Hildebrand’s last stand – netminder makes 54 saves as Raiders season comes to a close

Tigers advance with 3-0 win in Game 4 to sweep series

Harrison Meneghin, left, and Max Hildebrand embrace.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Max Hildebrand went out in a blaze of glory.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to help his Prince Albert Raiders keep their 2024-25 campaign alive. The Raiders 20-year-old star netminder had a spectacular end to his WHL career stopping 54 shots before a standing room crowd of 3,208 spectators at the 2,591 seat storied and historic Art Hauser Centre on Thursday night.

The Raiders ultimately got overwhelmed by the speed and the skill of the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers and fell 3-0 in Game 4 of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Tigers were able to sweep the series with the victory 4-0. They will play the winner of the other Eastern Conference semifinal that is currently tied 2-2 between the Calgary Hitmen and Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Max Hildebrand leads the Raiders on to the ice.

While the Tigers celebrated advancing to the Eastern Conference Championship Series for the first time since 2014, Hildebrand turned out one of the best goaltending performances this season in the WHL. Raiders interim head coach Ryan McDonald was not surprised to see Hildebrand come up with another big game.

“He (Hildebrand) is the ultimate competitor,” said McDonald. “I’ve been working with Max for four years watching his work ethic and his attention to detail.

“He is a tremendous teammate and a tremendous leader. He is a Raider through and through. His battle out there and his compete are second to none.”

Max Hildebrand makes one of his 54 saves for the Raiders.

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. Legendary Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said Hildebrand definitely made things tough on his team.

Max Hildebrand had a sensation 2024-25 campaign for the Raiders.

“He (Hildebrand) was unbelievable tonight, and he has been unbelievable through the playoffs,” said Desjardins, who club took Game 3 of the series one night earlier 6-1. “I think he was a guy that got caught a little bit too.

“He played so much, and I think he was a little bit tired. But saying that, he rebounded hard after Game 3. Playing Game 4, he was unbelievable.

“He is a great goaltender. Obviously, he is up for player of the year and goalie of the year. It was good for us to find a way though.”

Tigers overage captain Oasiz Wiesblatt said his team had to keep getting as many shots on goal as they could on Hildebrand in order to get the goals they needed. Wiesblatt said you have to give Hildebrand credit for how well he played.

Max Hildebrand, centre, is consoled at game’s end.

“He was red-hot fire the whole series,” said Wiesblatt. “When you play a goalie like that, I think you just have to contest and put pressure on him.

“I thought he did a great job holding P.A. in the series. You kind of just have to keep attacking and not settle down. I thought we did a good job.”

The Hildebrand show hit top gear out of the game keeping the contest scoreless after 20 minutes, where the Tigers outshot the Raiders 17-6 in the opening frame. Hildebrand turned away Tigers star right-winger Ryder Ritchie with a pad save, swallowed up a shot by star defenceman Tanner Molendyk who attempted a between the legs shot and denied Ritchie again with a glove stop.

“Obviously, their goalie is unbelievable,” said Molendyk. “He is the backbone to their team.

“We were told to get pucks on net, and I think we did a good job of that.”

Tanner Molendyk (#24) had the Tigers first goal on Thursday.

The Tigers broke through on the scoreboard at the 4:03 mark of the second. While working on the power play, Molendyk floated a seeing-eye shot from the left point to the top right corner of the Prince Albert net to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

Tigers superstar left-winger Gavin McKenna picked up an assist on Molendyk’s tally. With that helper, McKenna now has recorded points in his last 49 consecutive games including action in the regular season and post-season.

At the 10:40 mark of the second, Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt fired a shot from the right wing boards to the top left corner of the Prince Albert goal to push the visitors’ edge out to 2-0. Wiesblatt’s tally was his 10^th of the post-season.

Oasiz Wiesblatt had one goal and one assist for the Tigers.

Medicine Hat outshot Prince Albert 27-6 in the second period, but Hildebrand ensured the visitors were only able to get two goals in the frame.

Just 59 seconds into the third, Tigers star 19-year-old left-winger Hunter St. Martin scored by roofing a shot off a rush down the left wing to the top right corner of the Prince Albert net to give the visitors a 3-0 advantage.

While they seemingly never had the puck, the Raiders did put in a good effort and had their chances to score. With about 7:10 remaining in the third, Raiders star 20-year-old right-winger Rilen Kovacevic won a race to a loose puck to the left side of the Medicine Hat net and centred a pass to breakout star left-winger Brayden Dube.

Hunter St. Martin had the Tigers third goal on Thursday.

Dube wired a shot on goal, but it was turned away by an arm save from Tigers star 20-year-old netminder Harrison Meneghin. The puck rebounded to the right side of the Medicine Hat goal, and Dube got to the puck only to put a second shot wide of the mark.

Inside the final two minutes of the third, Raiders breakout rookie defenceman Daxon Rudolph, who turned 17-years-old in March, wired a shot on goal from the top of the right faceoff circle but was denied on a glove save by Meneghin.

Meneghin stopped all 18 shots sent his way to pick up the shutout victory in net for the Tigers.

Wiesblatt was pumped his Tigers could finish the series with the Raiders at the Hauser, because his older brother, Ozzy, helped the Raiders win a WHL championship in 2019. Oasiz was able to check out some of Ozzy’s games in that 2019 post-season run including the first two games of the WHL final at the Hauser.

Harrison Meneghin made 18 saves for the shutout victory.

“This place has a special place in my heart,” said Wiesblatt, who had an assist to go along with his goal. “I came here before I started in the WHL.

“I kind of really got a taste of playoff hockey and how crazy fans can kind of be. It was really cool to come down here. P.A. has great fans.

“They are a great fan base, and they’re really loud. This place is a hard place to play in. There is a lot of history involved in it.”

Molendyk got to play a part in knocking the Raiders out of the WHL Playoffs for a second straight year. A year ago, Molendyk helped the Saskatoon Blades take out the Raiders in five games in a first round series. The rearguard who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators said the emotions of beating the Raiders weren’t the same as a year ago.

Gavin McKenna had an assist in the win for the Tigers.

“It is different,” said Molendyk. “It is not as much of a rivalry as it is with Saskatoon.

“It is always fun coming in here. It is always packed. The crowd is always into it.”

The Raiders were without star left-winger Tomas Mrsic for a sixth straight contest having suffered a skate cut late in the first period of the Raiders victory in Game 5 in their first round series over the Edmonton Oil Kings. The Tigers were without star forwards Andrew Basha and Cayden Lindstrom.

Basha last played in the Tigers 4-0 home ice victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes on December 28, 2024 and has been out with a lower body injury since that time. Lindstrom has been battling a back injury since December 16, 2023 and last suited up on April 5, 2024, when the Tigers fell 5-2 at home to be eliminated from the WHL Playoffs in Game 5 of a first round series against the Red Deer Rebels.

The Tigers celebrate their win on Thursday night.

The Tigers topped the Eastern Conference and finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season with a 47-17-3-1 mark. They took out the Swift Current Broncos in five games in a best-of-seven first round series. In their last 43 games between the regular season and playoffs, the Tigers are an impressive 36-4-2-1.

The Raiders won the WHL’s East Division title with a 39-23-5-1 mark. They overcame a 3-1 series deficit to down the Oil Kings 4-3 in the first round of the playoffs.

Overall, McDonald thought his squad put together a pretty memorable campaign.

The Raiders give a final salute to their faithful at the Art Hauser Centre.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this group,” said McDonald. “I liked the way that we continued to learn and work and improve throughout this season to the division championship, to coming back in the first round, and continuing to battle right until the bitter end against a really good team.”

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.