 |
| Noah Gregor, centre, celebrates scoring his second goal for the Raiders. |
This rerun,
however, had a bit of an extra edge in the nasty department in the Raiders rivalry
with the Saskatoon Blades.
After
skating through a scoreless opening period, the Raiders romped to a 6-1 victory
over the Blades before a sellout crowd of 3,289 spectators at the 2,580 seat
Art Hauser Centre in Game 5 of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series.
With the
win, the Raiders take a 3-2 advantage in the series. They will look to close
things out in Game 6 on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
Exactly a
week ago in the same building, the Raiders opened the series thrashing the
Blades 6-1 before a sellout crowd of 3,289 spectators.
 |
| Noah Gregor (#18) jets down the ice on a short-handed breakaway. |
He stopped 19
shots fired his way. Associate player call up Koen MacInnes, who turned
17-years-old in January and was playing for the Burnaby Winter Club Prep team,
didn’t face any shots in his relief appearance.
Dorrin
Luding, who is the Blades regular backup goalie, was sidelined with an upper
body injury like in Games 1 and 2. He dressed for Games 3 and 4 of the series in
Saskatoon.
Unlike Game
1, Game 5 contained a lot more high tension play. It was obvious these teams
were meeting for the 13th time including action in the regular
season and playoffs and a healthy dose of dislike was present.
 |
| Dante Hannoun had a pair of goals and an assist for the Raiders. |
Shortly
after the 11-minute part of the period, Raiders power forward Parker Kelly ran
into Maier.
Both McKay
and Kelly received goaltender interference penalties for their respective hits.
The biggest
head raising collision came with 6-1 burned on the scoreboard and 5:08
remaining in the third period.
At that
moment, Raiders physical forward Justin Nachbaur drilled Blades overage offensive
defenceman Dawson Davidson hard into the boards in the Saskatoon zone after
Davidson had just passed the puck behind his own net. Davidson was helped off the ice and didn’t return to the game.
 |
| Brett Leason (#20) had three assists for the Raiders. |
Nachbaur
has been suspended in the past by the WHL for his rough play on the ice, and
that fact might weigh into this situation.
When the
contest finished, you can bet some of the fans on both teams were sharing upset
views over social media lines, which might have made those lines toxic to be on
for a short time.
Still the
difference in the game was the fact a trio of star players from the Raiders
broke out on the scoreboard making up for the absence of star left-winger Cole
Fonstad, who was scratched with an undisclosed injury.
 |
| The Blades lost defenceman Dawson Davidson due to injury. |
Gregor had
been held pointless in Games 3 and 4 in Saskatoon, and Leason was held
pointless in his three previous games. The breakout of that duo, who were Prince
Albert’s top two scorers in the regular season, was the biggest factor Game 5
turned into a romp.
Both had
gone through extended periods of being snakebitten in the previous two games of
the series.
Going into
Friday’s contest, Maier was coming off two sensational performances for the
Blades in their wins in Games 3 and 4 at home turning away 69-of-70 shots sent
his way in those outings.
 |
| Raiders fans cheer on one of their team’s goals. |
That
tension gave way to constant cheering once the second period started.
Just 2:51
into the second period, Hannoun netted his first of two goals in the game
firing home a point shot through a screen on the power play to give the Raiders
a 1-0 edge.
The host’s
edge expanded to 2-0 thanks to a spectacular short-handed breakaway goal by
Gregor at the 6:01 mark of the frame.
Just over
three minutes later, the Blades appeared to stop the Raiders momentum, when
import defenceman Emil Malysjev fired home his first goal of the post-season.
 |
| Sean Montgomery scored for the Raiders on Friday. |
Import
left-winger Aliaksei Protas scored 61 seconds into the third to give the
Raiders a 4-1 advantage.
Hannoun,
with his second of the contest, and overage centre Sean Montgomery rounded out
the Raiders scoring in the third.
Scott
stopped 26 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders.
With the
victory, the Raiders are on the verge of extending their magical season where
they topped the WHL’s overall regular season standings with a 54-10-2-2 record
and were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings.
One more
win and the Raiders will advance to the WHL Eastern Conference championship
series for the first time since falling to the Brandon Wheat Kings in seven
games in 2005.
 |
| The Raiders celebrate their win on Friday night. |
No matter
what happens in Game 6 on Sunday, the rivalry between the Raiders and Blades
has hit new heights that haven’t been seen for some time.
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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