Raiders wise to focus on Game 5 of WHL Championship Series

Questionable third period calls in Game 4 left in past

An officials’ conference takes place in Game 4 of the WHL final.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Prince Albert Raiders turned the page as soon as their post-game presser on Wednesday night.

That feeling was reinforced in media interviews during an off day on Thursday.

No matter how you cut it, the Raiders are in the classic cliché “do or die” situation in their best-of-seven WHL Championship Series with the Everett Silvertips. With a 5-2 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre, the Silvertips took a commanding 3-1 lead in the series having won the last three straight contests in the set. Everett has also scored first in every game of the series.

Game 5 is slated for Friday at 7:30 p.m. local time at the Hauser. At the moment, the Raiders can only look towards the game Friday.

They can go into the contest with a key motivating factor. They do not want that game to come to a conclusion where the Silvertips are being presented the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions. If that situation materializes, the Raiders will find out one of the hardest things they will experience in sports is seeing an opponent celebrate a league championship in their own home rink and home city.

In the older era of the WHL and even into the early 2010s, teams that made the WHL final did not want to see an opponent enjoy a championship celebration on their home rink. If the Raiders prevail on Friday, they will force the series to head back to Everett for Game 6 on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time at the Angel of the Winds Arena. The last WHL final to go to a Game 6 came in 2022, when the Edmonton Oil Kings beat the Seattle Thunderbirds in six games.

In Game 4 of this year’s WHL final, frustration ensued for the Raiders and their fans as an official’s mistake snowballed on the host side. Raiders fans might not believe this, but there was a game in this year’s WHL Playoffs that snowballed worse due to an official’s mistake. That contest will be brought up a little later, but first the focus goes to the third period in Game 4 of the WHL final.

The fans first got upset when Silvertips star right-winger Carter Bear scored on the power play at the 4:24 mark of the third to put the visitors up 3-1. A replay shown in the building after the goal was scored showing the play was close to being offside on a zone entry. Before the 2023-24 campaign started, the WHL made a rule change eliminating offside plays from a coach’s challenge.

A short time later, Raiders captain Justice Christensen scored to cut the Silvertips lead to 3-2. That set the stage for the biggest controversial play of the contest.

With 11:33 remaining in the third, Raiders star centre Aiden Oiring tried to wrap the puck home at the right side of the Silvertips net. Silvertips star netminder Anders Miller made the stop, but a mad scramble ensued at the right side of the goal.

The puck bounced around a maze of skates and sticks and shot out to Raiders rookie defenceman Benett Kelly in front of the Everett net. Kelly appeared to blast home the equalizer causing the crowd at the Hauser to momentarily erupt.

The officials blew the play dead having lost sight of the puck. They disallowed the goal due to the quick whistle causing the crowd to turn irate. About two or three people ended up throwing debris on the ice.

The officials did a short video review and still held up the no goal call.

That quick whistle was a mistake, and the Raiders should have been in a tie game at that point. What fans often forget in the WHL is that the circuit is a development league for the officials as well as the players. You do run into a handful of fans in every WHL market thinking everything should be executed at an NHL level, which is great to hope for but unrealistic to expect.

On seemingly the next shift with 10:40 remaining in the third, Raiders standout sophomore Riley Boychuk appeared to fire home another equalizer. That goal was waved off as the officials correctly ruled a Raiders player had knocked a Silvertips player into Miller causing inadvertent contact that prevented the netminder from making a save.

The officials got that call right. Still, there were Raiders fans that were mad that goal didn’t count.

The snowball effect carried on.

With 9:40 remaining in the third, the Raiders suffered a bad break that didn’t have anything to do with the officials. While attempting to break out of their zone, Raiders star 20-year-old centre Aiden Oiring and Christensen both blew tires causing the puck to be turned over to Silvertips 20-year-old centre Zackary Shantz along the right boards in the Prince Albert zone.

Shantz passed the puck across the front of the Prince Albert net to linemate in 18-year-old left-winger Shea Busch. Busch popped the puck home to push the Silvertips lead out to 4-2. Matias Vanhanen proceeded to add an empty-net goal to round out the 5-2 final score in favour of the Silvertips.

This wasn’t the only game that went off the rails due to an official’s mistake. An even worse one took place earlier in the current WHL Playoffs on April 15 at the CN Centre in Prince George, B.C.

On that night, the host Prince George Cougars went into Game 4 of a Western Conference Semifinal Series against the Penticton Vees holding a 2-1 lead in that best-of-seven set. The two sides were locked in a 2-2 tie in a very entertaining contest heading into the final six minutes of the third period.

With 5:50 remaining in the third, Cougars defenceman Corbin Vaughan nailed Vees centre Ryden Evers with a shoulder to the chest bodycheck in the centre ice zone. Evers fell face first to the ice and was cut by his visor.

The officials in that game gave Vaughan a major penalty for head checking and a game misconduct. It was clear reviewing the video that no head check occurred on the play.

All of a sudden, the snowball happened. A short time later, Cougars defenceman Arsenii Anisimov cleared the puck over the glass from his own zone resulting in a delay of game penalty.

Vees captain Nolan Stevenson scored on that two-man advantage with 4:16 remaining in the third to put Penticton up 3-2. A handful of Cougars fans were so upset they threw debris on the ice.

After play resumed, a couple of other Cougars fans threw debris on the ice while play was in progress. That caused the officials to blow the play dead with 3:40 remaining in the third and give the Cougars bench a penalty due to the actions of the fans. That is a rule that rarely gets put into action, but that was the right time to call that penalty.

Vees defenceman Ethan Weber scored on that two-man advantage with 2:29 remaining in the third to push the Vees lead out to 4-2. The Cougars penalty box parade continued resulting in Vees left-winger Brady Birnie scoring third power-play goal on a two-man advantage with 51 seconds remaining in the third to round out the 5-2 final score in favour of Penticton.

That ultimately was the contest that saw the Cougars get fined $1,500 on April 17 by the WHL for inadequate security. Vaughan did not receive any further discipline for his hit on Evers. Cougars left-winger Aiden Foster was given a two-game suspension for receiving a head checking major and a game misconduct in the second period of that contest.

In both the Raiders Game 4 situation in the WHL final and the Cougars Game 4 development in their Western Conference semifinal, the fans speak from Raiders and Cougars supporters online was fairly standard regarding how bad the officials were. The men wearing the referee armbands in both games got singled out heat from some fans.

There were some Raiders fans that did not like referees Jeff Ingram and Ward Pateman who worked Game 4 of the WHL final. There were some Cougars fans that did not like referees Bryan Bourdon and Bobby Jo Love who worked Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinal in Prince George.

You also had fans going the conspiracy theory route saying the league was trying to set up some sort of match up or help certain teams win. Every team in the WHL has at least a couple of fans like that, and they’ve kind of said those lines for at least three decades. Those types of fans have a passion in a place where you can’t change their mind.

Switching sports to the world of the NFL, there are still fans out there who believe that league did everything they could to ensure the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, 2024, because Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was the boyfriend of icon of all music icons in Taylor Swift. There are fans that believe the NFL went out of their way to make sure “Goddess Taylor” was happy because of all the fans she brought to the viewership of the game helping the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ERS 25-22 in overtime.

None of those fans said anything when the Chiefs lost Super Bowl LIX the very next year 40-22 in an absolute drubbing handed out by the Philadelphia Eagles. That contest also happened to be attended by the President of the United States of America in Donald Trump, which marked the first time a sitting U.S. President attended the Super Bowl.

Back to the WHL, the Cougars would ultimately lose their Western Conference Semifinal Series to the Vees in six games. Going into Game 5 in Penticton, both teams left what happened in Game 4 of that series in the past and moved forward focusing on controlling what they can control.

When the puck drops for Game 5 of the WHL final on Friday at the Hauser, you can bet both the Raiders and Silvertips will have left what happened in Game 4 of their series in the past. Teams won’t always agree with what the officials call, but there is a realization they are developing and gaining experience too.

For myself, I have actually been fine for the most part with the officiating in the WHL Playoffs outside of a handful of hiccups here and there.

As for the Raiders, they are facing their biggest adversity of the campaign, and their test will be to see how they respond to that adversity. They have taken the first step on that path in focusing on the future.

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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What a battle! What a finish!

Raiders take conference title, Tigers rally falls short

The story lines were plentiful as the WHL Eastern Conference Championship Series closed out.

In a battle of two powerhouse teams, the Prince Albert Raiders were out to show their time is now. The defending WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers were not ready to give up their crown.

Going into Game 6 of the best-of-seven conference title tilt at Co-op Place on Sunday, the visiting Raiders were in position to advance with a win. The host Tigers were looking to force the series back to Prince Albert for a series deciding Game 7 back in Prince Albert set for Tuesday.

The Tigers brought in Oasiz Wiesblatt, who was the captain of last year’s WHL championship team, to fire up the 5,181 spectators at Co-op place with the “Whose House, Our House” chant pregame. Wiesblatt just finished his first season of professional hockey playing with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals.

When the dust settled, the Raiders prevailed 7-6 to take the series 4-2. They advance to the best-of-seven WHL Championship Series to take on the Everett Silvertips. That marks the first time the Raiders will play in the WHL final since they last won it in 2019.

Riley Boychuk had a pair of goals for the Tigers on Sunday.

The valiant Tigers took part in one last salute from their hometown crowd. Their overagers in right-winger Ethan Neutens, centre Andrew Basha and hometown product Josh Van Mulligen took a final bow. Basha finished the night with four assists, while Van Mulligen had one goal and once assist.

Medicine Hat’s Christian players did one final prayer at centre ice before departing to allow the conference trophy presentation to the Raiders. The Raiders had a quick moment with the Eastern Conference Championship trophy taking a team picture before departing to their dressing room.

The Tigers opened the contest with a big push. Early in the contest, Tigers star left-winger Markus Ruck started the contest in an uncharacteristic fashion throwing a rare bodycheck on Raiders defenceman Linden Burrett.

The hosts opened the scoring with 6:31 remaining in the first as star defenceman Jonas Woo wired home a mid range shot from the front of the Prince Albert net to the top left corner of the goal. That marked just the second time in the post-season the Raiders gave up the first goal of a game and both occurrences came at the hand of the Tigers. At the time of Woo’s goal, the Tigers were holding a 9-4 edge in shots on goal.

Josh Van Mulligen had one goal and one assist for the Tigers.

One of the many momentum changes occurred with 4:17 remaining in the opening frame. During a net scramble around the Medicine Hat net, Raiders standout right-winger Riley Boychuk found a loose puck at the left side of the goal and popped the puck home to even the score at 1-1.

The 1980s shootout then commenced in earnest at the start of the second period. Centre Noah Davidson scored on the power play just 75 seconds into the stanza to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

Prince Albert answered back quickly. Star centre Braeden Cootes tallied at the 3:47 mark of the second on the power play, and star defenceman Daxon Rudolph scored at the 5:39 mark of the frame at even strength to give the visitors a 3-2 lead.

At that point, the Tigers elected to pull starting netminder Jordan Switzer after turning away 10-of-13 shots. Carter Casey turned back 14-of-18 shots playing the rest of the way in relief. He ultimately took the loss in goal for Medicine Hat.

Daxon Rudolph had one goal and two assists for the Tigers.

Casey became Medicine Hat’s goalie of record on the scoresheet a short time after entering the contest. At the 8:31 mark of the second, Tigers standout right-winger Luke Cozens potted his first of the post-season to even the score at 3-3.

Momentum proceeded to jump behind the Raiders in a huge way. They closed out the second scoring three straight goals to go ahead 6-3 coming off the sticks of star 20-year-old centre Aiden Oiring on the power play, star right-winger Brayden Dube and standout 17-year-old rookie right-winger Jonah Sivertson. Dube’s tally came with 2:01 remaining in the second, and Sivertson’s came with 33.5 seconds remaining in the stanza.

During that goal surge, the Tigers appeared they might have lost star captain Bryce Pickford for the contest. With 2:46 remaining in the second, he was hit on his left side by Raiders feisty 16-year-old left-winger Connor Howe, while Howe’s stick also connected across the visor of Pickford’s helmet. No penalties were called on the play.

Pickford went down, and he then got up and proceeded to skate straight to the Tigers dressing room favouring his left shoulder. Miraculously, the rearguard returned for the start of the third period.

Noah Davidson had one goal and one assist for the Tigers.

His return seemed to inspire the Tigers. Kade Stengrim tallied at the 2:20 mark of the third, and Van Mulligen found the back of the net at the 6:59 mark of the stanza to cut the Raiders lead down to 6-5.

Medicine Hat pushed for the equalizer, but the Raiders came up with a key insurance goal with 7:01 remaining in the frame. Raiders centre Evan Smith made a high looping pass out of his own zone down the right wing to Boychuk springing him into the Medicine Hat end on a two-on-two rush.

Boychuk made a toe drag move around a Tigers defenceman, slipped down, got up and fired a shot to the top right corner of the Medicine Hat net to push the visitor’s edge out to 7-5.

The Tiger truly did battle to the bitter end. With 6.9 seconds remaining in the third, star right-winger Liam Ruck one-timed home a shot from the front of the Prince Albert net converting a beauty setup pass from Basha to cut the Raiders lead to 7-6. Medicine Hat couldn’t come up with a miracle play to get the equalizer to force overtime.

Michal Orsulak stopped 24 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Cootes and Rudolph each finished with one goal and two assists. Rudolph leads the WHL post-season in scoring with 23 points coming off nine goals and 14 assists to go with a plus-10 rating in the plus-minus department.

Braeden Cootes had one goal and two assists for the Raiders.

Woo, Davidson and Cozens each finished with one goal and one assist for the Tigers. Yaroslav Bryzgalov had a pair of assists for Medicine Hat. For the moment, Basha sits second in the scoring race in the WHL Playoffs with 21 points coming off three goals and 18 assists to go with a plus-one rating.

During the regular season, the Raiders topped the Eastern Conference, claimed the East Division title and finished second overall in the WHL with a 52-10-5-1 mark. They were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.

The Tigers finished second in the Eastern Conference, captured the Central Division title and finished third overall in the WHL during the regular season with a 50-10-5-3 mark. They were rated fifth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. After losing a number of key players from their WHL championship club last season, the Tigers were not expected to do as well as they did at the start of the 2025-26 campaign.

The Raiders and Tigers met four times in the 2025-26 regular season. Each side claimed two regulation time wins including one victory at home and one the road. Each side scored 16 goals in those four head-to-head contests.

Jonas Woo had one goal and one assist for the Tigers.

In the Eastern Conference final, the Tigers were battling a big flu bug for the entire series. Tigers legendary head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said at the end of Game 6 that his players who hit the ice for his team still were not at full strength, but he gave the Raiders credit for the series win. Desjardins said the Raiders are a really good team, and he wasn’t sure his squad would have won the series at full health but would have liked to have had that opportunity.

The Raiders will now face another tough foe in the Silvertips in the WHL Championship Series. The Silvertips swept the Penticton Vees 4-0 in the Western Conference Championship Series and will enter the WHL final after a long rest period. Game 1 of the WHL final is set for this coming Friday at the Angel of the Winds Arena with a start time still to be announced.

Everett topped the WHL regular season standings with a 57-8-2-1 and was rated first in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Silvertips 57 wins and 117 standings points are team records. They are appearing in the WHL final for the first time since 2018, when they fell in the championship series in six games to the Swift Current Broncos.

Aiden Oiring scored for the Raiders on Sunday.

As for the now completed Eastern Conference final, it delivered the thrills that were expected and a memorable conclusion for both teams. The Raiders exited the series as a deserving conference champion, and the Tigers went down with the fight fitting a defending league champion.

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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Raiders run over Rebels with 6-0 win in Game 2

Prince Albert takes 2-0 lead in first round post-season series

The Raiders celebrate a short-handed goal from Daxon Rudolph (#10).

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – When the dam burst, it burst big.

On Saturday, the Prince Albert Raiders found themselves being thwarted on numerous scoring opportunities by Red Deer Rebels star rookie netminder Matthew Kondro in the first third of Game 2 of a WHL best-of-seven first round playoff series. The teams exited the first period locked in a scoreless tie with the Raiders holding a 13-3 edge in shots on goal.

Just 1:37 into the second period, Raiders 16-year-old skilled rookie defenceman Brock Cripps scored a power-play goal on an end-to-end rush. From that point, the host Raiders added four more goals in the second to push their advantage out to 5-0. They would finish off the contest cruising to a 6-0 victory to the delight of a jubilant standing room crowd of 2,997 spectators at the 2,580 seat storied and historic Art Hauser Centre.

Brock Cripps had the Raiders first goal on Friday.

With the win, the Raiders, who were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings, take a 2-0 lead in the series. Going back to the regular season, they have won eight straight games.

“You know what, we have a game plan,” said Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald. “We have a process that we stick to.

“It hasn’t wavered all year no matter who we’re playing. The guys did a great job going out there executing the game plan tonight.”

During the first period, it appeared the Raiders might get snake bitten around the net for the night. Star centre Braeden Cootes had a backhand shot chance in close that was turned away by a paddle stop by Kondro.

The Art Hauser Centre faithful cheer on the Raiders.

Late in the frame, Raiders star defenceman Daxon Rudolph had a partial breakaway, but he fanned on his shot. The fanned shot was still a chance Kondro had to make an alert stop on.

The host side’s luck changed around the net, when Cripps scored on his end-to-end rush. On that play, the puck disappeared from sight underneath Kondro’s pads, but referee Adam Bloski was positioned behind the net and made the call of a good goal on the ice.

Following the goal call, the play went to a view review that lasted for about five minutes. After the review, the officials ruled the call on the ice stands.

“You look at the entry, the speed that Brock (Cripps) possessed getting into the zone, it was a great move to get around the stand,” said McDonald. “He took the puck right to the net and got rewarded.”

Ben Harvey had one goal and one assist for the Raiders.

Just two minutes after Cripps’ goal, the Raiders pushed their advantage to 2-0, when 16-year-old rookie right-winger Ben Harvey fired a shot from the front of the net to the top right corner of the Red Deer goal. Harvey converted a sweet setup feed from Rudolph.

“Dax (Rudolph), obviously, made a nice play coming down the wall and found me in the middle,” said Harvey. “I kind of just popped up and tried to get it past the first layer there, and I don’t think their goalie saw it.”

Just under five minutes later, the Raiders picked up a short-handed tally from Rudolph to push their lead out to 3-0. Cootes sent a smart pass to Rudolph to spring the rearguard into the Red Deer zone on a rush. Rudolph charged to the front of the net and ripped home a shot to the top right corner of the goal.

Daxon Rudolph had one goal and two assists for the Raiders.

With 3:52 remaining in the second, Raiders sophomore centre Riley Boychuk potted home a loose puck during a net scramble for a power-play goal that made the Raiders lead sit at 4-0. With 2:05 remaining in the second, Raiders 20-year-old right-winger Brayden Dube sniped home a power-play marker from inside the right faceoff circle in the Red Deer zone to give the Raiders a 5-0 edge.

Prince Albert’s momentum proceeded to carry over to a right between rookie 16-year-old left-winger Connor Howe and Rebels 17-year-old defenceman Cameron Dillard. The bout was a spirited one that ended with Howe, who stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 155 pounds, getting the take down on the much larger Dillard, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 218 pounds. The Art Hauser Centre faithful rained down thunderous applause for Howe, who is a hometown product.

Brayden Dube had a pair of goals for the Raiders.

“Everyone is just playing the right way,” said Harvey, who had an assist to go with his goal. “We’re just sticking to our game and playing fast.

“It is just eventually they’re going to come.”

Dube proceeded to score his second of the contest taking a drop pass from Cootes and wiring home a shot from the right faceoff dot in the Red Deer zone to round out the 6-0 final score in favour of the Raiders.

“I was just in the right spot at the right time it felt like,” said Dube. “It was nice to get a couple.”

Following Dube’s second tally, the Rebels elected to pull Kondro. Kondro took the loss in the Red Deer net turning away 30-of-36 shots sent his way. Peyton Shore played the rest of the way in the third in relief turning away all four shots sent his way.

Fans at the Art Hauser Centre do the wave.

Overall, Dube was pleased with his team’s effort and thought it was a good follow up to their 4-1 victory over the Rebels in Game 1 on Friday at the Hauser.

“I think we played similar to yesterday,” said Dube. “The goals didn’t come that quick, but I think we wore them down.

“They started making mistakes, and we capitalized on them.”

Raiders star 18-year-old import rookie netminder Michal Orsulak stopped all 13 shots sent his way to pick up his first career post-season shutout in the WHL. He also had an assist on Cripps’s goal.

While the Raiders had the Rebels pinned in their own zone for a large part of Saturday’s game, Orsulak had to come up with a huge sprawling glove save on a Rebels left-winger Poul Andersen inside the final seven minutes of the third to preserve his shutout.

Michal Orsulak made 13 saves for the shutout win on Saturday.

“He was sticky and tidy when called upon,” said McDonald. “It was just a real solid night from him tonight.”

Rudolph finished with a pair of assists to go with his goal and a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department. Cootes had a plus-two rating to go with his two helpers.

The Raiders were without breakout star centre Max Heise, who was injured after being hit into the boards by Rebels right-winger Owen DeWitt early in Game 1. McDonald said Heise is listed as day-to-day when it comes to possibly returning.

The series between the Raiders and Rebels now shifts to Red Deer. Games 3 and 4 will be held Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. local time on both nights at the Marchant Crane Centrium. In looking forward to those contests, Dube said his Raiders need to keep doing what they have been doing so far in the series.

The Raiders celebrate their win on Saturday.

“I know they’ll be better in Red Deer,” said Dube. “We just have to stick to our game and clean some things up that we can work on and just keep it going.”

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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Raiders playoff opening win a Hauser crowd pleaser

Prince Albert downs Red Deer 4-1 in intense clash 

Braeden Cootes (#34) battles Jake Missura (#3).

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – It was a playoff victory that was a blast for the faithful of the Prince Albert Raiders.

On Friday, the Raiders downed the visiting Red Deer Rebels 4-1 in Game 1 of their first round WHL best-of-seven playoff series before a standing room crowd of 3,078 spectators at the storied and historic 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The victory to open the post season was a sound one by the Raiders, who gradually pulled away in the contest.

The contest also was an intense one played between a pair of teams whose cultures are grounded in some good old school hockey values. The contest had physical moments where both sides will likely have to agree to disagree on how they viewed those instances.

Braeden Cootes had two goals and an assist for the Raiders.

The Raiders started the night entering the ice to Airbourne’s “Live It Up” drawing a call back to their last WHL championship winning campaign in 2018-19. That tune was the squad’s entrance song for that campaign.

The host side kept the pre-game nods to their past coming by having Carole Ring come out to sing the national anthem. Ring has lifetime links to the Raiders being best known for being a longtime billet mom for a number of the club’s players and serving for a time as the team’s secretary way back in the early 1980s.

During the opening faceoff, both teams tried to set the tone as the starting centres in Raiders 20-year-old Aiden Oiring and Czech import Matej Mikes, who turned 19 in February, butted into each other before referee Josh Grimm could drop the puck.

Braeden Cootes had plus-two rating in the plus-minus department.

The contest’s next big moment was one of the spots of the night the Raiders fans weren’t happy with. About 90 seconds into the first period, Raiders breakout star centre Max Heise was battling for the puck in the right corner boards of the Prince Albert zone against Rebels import defenceman Jiri Kamas. As the puck battle was going on, Heise got slammed awkwardly into the boards by Rebels centre Owen DeWitt, who jetted into the hit with speed.

Heise fell down to the ice and was helped to the dressing room and didn’t return to the contest. That meant the Raiders had to play without the man that led the squad with 29 goals during the regular season and finished with 63 points in 63 regular season contests. The officials didn’t call any penalties on the play causing the moment to be a missed potential charging call on DeWitt.

Michal Orsulak stopped 22 shots in goal for the Raiders.

The Raiders proceeded to push on after that development.

With 5:17 remaining in the first, they broke through on the scoreboard while working on the power play. Star centre Braeden Cootes got the puck at the top of the right faceoff circle and fired a blast past Rebels star 18-year-old rookie netminder Matthew Kondro to give the host side a 1-0 edge.

About a minute later, a moment happened that the Rebels weren’t happy about. Rebels right-winger Patrick Sopiarz was coming out of his zone with the puck, when he got hit knee-to-knee by Raiders defenceman Linden Burrett.

The collision happened right in front of the Red Deer bench, and most of the Rebels players were up in arms voicing their displeasure to the officials. The officials didn’t call any penalties on the collision making the moment another missed call, but they did give an unrelated tripping minor to Raiders sophomore right-winger Riley Boychuk just about 15 seconds later.

Matthew Kondro made 35 saves in net for the Rebels.

Sopiarz ended up being alright after the hit by Burrett and was out to play on the Red Deer power-play after Boychuk took his tripping minor.

Between those two physical moments in the opening frame, both teams locked into focusing on playing their systems in transitioning the puck up ice and trying to create turnovers forechecking in the offensive zone.

Just 2:03 into the second period, the Raiders pushed their lead out to 2-0 off a positive bounce goal by star defenceman Daxon Rudolph. Rudolph circled around behind the Red Deer net with the puck coming out on the left side of the goal. He slid a shot into the crease of the Rebels net and had the puck deflect off Kondro into the goal to give the hosts their two-goal edge.

Outside of that moment, Kondro had an outstanding period making 19 saves as the Rebels were outshot 20-7 in the second period. One of his best stops came late in the frame on a close in screen shot opportunity by Boychuk.

Daxon Rudolph celebrates scoring for the Raiders.

The physical play continued in the second too. Before the midway part of the stanza, Raiders captain Justice Christensen hammered Rebels 20-year-old defenceman Aleksey Chichkin into the Prince Albert bench. That drew a huge roar from the Raiders faithful.

Later on in the frame, Raiders 17-year-old right-winger Jonah Sivertson delivered a crowd-pleasing hit on Rebels 17-year-old left-winger Cameron Kuzma.

During the second period, Raiders star import netminder Michal Orsulak, who turned 18 in early January, had to be sharp even if he wasn’t as busy as Kondro. With just over 10 minutes remaining in the second, the Rebels sprung 17-year-old right-winger Kalder Varga into the Prince Albert zone on a breakaway. Varga was stoned by Orsulak.

Poul Andersen scored for the Rebels on Friday.

In the third, the Rebels pushed back, and they broke through on the scoreboard at the 7:35 mark of the frame with a positive bounce goal on the power play. Rebels left-winger Poul Andersen shot a puck from the left side boards in the Prince Albert zone, and the puck deflected off a Raiders defenceman into the Prince Albert goal cut the host side’s lead to 2-1.

The Raiders ensured the Rebels wouldn’t complete the comeback. With 9:02 remaining in the third, Cootes got the puck on a rush into the Red Deer zone, and he fired home his second of the contest from just under the right faceoff dot to give the Raiders a 3-1 advantage.

Right after scoring that goal, Cootes got tangled up with Rebels 17-year-old defenceman Jake Missura causing a scrum to develop. The officials promptly got the players on both sides untangled and sent to their respective benches.

Brock Cripps had the Raiders fourth goal on Friday.

With 3:14 remaining in the third, Cootes gave the puck to Raiders skilled 16-year-old rookie defenceman Brock Cripps with a slick pass just inside the Red Deer zone. Cripps skated to the top of the right faceoff circle and drove home a shot to round out the final 4-1 score in favour of the host side.

An oddity proceeded to occur with 28.4 seconds remaining in the third as Raiders import left-winger Alisher Sarkenov and Rebels 20-year-old centre Tyson Yaremko got tangled up and had a holding match. That ultimately was the end of the extracurricular activities for the night.

At the final buzzer, both sides made a point to give a quiet nod of respect to each other and skated away from each other to their respective ends.

When the dust was settled, Orsulak had stopped 22 shots to pick up his first career WHL post-season win in goal for the Raiders. Kondro turned away 35 shots to take the setback in net for the Rebels.

The Raiders salute their faithful at the Art Hauser Centre.

Both sides will go at it in Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre. While Friday’s Game 1 had some good intensity, one can expect that factor to keep increasing as the series goes on.

As for the Raiders faithful, they will be hoping to see another crowd pleaser in Game 2 where, of course, the home side prevails once again.

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Christensen’s Gordie Howe hat trick powers Raiders over Blades

Prince Albert locks up first in WHL’s Eastern Conference  

Justice Christensen celebrates his second goal of Friday’s game.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Justice Christensen got the party started for the Prince Albert Raiders.

The 20-year-old captain delivered a signature game to give his Raiders a first place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. He had a pair of goals, an assist, a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department and engaged in one fight to power Prince Albert to a 4-0 victory over their archrivals the Saskatoon Blades. The victory came before an elated standing room home crowd of 3,076 spectators at the 2,580 seat storied and historic Art Hauser Centre.

With the win, the Raiders improve to 51-10-5-1. While the defending WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers improved to 49-10-5-3 with a 9-3 victory over the Rebels in Red Deer on Friday to remain two standings points back of the Raiders, Medicine Hat loses out on the standings tiebreaker. Both teams have one game remaining in their respective regular season schedules, and the Raiders are guaranteed to finish with more wins than the Tigers to take the standings tiebreaker.

Justice Christensen (#7) fights Tyler Parr (#20).

The Raiders will also finish second overall in the WHL behind the Everett Silvertips (56-8-2-1), while the Tigers will place third overall. Everett is rated first in the CHL’s Top 10 Rankings, Prince Albert is fourth in those ratings and Medicine Hat is rated fifth.

Friday’s tilt between the Raiders and Blades got off with some good fireworks just 38 seconds into the contest with a fight between captains of the two sides in Christensen and Tyler Parr of the Blades. The players went at it for about a solid 30 seconds throwing a bunch of punches for arguably one of best fights of the 2025-26 WHL campaign.

The Raiders opened the game’s scoring on a beauty power-play goal at the 7:57 mark of the first period. Raiders star defenceman Daxon Rudolph had the puck in his own zone and hit star centre Braeden Cootes with a slick stretch pass right before the Saskatoon blue-line.

Justice Christensen had a Gordie Howe hat trick on Friday.

Cootes burst into the Saskatoon zone and beat Blades netminder Taye Timmerman mid-height to the glove side to give the hosts a 1-0 edge.

With 5:44 remaining in the first, the Raiders pushed their edge to 2-0 on a goal from sophomore right-winger Riley Boychuk. Boychuk tipped home a puck in front of the Saskatoon net that came from a point shot taken by Raiders standout left-winger Maddix McCagherty.

Christensen would complete the Gordie Howe hat trick with 6:24 remaining in the second frame firing home a “juice bomb” point shot for his 17^th goal of the season. That tally pushed the Raiders advantage to 3-0.

Daxon Rudolph had a pair of assists for the Raiders on Friday.

At the 5:22 mark of the third, Christensen fired home his second “juice bomb” shot of the contest with this one coming from midrange to make Prince Albert’s lead sit at 4-0. The marker was Christensen’s 18^th goal of the campaign.

Blades starting netminder Taye Timmerman got dinged up on the Raiders fourth goal. The associate player call up was pulled after turning away 26-of-30 shots sent his way to take the setback in net for Saskatoon. Timmerman, who turned 19-years-old in late February, had been playing in the junior A ranks with the Warman Wolverines of the SJHL and had been making his second WHL regular season start on Friday.

The faithful at the Art Hauser Centre cheer on the Raiders.

Blades star netminder Evan Gardner stopped all five shots he faced playing the rest of the way in relief.

Michal Orsulak stopped all 16 shots he faced to pick up the shutout win in goal for the Raiders. The shutout was the fourth of the season for the rookie Czech import start netminder.

Rudolph finished with two assists and a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department. Cootes and Boychuk each had an assist to go with their goals, and both had a plus-one rating.

Michal Orsulak made 16 saves to pick up the shutout win.

The Blades fell to 34-26-5-2 with the loss and are locked into finishing sixth overall in the Eastern Conference. They will face the 44-18-3-2 Edmonton Oil Kings, who finished third overall in the Eastern Conference, in a best-of-seven first round series in the WHL Playoffs.

The Raiders could still potentially face either the Regina Pats (25-33-7-2), the Red Deer Rebels (26-35-4-2) or the Moose Jaw Warriors (25-35-5-2) in the first round of WHL Playoffs. The Pats, Rebels and Warriors all finish their respective regular season schedules on Saturday.

The Raiders and Blades go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon to close out their respective regular season schedules. After that clash, the focus turns to the WHL post-season.

The Raiders salute their fans after their win on Friday night.

As Raiders fans have known for some time, Christensen has been an outstanding leader for the team. As he is playing out his final season of WHL eligibility, you can expect Christensen will do whatever he can in his power to help his squad conclude the 2025-26 campaign in a blaze of glory.

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Raiders one win away from top spot in Eastern Conference

Prince Albert downs Regina 8-4 to reach 50^th victory  

The Raiders enjoy the 20th goal from Alisher Sarkenov (#24) this season.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – One down. One to go.

The Prince Albert Raiders are one win away from locking up first place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. On Tuesday playing before 2,511 spectators at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre, the Raiders downed the visiting Regina Pats 8-4 in a WHL regular season contest for a fourth straight victory.

With the win, the Raiders improve to 50-10-5-1 marking the first time they’ve won 50-or-more games in a season since going 54-10-2-2 back in the 2018-19 campaign when they last won the WHL title and also topped the WHL’s regular season standings.

Ben Harvey had two goals for the Raiders on Tuesday.

In the current day, the Raiders need to win one of their final two games in order to lock up top spot in the Eastern Conference for the first time since that WHL championship season and ensure second place finish in the overall WHL standings. Standing in the Raiders way are their archrivals in the Saskatoon Blades.

Those two clubs close their respective regular season schedules playing a home-and-home series against each other. The Raiders will first attempt to take top spot at home on Friday, when they host the Blades at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre. If Prince Albert isn’t able to take that contest, the Raiders get a second chance on Saturday when they meet the Blades at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

Keets Fawcett scored his 30th goal of the campaign for the Pats.

The Raiders currently sit two points up on the Medicine Hat Tigers (48-10-5-3). Prince Albert would lock up top spot in the conference with one more win due to being assured of claiming a standings tiebreaker of finishing with more wins than Medicine Hat in that scenario. The Raiders are rated fourth in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, while the Tigers are rated fifth in the ratings.

Prince Albert opened the scoring of Tuesday’s clash with Regina right after killing the first penalty of the contest in the first period.

Right when the kill came to an end, Raiders rookie defenceman Benett Kelly, who turned 18 in February, got a hold of the puck in his own zone a fired a pass up to centre ice to Raiders 16-year-old right-winger Ben Harvey, who just got out of the penalty box after serving a minor infraction. Harvey jetted into the Regina zone on a breakaway and fired home his 13^th marker of the year through the legs of Pats netminder Marek Schlenker to put the host side up 1-0 at the 5:49 mark of the frame.

Braeden Cootes had one goal and two assists for the Raiders.

Just 2:26 into the second, Raiders star centre Braeden Cootes popped home his 23^rd of the season from low in the left faceoff circle to push the host side’s lead out to 2-0. The Pats responded 59 seconds later when rookie left-winger Mathis Paull, who turned 17 in late January, snipped home his seventh of the campaign on a two-on-one break to cut the Raiders lead to 2-1.

Right before the midway point of the second, Raiders right-wingers Riley Boychuk and Jonah Sivertson netted singles to give the Raiders a 4-1 advantage. Prince Albert took that three-goal lead into the second intermission holding a 28-11 edge in shots on goal.

Mathis Paull had one goal for the Pats on Tuesday.

Just 71 seconds into the third, Pats left-winger Keets Fawcett netted his 30^th goal of the season, and star defenceman Reese Hamilton tallied on the power play at the 9:03 mark of the frame to cut Prince Albert’s lead to 4-3.

Raiders 18-year-old import left-winger Alisher Sarkenov proceeded to put home a backhander from the front of the Regina net for his 20^th goal of the season. Brayden Dube and Max Heise proceeded to add singles for Prince Albert to make the host’s lead sit at 7-3.

Pats 19-year-old centre Ellis Mieyette proceeded to score for Regina and Harvey picked up his second of the contest for the hosts to round out the 8-4 final in favour of the Raiders.

With Sarkenov hitting the 20-goal mark, the Raiders now have nine players on their team who have scored 20-or-more goals this season, which is the most for the club since the 1985-86 campaign.

Alisher Sarkenov is 20-goal man number nine for the Raiders.

For the current Raiders, their 20-goal scorers include Heise (29), Daxon Rudolph (28), Aiden Oiring (28), Brandon Gorzynski (27), Cootes (23), Sivertson (23), Dube (22), Maddix McCagherty (20) and Sarkenov (20).

The Raiders 20-goal scorers from the 1985-86 campaign included Pat Elynuik (53), Ryan Stewart (52), Dale McFee (47), Tony Grenier (42), Steve Gotaas (40), Kim Issel (29), Scott Kruger (26), Emanuel Viveiros (22) and Rod Dallman (20).

Michal Orsulak stopped 19 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Cootes had a pair of assists to go with his goal and finished with a plus-two rating in the plus-minus department.

Schlenker turned away 34-of-40 shots to take the setback in net for the Pats. He was pulled after the Raiders sixth goal at the 11:11 mark of the third period.

Jonah Sivertson scored for the Raiders on Tuesday.

Associate player call up in 16-year-old Drake Mooney played the rest of the way in relief turning away 7-of-9 shots sent his way. Mooney had been playing with the Prairie Hockey Academy U18 Prep team in Moose Jaw, Sask.

The Pats fall to 25-32-7-2 with the loss and are still holding on to seventh place in the Eastern Conference. They need one more standings point to clinch a berth in the WHL Playoffs.

The Pats close their regular season schedule with a home-and-home series with the Brandon Wheat Kings. The two sides play on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Brandt Centre in Regina on Friday, and they meet again on Saturday at Assiniboine Credit Union Place in Brandon at 6 p.m. local time.

The Raiders celebrate their 50th win of the season on Tuesday.

Now, the Raiders turn their attention to Friday’s home game against the Blades. If the Raiders take that clash to capture a first place finish in the Eastern Conference, the party is going to be on for their faithful in “Hockey Town North.”

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Raiders rally past Blades in Valentine’s Day heart stopper

Prince Albert takes tiebreaking shootout 2-0 and contest 5-4

The Raiders celebrate their win on Saturday night.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Sometimes the Prince Albert Raiders have to live out the phrase, “Just win baby.”

The Raiders found a way to do just that in taking on their archrivals the Saskatoon Blades in a regular season clash on Saturday, which was also Valentine’s Day. The contest was likely both thrilling and hard on the hearts for the fans of both squads. The hosts took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission only for the visitor to score four straight in the first 7:42 of the second to surge ahead 4-2.

Prince Albert proceeded to rally back by scoring once during the remaining time in the second and the equalizer in the third to force a 4-4 tie. After the two sides played through a scoreless three-versus-three overtime period, 20-year-old centre Aiden Oiring and star centre Braeden Cootes scored as the first two shooters in the tiebreaking shootout to allow the Raiders to take that session 2-0 and the overall game 5-4 to the delight of most of the 2,892 spectators at the 2,580 seat storied and historic Art Hauser Centre.

Aiden Oiring (#19) puts the shootout winner past Evan Gardner.

The win came off the heels of the Raiders dropping a 4-3 decision to the Wheat Kings in Brandon on Friday. That setback saw Raiders 19-year-old import defenceman Matyas Man be given a suspension with a length to be determined for his part in a second period fight with Wheat Kings 18-year-old right-winger Joby Baumuller, who was injured in the bout.

Man was given a roughing minor, an unsportsmanlike conduct minor, a fighting major and a game misconduct for that fight, while Baumuller was given a fighting major.

Aiden Oiring had an assist in regulation time on Saturday.

After the eight hour bus trip back to Prince Albert, Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald was pleased his side found a way to take Saturday’s clash with the Blades.

“Guys dug deep,” said McDonald. “You know what, we had some tough travel coming back, no excuses, and that is what that room does in there.

“They dig deep right till the end, and it took us 65 plus to get the two points, and those guys played hard right till the bitter end.”

The Raiders, who are rated second in the latest CHL Top 10 Rankings, built their 2-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes with goals coming off the sticks of Ben Harvey and Brandon Gorzynski. Harvey, who is a 16-year-old rookie right-winger, deflected home a backhand shot rookie 18-year-old import left-winger Alisher Sarkenov at the 3:47 mark of the first.

Brayden Klimpke had a pair of assists for the Blades.

Gorzynski put an off-speed shot from the point home through a screen with 25.4 seconds remaining in the opening frame to give the Raiders their two-goal edge.

The Blades quickly erased that advantaged by scoring four straight goals in the first 7:42 of the second to take 4-2 lead. Hunter Laing, with his 21^st goal of the campaign, David Lewandowski, Ben Bowtell and captain Tyler Parr all had singles in the surge. 

Parr capped the goal explosion scoring on a breakaway. With that tally, Parr now has goals in four straight games.

“I think some of our puck management and our risk management started to go a little bit,” said McDonald. “We got under some pucks.

“They started flying some guys out of the zone, and they started getting some rush opportunities. Give them credit, (because) they capitalized on some of our mistakes. Halfway through the second period, the guys snapped back in, and were getting strong through the middle.

Justice Christensen had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

“We had numbers in the picture. We were able to kill those rush opportunities for them and get pucks going back into the other direction.”

Just 51 seconds after Parr’s goal put the Blades in front 4-2, the Raiders got a key traction marker from sophomore right-winger Riley Boychuk, who tipped a puck home from the front of the Saskatoon net. Boychuk got his stick on a shot taken by Gorzynski from the left side boards in the Saskatoon zone.

“It was huge,” said Oiring of his linemate’s goal. “They had a couple of quick ones back to back there.

“When we went out there, we had to shift the momentum a little bit, just put her deep. We got a lucky bounce to put her in the net.”

The Raiders celebrate a first period goal by Ben Harvey (#20).

At the 5:22 mark of the third, the Raiders evened the game’s score at 4-4, when 17-year-old right-winger Brandon Sivertson shoveled home the puck from the front of the Saskatoon net collecting a rebound from a shot he took. Sivertson’s tally was his 19^th goal of the campaign.

“Everyone in our group, we battle right to the end,” said Sivertson. “It is important for everyone to battle hard.”

Both teams had their chances to pull ahead through the remainder of the third. In overtime, Blades 18-year-old centre Kazden Mathies was stopped by Raiders star netminder Michal Orsulak on an early breakaway. That was the Blades only shot on goal in overtime, while the Raiders couldn’t find the back of the Saskatoon net with their seven shots on goal.

Hunter Laing had the Blades first goal on Saturday.

That set the stage for the tiebreaking shootout, where Oiring and Cootes both fired home goals low to the stick side on Blades star netminder Evan Gardner. 

Oiring, who had an assist in regulation time, said the Raiders coaches do scouting work to give the players options on what to do in the shootout.

“We definitely have an idea in our head, and we have a plan A going down,” said Oiring, whose team is 2-0 in tiebreaking shootouts this season. “If we see it, we execute it, but if not, there is a plan B that we are thinking off.

“I think both the shooters really stuck with plan A there.”

Orsulak stopped 18 shots over 65 minutes and both shooters he faced in the shootout to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. 

Tyler Parr scored the Blades fourth goal on Saturday.

Gardner turned away 32 shots over 65 minutes and didn’t turn away any shooters in the shootout to take the extra time setback in net for the Blades.

Raiders captain and star defenceman Justice Christensen finished with two assists and a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department. Blades offensive-defenceman Brayden Klimpke finished with two assists and a plus-one rating.

With the win, the Raiders improved to 41-8-5 to remain first in the Eastern Conference and second overall in the WHL. The Blades remained sixth overall in the Eastern Conference as their record moved to 27-22-4-2.

The Raiders return to action on Monday when they host the Moose Jaw Warriors (2 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Brock Cripps brings the puck up ice for the Raiders.

The Blades also get back at it on Monday when they travel to Brandon to face the Wheat Kings (2:30 p.m., Assiniboine Credit Union Place).

After the Raiders tied Saturday’s game in the third, McDonald was pleased his players didn’t get discouraged when they couldn’t take the lead in the rest of that frame or win it in overtime. The bench boss liked how his players continued to battle.

“Sometimes it takes longer than 60 minutes,” said McDonald. “In this case tonight, it took 65 plus, but that is our group.

The Raiders salute their faithful at the Art Hauser Centre.

“We just keep pushing and pushing and pushing until we find a way to get it done.”

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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