Raiders thrive in do or die, clinch WHL playoff berth

The Raiders celebrate a second goal from Keaton Sorensen (#20).

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Prince Albert Raiders centre Keaton Sorensen credited team business manager Michael Scissons for making sure the playoff party was on.

On Saturday night, the Raiders had just dumped the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings 5-1 to the delight of the standing room crowd of 2,935 spectators at the 2,580 Art Hauser Centre to close the regular season schedules for both clubs. The Raiders had done their part to take care of business to earn a WHL playoff berth.

With the Raiders victory finalized, they just needed the Winnipeg Ice to defeat the Pats at the Brandt Centre in Regina to clinch a post-season berth. The Ice were actually tabbed as the home team in Saturday’s regular season tilt with the Pats.

The Raiders celebrate their playoff berth clinching win.

That contest in Regina was originally scheduled to be played one day earlier in Winnipeg, but it was moved to the Pats home rink due to challenges with extreme weather conditions in the Winnipeg area.

Following the Raiders win on Saturday, captain Reece Vitelli was being presented with the team award for leading the Prince Albert squad in regular season scoring. Vitelli piled up 51 points on 25 goals and 26 assists in 65 appearances with the club.

Reece Vitelli, right, receives the Raiders top scorer trophy.

On the Raiders bench, Scissons was monitoring video of the end of the game between the Ice and the Raiders on his mobile phone. The Raiders saw Winnipeg star centre Matthew Savoie score into an empty net with less than 40 second to play to cement a 6-4 final in favour of the Ice and that meant for “Hockey Town North” the party was on.

“(Raiders business manager Michael) Scissons there had the game open on his phone,” said Sorensen, who had two goals and was a plus-three in the plus-minus department in the Raiders win. “I think we saw Winnipeg score the empty netter there to make it 6-4.

“The boys were all fired up on the bench.”

Evan Herman scored twice for the Raiders on Saturday.

The Raiders whooped it up as they headed to their dressing room. Having bested the Broncos in Swift Current 4-1 on Friday night, the Raiders had won basically two straight do or die games to improve to 28-35-4-1 to lock up eighth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and clinch the conference’s final playoff berth.

“It is awesome,” said Sorensen. “It is what we work for all year - all the hard work.

“It has all paid off to get there, and now we have to carry it on to the playoffs.”

The last time a WHL playoffs were held the Raiders took the title back in 2019. The WHL post-seasons in 2020 and 2021 were nixed due to challenges associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

Sloan Stanick had two assist for the Raiders on Saturday.

Star right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt is the only member on the Raiders current roster who played as a main roster player on the 2019 WHL title winning team, and he is out for the rest of the campaign due to an upper body injury. All the players current suiting up for the Raiders in games didn’t play for the club in the 2018-19 campaign outside of left-winger Evan Herman, who skated in three regular season contests, and standout defenceman Nolan Allan, who played in seven regular season games.

“We’re a team that everyone has to pitch in,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid, who has the fifth most regular season coaching wins in WHL history. “We had some different games and different guys stepping up.

The Art Hauser Centre faithful cheer a Raiders goal.

“We just found a way. That is what we have been doing all year. Beginning of the year was tough.

“We’re in a point of transition and weren’t very good for a while. Playoffs seemed like a distant dream I guess for us, but Raider pride. No matter what, we expect to win, and we found a way in.”

Saturday’s game with the Wheat Kings got off to a tight checking start where the Raiders held a slim 2-1 edge in shots on goal after the first 10 minutes of the contest.

Shortly after the middle part of the frame, Raiders right-winger Carson Latimer blew down the right, slipped past a defenceman and tried to go five-hole on Wheat Kings rookie netminder Carson Bjarnason. Bjarnason swallowed up the shot to deny the scoring chance.

Landon Kosior controls the puck in the offensive zone for the Raiders.

At the 11:31 mark of the opening frame, the Raiders broke through on the scoreboard. Raiders Right-winger Sloan Stanick broke down the right wing on a rush and passed the puck across the face of the Brandon goal to Herman, who popped home his 27^th goal of the season to give the hosts a 1-0.

Herman said the opening tally got the Raiders in a confident groove but added the fans kept the excitement level high for the players.

“I think in front of these fans there is no settling down,” said Herman. “They are the sixth and seventh player on the ice.

Tikhon Chaika made 19 saves for the Raiders on Saturday.

“We got that first one, and I think it was just a little bit of a breather for us to settle down and get our feet under us to play the way we have to play to get the win.”

The open frame did have its physical moments too including Wheat Kings left-winger Brett Hylund crunching Latimer into the boards behind the Brandon goal late in the period.

At the 7:42 mark of the second, the Raiders pushed their lead out to 2-0 on a great individual effort by Herman. The product of The Pas, Man., blew down the left wing getting behind all five Brandon skaters.

Herman cut across the front of the Wheat Kings goal and tucked home his second tally of the night. After the puck went in, Herman contacted Bjarnason and the netminder’s head hit the post of the goal.

Keaton Sorensen scored twice for the Raiders on Saturday.

The speedy forward received a minor for goaltender interference on the play. Herman’s goal went to a video review, and it was upheld as good.

Bjarnason was helped off the ice by the Brandon training staff and didn’t return to the game. He turned away 12-of-14 shots to take the setback in the Wheat Kings net. Star overage goaltender Ethan Kruger played the rest of the way for the Wheat Kings turning away 17-of-20 shots set his way.

Herman wanted to avoid contacting Bjarnason when he scored his second goal.

Carson Latimer scored in the third period for the Raiders.

“I was just trying to use my speed to get the puck to the net,” said Herman, who posted 28 goals and 18 assists appearing all of the Raiders 68 games. “That was unfortunate whatever happened, happened.”

Habscheid said Herman’s play has been important in helping the Raiders make the playoffs.

“He has been good,” said Habscheid. “He really has been.

Evan Herman celebrates scoring his second goal for the Raiders.

“He was around for the (2019 WHL Championship) year. He didn’t play, but he was around. He saw what was going on in the building and the culture inside the room.

“He is a key guy, because he knows what it is all about. He didn’t play, but he knew what it was all about and dragged the guys into the fight.”

Just 88 seconds after the Raiders went up 2-0, they were checking hard on the penalty kill, and one of the Wheat Kings fanned on a point shot and the puck slid to the blue-line. Sorensen jumped on the loose puck and sped down the right wing on a two-on-one short-handed break.

Chad Nychuk controls the puck in the D-zone for the Wheat Kings.

Sorensen reached the right faceoff circle in the Brandon zone and snapped home his first goal of the contest stick side on Kruger to put the Raiders up 3-0 on the short-handed tally.

“Everybody on the penalty kill there was being aggressive,” said Sorensen. “Everybody was doing their job.

“I guess the puck kind of squirted out. I pounced on it or something. I guess I got a two-on-one there, and I didn’t really see the pass across.

“I just gave it a shot, and it went in.”

The Wheat Kings stopped the bleeding for a bit just over two minutes later. Wheat Kings left-winger Brett Hyland collected a rebound at the left side of the Prince Albert net from a shot taken by linemate Jake Chiasson and fired home his 13^th marker of the season to cut the Raiders lead to 3-1.

Vladislav Shilo had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

The Raiders proceeded to put the pedal to the medal and sealed victory in the third. The host side went up 4-1 at the 4:14 mark of the third, when import rookie left-winger Vladislav Shilo passed a puck from the right boards across the face the Brandon goal and the pass was tipped home by Latimer.

Sorensen rounded out the game’s scoring potting home a loose puck in the crease of the Brandon goal for his second tally of the night to increase the Raiders advantage to 5-1 with 4:05 remaining in the frame.

The final 10 minutes of the third period got fairly feisty and chippy, but the extracurricular action didn’t change the outcome of the game.

Import rookie netminder Tikhon Chaika made 19 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Stanick and Shilo each had two assists for the Raiders.

Dallyn Peekeekoot played a high energy game for the Raiders.

The Wheat Kings, who finish sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 35-28-3-2 mark, now face the Red Deer Rebels, who placed third in the Eastern Conference with a 45-19-2-2 record, in a best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series. Game 1 is set for this coming Friday at 1 p.m. at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer.

The Raiders will the Ice in a best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series. The Ice topped the WHL with a 53-10-3-2 record, so the Prince Albert side will be sizable underdogs in that series.

Game 1 is set for this coming Friday at 7 p.m. local time at the Wayne Fleming Arena in Winnipeg.

“That is what we’ve been striving for all year,” said Herman about making the WHL playoffs. “Now that it is finally here, I think the energy in the room right now is pretty cool.

The Raiders salute their faithful at the Art Hauser Centre.

“We work so hard all year just to get to this point. Now we’re gearing up and looking forward to getting going and making a good run here.”

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