Raiders deliver big send off

“Hockey Town North” faithful treated to 5-1 season ending win

Captain Tim Vanstone salutes the Prince Albert fans.

    PRINCE ALBERT - “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon” was ringing through the rafters of the Art Hauser Centre with over a minute to play in Saturday’s WHL game.

    It was that good of a night for the host Raiders, who downed their arch rivals the Saskatoon Blades 5-1 before a crammed crowd of 2,953 spectators. The Blades got out to a 1-0 lead in the first period, before the Raiders roared back with five straight goals through the final 40 minutes.

    Fitting a traditional clash between the Raiders and Blades, the night also contained a couple of fights and a few scrums. The win allowed the Raiders to finish the regular season with a 21-44-5-2 record, which included posting a 13-13-4 record after the WHL’s trade deadline passed on Jan. 10.

    While the Raiders had been long eliminated from playoff contention, overage captain Tim Vanstone said that Saturday’s win was still a good way for him to go out along with his overage teammates Kolten Olynek and Cavin Leth.

    “I didn’t script it like this for sure,” said Vanstone. “It just shows how much everyone cared.

    “We pulled for each other. It wasn’t just for me, Cavin (Leth) and Olyny (Olynek). It was for everybody.

    “This crest means way more than gold to a lot of those guys in that room. I think the foundation has been set, and they are just going to roll with it next year.”

Captain Tim Vanstone jets up ice for the Raiders.

    Vanstone played all five seasons of his major junior career with the Raiders having been selected in the third round and 52^nd overall by the club in the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft. The Swift Current product appeared in 299 career regular season games collecting 36 goals, 58 assists and 318 penalty minutes. He couldn’t imagine spending his career anywhere else.

    “I think you just look back and put it in perspective I guess the hard times, the good times and the long bus trips,” said Vanstone. “It is all worth it at the end of the day.

    “I think the biggest thing for me is I spent it in the same place. I went to the same places to eat. I saw the people at the same places.

    “No matter how good your game was or how bad your game was, they love you no matter what.”

    During the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s games, the Blades were doing their best to spoil the Raiders home finale. At the 5:39 mark of the opening frame, Blades winger Mason McCarty potted the rebound from a point shot to put the visitors ahead 1-0.

Simon Stransky controls the puck on the power play for the Raiders.

    Momentum changed in the second period, when Czech winger Simon Stransky went to work for the Raiders. He popped home a pair of goals to put the Raiders ahead 2-1.

    He then combined with Leth to set up winger Curtis Miske to score off a backdoor play while working on a power play to extend the host’s edge to 3-1. Miske’s tally was his 20^th goal of the season.

    The Raiders kept rolling in the third, when centre Adam Kadlec and defenceman Cody Paivarinta tallied singles one minute and 34 seconds apart from each other.

    Ian Scott made 24 stops to pick up the win goal for the Raiders. Brock Hamm stopped 26 shots to take the loss in goal for the Blades.

    Vanstone ended up engaged with Blades defenceman Evan Fiala in a second period fight and finished his final WHL outing with a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department and 19 minutes in penalties.

    When the Raiders overage players were called out as the game’s three stars, Vanstone took a decent sized lap to salute the fans.

Mason McCarty gave the Blades an early 1-0 lead.

    He said he loved how the fans in Prince Albert always came up to talk to him, ask how he was, ask how the team was doing and offer encouragement. He admitted he was going to miss those interactions saying the community is very close knit being in one of the league’s smaller markets.

    “Everyone in P.A. made P.A. everything to me,” said Vanstone. “I think that is how I can sum it up is absolutely that.

    “I am so grateful for the experience. I am going to be a Raider until I die that is for sure.”

    The Blades fell to 28-35-7-2 with the loss and missed the playoffs for a fourth straight year. The Calgary Hitmen (30-32-8-2) finished five points ahead of the Blades for eight overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and the conference’s second wildcard berth.

    After Saskatoon won what turned out to be an emotional final home game on Friday where they beat the Raiders 5-3 and were officially eliminated from playoffs, Blades head coach Dean Brockman said his side had a bit of an expected letdown on Saturday. He said the reality of the fact the season was over hadn’t totally hit him yet.

    “It will hit me when we go to work Monday, and we don’t have to practice,” said Brockman. “There are a lot of things to digest where we went right and where we went wrong.

Adam Kadlec sets to fire a shot on goal for the Raiders.

    “There will be evaluations with our guys, with our management group. Obviously, it is very disappointing we are not continuing our season. Through all the adversity I thought we made some strides this year.”

    Going forward, Brockman believes the Blades have a lot of bright lights in players like forward Michael Farren and Chase Wouters, who concluded their 16-year-old season, and centre Kirby Dach, who will officially enter his 16-year-old season in the upcoming campaign.
    Dach, who was selected by the Blades second overall in last year’s WHL Bantam Draft, finished out this season in Saskatoon as a call up from the midget AAA ranks until getting hurt in the team’s fifth last game of the season.

    “For not knowing a lot about Michael Farren, he did really well,” said Brockman. “I think maybe if there was anything he ran out of gas later in the year.

Parker Kelly celebrates the Raiders win.

    “(Chase Wouters) is just a character kid that works and works and works. Those guys are going to be big cornerstones.

    “Kirby is going to be a good player. You don’t want to put too much pressure on the young guy, but he has got a bright future that is for sure.”

    As for the present on Saturday, the night belonged to the Raiders, and Vanstone was pleased to relish one last memory with the fans from “Hockey Town North.”

    “You can’t teach loyalty, and this city is all about it,” he said.

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

Warriors down Raiders in thriller

Warriors F Noah Gregor scores on Raiders G Rylan Parenteau.

    PRINCE ALBERT - If all games between the Moose Jaw Warriors and the Prince Albert Raiders are going to be as good as this one, here is hoping their opening round WHL playoff series goes the distance to Game 7.

    The Warriors downed the Raiders 3-2 in a thriller in Game 1 on Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre before 2,782 spectators. Both teams engaged in frantic action up and down the ice. Shaw television had to be thanking their lucky stars they decided to broadcast that contest for its entertainment value, and the WHL head office staffers had to felt they hit a jackpot.

    Goaltenders Rylan Parenteau of the Raiders and Zach Sawchenko of the Warriors each stood on their heads making 36 and 32 stops respectively. The consensus among NHL scouts has been that the quality of goaltending on average had been down in the WHL this season, but you wouldn’t have known that the way the series opener between Moose Jaw and Prince Albert played out.

    After a scoreless opening frame, the Raiders drew first blood in Friday’s clash at the 8:17 mark of the second, when Reid Gardiner blasted home a shot on the power play to give the hosts a 1-0 edge.

    The Warriors countered just seconds into their first power play at the 14:17 mark of the frame on a tally from star captain Brayden Point. The Art Hauser Centre crowd that had worked their way into a frenzy had the wind momentarily knocked out of their sails.

    Moose Jaw dealt the home side faithful two more gut shots going ahead 3-1 in the third.

Jesse Lees missed a late chance to tie the game.

    First, Point and linemate Noah Gregor broke in on a two-on-one break, and Point fed a perfect pass across the face of the Raiders goal to Gregor, who knocked home the puck past Parenteau.

    At the 13:51 mark, Gregor potted his second goal of the night on a turnaround shot. The Warriors first unit of Point, Gregor and Dryden Hunt came out against a tired Raiders unit after an icing call on the offensive faceoff that eventually resulted in the third goal. Prince Albert elected to not use a timeout.

    The Warriors weren’t able to enjoy the two-goal cushion for long. Just 34 seconds after they went ahead 3-1, Raiders right-winger Austin Glover knocked home a shot from the left side of the Moose Jaw goal to cut the visitors edge to 3-2. The tally reignited the gathering at the Art Hauser Centre.

    The Raiders proceeded to make a big push in the game’s final moments. With under two minutes to play, overage defenceman Jesse Lees had a golden chance to pick up the equalizer down low, but he fired a shot over top of the Warriors goal.

    In the final seconds of the third, the puck slid over to Gardiner down in the left slot of the Moose Jaw zone, but the veteran, who netted 43 goals in the regular season, fanned on his shot.

Simon Stransky (#23) steals the puck from Dryden Hunt (#29)

    The Warriors were elated at the end of the game to skate away with a victory. The only drawback for them in the contest was losing Russian forward Nikita Popugaev to a right leg injury after he received a hit along the boards in the first period.

    Both clubs also picked up the physical play throwing a handful of good hits each.

    While Prince Albert supports left disappointed about the end result on the scoreboard, Game 1 of the Raiders series against the Warriors was a hit.

    And you know what the best part is? Both teams go at it again in Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m. local time at the Art Hauser Centre.

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