Christian Miller knew. 

As soon as he saw a centering pass deflect off the side of the Delano net and slide into the high slot, Miller’s hips twisted, his shoulders rose, and he made sure to follow through with his hands. 

“Right when I saw it, I was thinking slap shot,” Miller said after the game of the sequence. “There was a lot of people in front of the net,” Miller added. “Luckily the puck went in.”

Miller’s bomb did go in, rocketing past the Greenway forwards screening Delano goaltender Aaron Kruse and the Tiger defenders desperately trying to force the Raiders out of Kruse’s way, giving the No. 4 seed Raiders a 5-4 lead in Wednesday night’s 6-4 win over the Tigers. 

Miller’s goal capped a four-goal comeback that featured five different scorers for the Raiders (16-13), who rebounded nicely after going down 3-1 early to the Tigers. 

“Going into the locker room with a positive attitude and hitting the ice with an even more positive attitude,” senior forward Donte Lawson said about the Raiders’ ability to bounce back. “We knew what we had to do, and that’s what we did.”

Part of the plan for the latter half of the game included launching any shot and every shot from the point, peppering Kruse with pucks and digging for rebounds when possible. 

“Greenway did an excellent job getting pucks through from the point,” Delano coach Gerrit van Bergen said, adding that the Raiders found the Tiger net from the blue line better than any opponent his team has faced this season. “Their forwards are relentless around the net to create traffic, to get sticks on pucks,” van Bergen continued. “Tonight we had trouble getting in front of pucks, and that’s who we are (as a team).”

Kory Dunnigan, Jack Keranen, and Tommy Peterson all scored in the first period for the fifth-seeded Tigers (17-10-2), with a goal from Greenway’s Micah Gernander sandwiched between Keranen and Peterson’s tallies. 

Lawson and Ben Troumbly scored in the second for the Raiders using their positive vibes to their advantage after the break. 

“I don’t think we’re out of any game at any time because they have that killer instinct, they just keep going,” Clafton said. “That’s a testament to our whole crew in our locker room.”