Fate keeps Raiders in playoff chase after loss to Pats

Connor Bedard (#98) had two goals and an assist for the Pats.

A playoff berth is a pot of gold to the Prince Albert Raiders that is frustratingly fingertips out of reach.

On Saturday, the Raiders had a golden chance to seize a little bit more control as far as the chase for the final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference is concerned, but that opportunity fell through their fingers. They dropped a 5-3 decision to Pats before 5,123 spectators at the Brandt Centre in Regina.

Even with that setback, the Raiders are still alive in the hunt for a playoff berth with two games remaining on their regular season schedule.

The Raiders received a huge assist from the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who downed the visiting Calgary Hitmen 5-1 at the Enmax Centre on Saturday night.

That win by the Hurricanes, who improved to 31-30-4-1, locked them into a seventh place overall finish in the Eastern Conference and a first round best-of-seven series against the 47-14-3-1 Edmonton Oil Kings, who are guaranteed of first place finish in the Central Division.

In the race for eighth place and the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, the Swift Current Broncos (26-34-5-2) currently sit in eight spot with 59 standings points. The Hitmen (25-32-6-2) sit one point behind the Broncos in ninth place overall.

The Pats (26-34-3-2) and Raiders (26-35-4-1) both sit two points behind the Broncos and one point behind the Hitmen. Regina is 10^th overall and Prince Albert is 11^th overall in the conference.

The Broncos have one game remaining on their schedule, while the Hitmen and Pats both have three games remaining in their respective regular season slates.

If two teams finish tied in points for eighth in the conference, a standings tiebreaking game will be held to determine who moves on to the post-season.

Evan Herman scored twice for the Raiders on Saturday.

The bunch up in the standings for that final playoff berth means there will be a lot more scoreboard watching over the final eight days of the regular season.

The Raiders also dropped a 2-0 heartbreaker to the Blades in Saskatoon on Friday, with the Blades scoring twice inside the final eight minutes of the third. A win in that contest would have drastically helped the Raiders chances in the post-season chase.

In Saturday’s clash between the Raiders and Pats, 16-year-old right-winger Tanner Howe scored short-handed with 3:56 remaining in the third period to give the Regina side a 1-0 lead.

Just 2:45 into the second period, Raiders left-winger Cale Sanders netted a short-handed goal of his own to even the score at 1-1.

Before the second ended, the Pats got goals from 16-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard and rookie right-winger Borya Valis to take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission. Valis’s tally came on the power play.

Just 1:44 into the second, Raiders veteran centre Evan Herman scored to cut the Pats lead to 3-2. At the 3:59 mark of the third, Raiders left-winger Keaton Sorensen was awarded a penalty shot after being tripped up on a breakaway.

Sorensen proceeded to hit the crossbar on the penalty shot attempt with a backhander.

Bedard scored his second of the game with the Pats working on the power play at the 6:46 mark of the third to push Regina’s advantage to 4-2.

Just 40 seconds later, Herman netted his second of the contest to cut the Pats lead to 4-3.

Pats captain Logan Nijhoff sealed the 5-3 victory with an empty-net goal with 1:40 remaining in the third. Bedard picked up an assist on Nijhoff’s goal to finish with a three-point night.

On the season, Bedard sits fifth in WHL scoring with 92 points coming on 49 goals and 43 assists appearing in 59 games for the Pats.

Logan Nijhoff had an empty-net goal for the Pats.

Howe, who is a Prince Albert product, had a pair of assists to go with his goal for a three-point night.

Kelton Pyne, a 16-year-old netminder who joined the WHL Pats after spending most of the season with the Regina Pat Canadians under-18 AAA team, made 24 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Regina side. Import rookie Tikhon Chaika turned away 13-of-17 shots to take the setback in goal for the Raiders.

The Pats return to action on Thursday when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Ice (7 p.m. local time, Wayne Fleming Arena).

The Raiders get back at it on Friday when they travel to Swift Current to face the Broncos (7 p.m., Innovation Credit Union i-Plex).

Ice clinch first in WHL’s Eastern Conference, other notes

Jakin Smallwood had a goal and two assists for the Ice.

The Winnipeg Ice put the race for first place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference on ice.

On Saturday playing before 1,681 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena, the Ice downed the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 6-1 to lock up first place in the Eastern Conference. The Ice, who are rated second in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, improved to 50-10-3-2 with the win.

Winnipeg needs to earn just one more point in the standings to clinch first overall in the WHL.

Overage right-winger Jakin Smallwood potted his 24^th goal of the season at the 6:20 mark of the first to give the Ice a 1-0 lead.

The Tigers evened the score at 1-1 with a goal by overage right-winger Carter Chorney at the 6:40 mark of the second.

From that point, the Ice dominated the rest of the way taking a 3-1 lead into the second intermission before rounding out the game’s scoring with three tallies in the third. Cole Muir and Chase Wheatcroft each scored twice for the Ice, while Jack Finley netted a single.

Smallwood had two assists to go along with his goal, while Wheatcroft had one helper to go with his two tallies.

Daniel Hauser made 16 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Ice. Garin Bjorklund turned away 38 shots to take the setback in net for the Tigers (11-51-3-1).

The two sides go at it again on Sunday at 5 p.m. local time at the Wayne Fleming Arena.

• The Oil Kings locked up first place in the WHL’s Central Division with a 6-4 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels on Saturday. Oil Kings centres Justin Sourdif and Dylan Guenther each had two goals and two assists in the win. Edmonton improved to 47-14-3-1 with the win, while the Rebels fell to 44-18-2-2.
• The Brandon Wheat Kings won their fifth in a row downing the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 3-2 after taking a tiebreaking shootout 1-0. Wheat Kings centre Nate Danielson, who had an assist in regulation, had the lone goal in the shootout. The Brandon win tightens the race for fourth in the Eastern Conference and home ice advantage for a first round playoff series. The Saskatoon Blades (37-26-3-1) and Warriors (36-23-3-3) each have 78 standings points. Saskatoon sits fourth due to having more wins, while the Warriors are fifth. The Wheat Kings (35-25-3-2) sit sixth in the Eastern Conference three points back of both the Blades and Warriors. The Warriors and Wheat Kings, who both have two games in hand on the Blades, face each other again on Tuesday in Brandon.
• Rebels overage left-winger Arshdeep Bains leads the WHL in scoring with 105 points coming on 39 goals and a league high 66 assists appearing in all the Rebels 66 games. He has a three-point lead over teammate in 19-year-old centre Ben King and Kamloops Blazers centre Logan Stankoven. King recorded his 102 points on a league leading 50 goals and 52 assists appearing in all the Rebels 66 games. Stankoven posted his 102 points on 44 goals and 58 assists appearing in 57 games for the Blazers.
• Blazers netminder Dylan Garand leads the WHL in goaltending wins at 33. Garand has appeared in 43 games this season posting a 33-8-1 record, a 2.15 goals against average, a .925 save percentage and four shutouts.
• I put together new content for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex’s Howe Happenings blog that went live on Saturday. I created a piece called “Sawi makes surprise burst on to football scene – Running back thankful friends prompted him to try sport.” That piece focuses on Holy Cross High School Crusaders football team running back Charles Sawi naming an out of nowhere rise to standout status. Sawi has an extremely bright football future. That article can be found by clicking right here. I also created a photo round up that can be found by clicking right here.

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

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Pats’ Bedard sinks Raiders

Phenom 16-year-old centre nets winner 24 seconds into OT

Connor Bedard, left, enjoys scoring the Pats OT winner.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Connor Bedard might have become public enemy number one in “Hockey Town North.”

On Friday night, the 16-year-old phenom centre netted the winning goal 24 seconds into overtime to deliver his Regina Pats to a 5-4 WHL regular season victory over the host Prince Albert Raiders. Following the goal, Bedard gave off a bit of a swagger like celebration to the dislike of the standing room crowd of 2,962 spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre.

Following the contest, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid wasn’t happy his squad lost track of Bedard in the extra session along with committing a number of other errors in the contest.

The Raiders won the faceoff to start overtime and got the puck deep into the offensive zone. At that point, the puck was turned over on a bad pass and Bedard streaked coast-to-coast down the right wing with the puck on a two-on-one rush.

Connor Bedard speeds down the ice on his winning goal rush.

Bedard skated in close to the Prince Albert net and roofed the winner and his 30^th tally of the season to the top left corner of the goal.

“It was disappointing,” said Habscheid. “We got caught on the wrong side of the puck.

“We talked about when he is out there. You have to be careful. You have to be on the right side of the puck, and we got caught on the wrong side to create a two-on-one with a 16-year-old who is a pretty good player.

“It ended up in our net not surprising, but it didn’t start there. It started in their end. We got a little bit greedy, and we paid for it.”

Connor Bedard picked up an assist on the Pats third period goal.

The Raiders entered the third period holding a 4-3 advantage but weren’t able to close out the contest defensively. With 4:31 remaining in the third, Bedard rushed down the right wing and took a shot on goal from a bad angle.

The shot rebounded to the front of the Prince Albert goal to Pats centre Cole Carrier. Carrier popped home his 14^th of the season for the equalizer to make the score 4-4.

The fact that Pats evened the score on a juicy rebound goal on top of losing track of Bedard in overtime made the setback that much more frustrating for the Raiders.

“I thought we played hard for most of the game,” said Raiders captain Reece Vitelli. “It was tough to let that one slip.”

Cole Carrier scored in the third period to force overtime.

The Raiders got out to a strong start scoring 69 seconds into the first period. Raiders left-winger Sloan Stanick jetted into the offensive zone down the right wing and slipped a pass across the front of the Regina goal to linemate Cale Sanders, who popped home his 11^th of the season.

The Pats evened things up at 1-1 just under five minutes later when defenceman Layton Feist rushed with the puck coast-to-coast down the right wing and wired home a shot to the top left corner of the Prince Albert goal. Feist’s tally was off Regina’s first shot on goal of the contest.

With 5:46 remaining in the opening frame, the Raiders jumped back in front 2-1, when right-winger Carson Latimer scored off a net scramble.

Landon Kosior scored twice on the power play for the Raiders.

The Pats came out with all sorts of fire to start the second period and jumped ahead 3-2 at the 7:02 mark of the frame with goals from Borya Valis and Tanner Howe. Valis tallied with the teams playing four-versus-four hockey, while Howe, who is 16-year-old left-winger from Prince Albert, scored with a point shot with the teams playing at even strength.

Before the second period ended, the Raiders jumped back in front 4-3 with a pair of power-play goals coming off the stick of offensive-defenceman Landon Kosior. Kosior drove home both his goals from the left slot while playing left wing.

He converted tick-tack-toe passing plays on both tallies with the first marker coming off a five-on-three situation and the second goal on a five-on-four advantage.

Tikhon Chaika made 31 saves in goal for the Raiders.

The five-on-three situation was created when Bedard received a minor penalty for checking from behind with a Pats player already in the penalty box.

Kosior said his Raiders felt they were in a good spot after he netted his power-play goals.

“I think after those we knew we were up, so we all kind of thought we’d play defence and we had a good chance of winning,” said Kosior. “It was just unfortunate that we weren’t able to pull through with it.”

Near the start of the third period, Raiders right-winger Carson Latimer had a golden chance to net and insurance goal for the host side, but he was turned away by Pats netminder Drew Sim.

Carson Latimer had a goal for the Raiders on Friday.

That set the stage for the Pats to rally for the overtime victory.

Tikhon Chaika turned away 31 shots to take the extra time setback in goal for the Raiders (17-25-2-1). Sim stopped 22 shots to pick up the win in net for the Pats (18-23-1-1).

The Pats were without head coach and general manager John Paddock for a second straight game for undisclosed reasons. Assistant coach Brad Herauf ran the Pats bench as head coach.

The Raiders return to action on Saturday when they host the Moose Jaw Warriors (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Pats are back at it on Monday when they host the Swift Current Broncos (2 p.m., Brandt Centre).

The Pats celebrate their overtime victory on Friday.

When the Raiders get back at it against the Warriors, Kosior said the focus will be to keep the play in Moose Jaw’s end of the rink.

“I think the biggest thing is just playing some time in their zone,” said Kosior. “I thought in the third period the Pats kind of were in our zone more than we were in theirs.

“We just have to generate momentum by being in their zone.”

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

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