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| Harrison Meneghin, left, and Max Hildebrand embrace. |
The Raiders had just seen their 2024-25 campaign come to an end after being blanked by the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 3-0 in Game 4 of a best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series. The victory allowed the Tigers to sweep the set 4-0.
That contest saw Raiders star 20-year-old netminder Max Hildebrand depart with one last gem seen by the standing room crowd of 3,208 spectators at the 2,591 seat facility. He was sensational making 54 saves keeping the Raiders in that contest. The truth in the WHL is most players end their careers with a loss, but Hildebrand added the exclamation point on a memorable campaign.
Hildebrand had a spectacular regular season posting a 33-16-5 mark, a 2.87 goals against average, a .918 save percentage and three shutouts. In the Raiders 11 games in the post-season, he posted a 3.05 goals against average, a .919 save percentage and one shutout.
Thanks to his work in the regular season, Hildebrand is a nominee for the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy as the WHL player of the year, the Del Wilson Memorial Trophy as WHL goaltender of the year and the Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s humanitarian of the year. In the history of the Raiders dating back to their start in junior A in 1971, Hildebrand had one of the best seasons a Raiders goalie ever had.
This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.
