do-or-die, 0-2 situation at the 2019 Memorial Cup Presented by Kia, but it certainly isn’t because of Noah Gregor. If anything, Gregor’s offensive production has helped keep games within reach.

The Raiders have scored four goals through their first two games of the Memorial Cup, and Gregor has been a part of all of them. He’s scored twice and had helpers on the other two goals.

In fact, if you go back to the 2019 Rogers WHL Championship Series, Gregor has contributed on each of the Raiders’ seven goals scored in the past three games. In Game 7 against the Vancouver Giants, Gregor scored both of the Raiders’ goals in regulation and then got the primary assist on Dante Hannoun’s historic overtime game-winner.

“Right now, Noah’s feeling it,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said. “He’s quick, he’s fast and he’s really dynamic. He’s added a lot to our team. He’s feeling it right now. I thought their whole line played good.”

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Before the Raiders were even sure if Gregor would play in the WHL this season, his rights were acquired from the Victoria Royals in an offseason trade. That gamble paid off as Gregor was sent back to the WHL by the NHL organization that drafted him, the San Jose Sharks.

Gregor finished the regular season with 43 goals and 88 points in 63 games, and added 13 goals and 24 points in 23 playoff contests. On Monday, despite a 6-3 defeat to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, Gregor was named as the game’s first star with a goal and two assists.

But Gregor isn’t looking for three stars right now, he’s looking for victories. Habscheid said he wanted to see the ‘real Raiders’ show up for Monday’s game. Gregor said they were there for most of the contest, but not all of it.

“It was definitely encouraging that we can play that way and we showed it for a lot of the game. But we still didn’t bring it enough to get the win. It’s there, but we have to bring it [against Guelph],” Gregor said.

Stormy night

With the Raiders sitting at 0-1, the team will need a victory against the Guelph Storm (1-1) on Tuesday at 5 p.m. (CST) to keep their Memorial Cup hopes alive.

There are three scenarios the Raiders can go through right now. If they beat the Storm, and the Huskies beat the hosting Halifax Mooseheads on Wednesday, then the Raiders would play a tiebreaker game against the Storm on Thursday.

If the Raiders beat the Storm, and the Mooseheads defeat the Huskies, then there would be a three-way tiebreaker between the Raiders, the Storm and the Huskies as all three teams would sit at 1-2. Here’s an in-depth look at how the three-way tiebreaker works.

But if the Raiders lose, then they are eliminated from the tournament.

Dub Curse

WHL champions have combined for a 12-game losing streak at the Memorial Cup. The last game a Dub champion won was on May 29, 2015 when the Kelowna Rockets beat the Quebec Remparts 9-3 to advance to the finals that year. The Rockets then lost in the finals against the Oshawa Generals 2-1 in overtime on May 31.

Since then, the Brandon Wheat Kings went 0-2-1 in 2016, the Seattle Thunderbirds were 0-3 in 2017, the Swift Current Broncos were 0-2-1 in 2018 and the Raiders have started this year 0-2.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW