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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

“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.

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.

“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.

“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.

-------

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.

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.

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.

Raiders to face playoff intensity out of gate in Rebels

The Raiders salute their fans at the Art Hauser Centre last Friday.

Getting the Red Deer Rebels first in the WHL Playoffs might be a good thing for the Prince Albert Raiders.

After topping the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 52-10-5-1 mark finishing the regular season with six straight wins, the Raiders will face real playoff intensity against the Rebels, who finished eighth in the conference 26-36-5-2. Two sides are set to engage in a best-of-seven first round series with Games 1 and 2 set for Friday and Saturday respectively at 7 p.m. at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre.

By tradition, the Raiders and Rebels are mirror images of each other. When they are at their best, they play with great skill offensively, grind out games, play physically, bring a strong work ethic and possess a never quit mentality. The Raiders traditional style dates back to when Terry Simpson was the team’s head coach and general manager, and the Rebels traditionally mirror in the image of their longtime general manager and owner in Brent Sutter.

The Raiders do go into the series with an edge in the experience department. Prince Albert is carrying a roster with five players in the 17-year-old age group and three players in the 16-year-old age group before adding in associate player call ups.

The Rebels are carrying 11 players in their 17-year-old seasons, and five of those players make up the seven skaters on their defensive unit. One of those overall 17-year-olds in centre Beckett Hamilton led the Rebels in scoring with 62 points coming off 24 goals and 38 assists, while 17-year-old right-winger Kalder Varga had 21 goals and 37 points.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

Raiders’ Dube gets confidence boost as regular season ends

Prince Albert blanks Saskatoon 4-0 heading into WHL Playoffs 

The Raiders celebrate the first of two goals from Brayden Dube (#15).

Brayden Dube got the goal-scoring tune up he was looking for heading into his final foray into the WHL Playoffs.

On Saturday, the 20-year-old star right-winger fired home a pair of goals to power his Prince Albert Raiders to a 4-0 victory over the host Saskatoon Blades before 10,861 spectators at the SaskTel Centre. Dube accounted for the Raiders final two markers, and they both came in the second period.

At the 3:45 mark of the second, the Raiders rushed into the Saskatoon zone and defenceman Linden Burrett had the puck just inside the top of the right faceoff circle. He passed the puck down to Dube at the doorstep of the left side of the Saskatoon net, and the Roblin, Man., product one-timed home his first tally of the night to give the Raiders a 3-0 advantage.

Brayden Dube had 24 goals and 27 assists in 55 regular season games.

Dube proceeded to pick up his second goal at the 10:14 mark of the second with his squad working on the power play. Raiders star left-winger Brandon Gorzynski had the puck just coming off the right side boards in the Saskatoon zone and passed the puck to Dube, who was positioned at the top of the left faceoff circle.

Dube one-timed home a laser beam to the top right corner of the Saskatoon net. That tally put the Raiders up by the game’s final score of 4-0.

“It felt really nice, especially before playoffs to get that confidence up,” said Dube, who finished the regular season with 24 goals, 27 assists and plus-20 rating in the plus-minus department in 55 regular season contests. “Hopefully, it leads into playoffs coming up.”

Brayden Dube will make his final foray into the WHL Playoffs.

The win allowed the Raiders to finish with a 52-10-5-1 record. They were locked into finishing first in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings entering play on Saturday.

The 52 victories allowed the current Raiders, who are rated fourth in the CHL’s Top 10 Rankings, to match their 1985-86 team for posting the third highest regular season win total in the club’s history in the WHL. The 1985-86 Raiders posted a record of 52 wins, 17 losses and three ties.

The Blades fell to 34-27-5-2 with the setback. They entered play on Saturday locked into finishing sixth in the Eastern Conference.

Hubert Clarke (#8) fights Triston Mitchell-McElhone (#25).

Having joined the Raiders in a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds early into his rookie season in the WHL in 2022-23, Dube said the current campaign has been his most memorable major junior season. He has enjoyed being on a Raiders side this season where he has been one of nine players who has scored 20-or-more goals. The last time the Raiders had nine players score 20-or-more goals was back in the 1985-86 season.

“It is obviously nice,” said Dube, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 184 pounds. “We can just roll lines.

“Every line is just really, really good. Having lots of goal scorers, it is a good mixture. Every game someone else is having a game, and the next game someone else gets a couple.

Alisher Sarkenov had one goal and one assist for the Raiders.

“It just works out perfect.”

While Dube has been part of a large mix of Raiders players who have had good seasons in 2025-26, Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald does not downplay how big of a part the veteran forward has been for the team.

“He has been huge,” said McDonald. “I mean his pace, the way he skates, the way he can drive the puck inside the dots with his skating and his release is tremendous.

“He is very effective on the hunt and gets under sticks and is able to close on guys quickly on the forecheck. He can also take away time and space on the track and really push the track as well. He does a tremendous job with his battle and is just a big piece of our puzzle.”

Daxon Rudolph had a slick assist for the Raiders.

McDonald said it was great to see Dube find the back of the net twice right before the Raiders embark on their journey through the WHL Playoffs.

“It is about confidence,” said McDonald. “He missed a little bit of time there.

“(It is) really nice to stack up some games for him here towards the end. It is really nice to see him get rewarded.”

In Saturday’s game, the rivalry between the Raiders and Blades hit high-level intensity shortly after the opening puck drop.

Just 19 seconds into the contest, a fight broke out between Raiders 18-year-old rookie defenceman Hubert Clarke and Blades 17-year-old rookie centre Triston Mitchell-McElhone. The two players were tied up for much of the lengthy bout with Mitchell-McElhone getting in the majority of hard punches.

Jonah Sivertson had the Raiders second goal on Saturday.

The Blades came out with some good early jump holding a 6-3 edge in shots on goal early in the opening frame. The momentum changed at the 8:33 mark of the stanza.

Raiders starting netminder Steele Bass passed the puck to rookie defenceman Benett Kelly to start a rush up ice. Kelly drove into the Saskatoon zone and fired a shot on net that was turned away with a blocker stop from Blades star netminder Evan Gardner.

Raiders rookie import 18-year-old left-winger Alisher Sarkenov picked up the rebound in the left faceoff circle and drove home his 21^st goal of the campaign to put the Raiders in front 1-0.

With 5:18 remaining in the opening frame and working on the power play, the Raiders would score again on another offensive zone rush. Raiders star defenceman Daxon Rudolph made a backhanded pass in his own zone to Sarkenov to spring the import forward up ice on a rush.

Steele Bass made 30 saves to pick up the shutout win.

Sarkenov jetted down the left wing into the Saskatoon zone and passed the puck to the front of the Blades net to 17-year-old rookie right-winger Jonah Sivertson. Sivertson promptly fired home his 24^th goal of the season to push the Raiders lead out to 2-0.

When the first period ended, a scrum developed. While no big fights came out of the scrum, Bass and Gardner started skating towards centre ice to potentially have a goalie fight. Both netminders were intercepted by the officials and sent to their respective dressing rooms for the intermission.

“It is definitely a big rivalry,” said Dube. “Every time we play, it gets a little rough as you could tell.

“(There are) a couple of fights every game. Both sides want to win every time you play each other.”

Brandon Gorzynski had an assist on the Raiders fourth goal.

After Dube scored his second goal of the night in the second period, the Blades pulled Gardner. He stopped 20-of-24 shots to take the setback in net for Saskatoon. Riley Budd played the rest of the way in the Blades net in relief stopping all nine shots sent his way.

In the third, the two sides engaged in a major scrum with 1:44 remaining in the frame. Out of that scrum, a main event fight developed between Sivertson and Blades veteran defenceman Jack Kachkowski. Sivertson got the better of Kachkowski in that tilt and ended the bout with a takedown.

The two clubs proceeded to play a peaceful final 1:44 to end the contest.

Bass stopped 30 shots he faced to pick up the shutout win in goal for the Raiders. The shutout was the third of the season for Bass.

The Raiders and Blades scrum it up with 1:44 left in the third.

Kelly finished with two assists and a plus-one rating for the Raiders.

As the Raiders and Blades closed their respective regular season schedules on Saturday and couldn’t make any movements in the standings, they both scratched veterans and played younger lineups. McDonald was pleased with the effort of the players who took the ice for his side on Saturday.

“I thought the group did a great job,” said McDonald. “They pushed right off the start, and again, we answered.

“We continued to play fast. We continued to play north and got to our pace and got to our forecheck, which led to some offensive zone time and some chances for us. The guys did a great job capitalizing and just continued to stick with it and played a real simple road game.”

Jonah Sivertson (#28) fights Jack Kachkowski (#37).

Now both clubs turn their attention to the WHL Playoffs.

The Blades play a first round series against the Edmonton Oil Kings, who are locked into a third place finish in the Eastern Conference going into their final regular season contest hosting the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday. Game 1 of the best-of-seven first round series between the Blades and Oil Kings is slated for Friday at 7 p.m. local time at Rogers Place.

The Raiders will battle the Red Deer Rebels in a best-of-seven first round series. The Rebels finished eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 26-36-4-2 mark. Game 1 of that series is set for Friday at 7 p.m. at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.

Reflecting on the upcoming post-season, Dube said he is looking forward to having a final playoff run with the Raiders and especially with fellow 20-year-olds and longtime teammates in star centre Aiden Oiring and captain Justice Christensen.

The Raiders celebrate their win on Saturday.

“I’ve been with them my whole career, and it has been an honour playing with them,” said Dube. “We’ve got a lot of games left, so it is going to be fun.”

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.

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.

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.

Raiders in rare air with 20-goal men

Maddix McCagherty (#17) celebrates scoring his 20th goal last Friday.

Do you like 20-goal men?

While the Prince Albert Raiders have lots of 20-goal men – eight to be exact. Entering play on Tuesday, they include Daxon Rudolph (28), Aiden Oiring (28), Max Heise (28), Brandon Gorzynski (27), Braeden Cootes (22), Jonah Sivertson (22), Brayden Dube (21) and Maddix McCagherty (20). At the moment, 18-year-old import rookie left-winger Alisher Sarkenov is sitting on 19 goals. If he scores one more goal, that would give the Raiders nine 20-goals scorers.

The Raiders 2018-19 WHL title winning team didn’t even have eight 20-goal scorers. The five players who hit the 20-goal mark in that campaign included Noah Gregor (43), Brett Leason (36), Parker Kelly (35), Cole Fonstad (29) and Sean Montgomery (29).

The last time the Raiders had eight players who hit the 20-goal plateau was back in the 1991-92 campaign. The players that hit the 20-goal mark that season included Lee Leslie (52), Jeff Nelson (48), Dan Kesa (46), Dean McAmmond (37), Donevan Hextall (33), Curtis Regnier (30), David Neilson (25) and Jeff Gorman (23).

If Sarkenov scores one more goal to hit 20, it would give the Raiders nine players who hit the 20-goal plateau for the first time since the 1985-86 campaign. That season they 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).

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

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.”

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.