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| Sean Montgomery, centre, celebrates his hat trick goal for the Raiders. |
A sellout crowd of 3,289 at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre
had lots to cheer and relish on Friday night as the host Raiders thumped their
hated rivals the Saskatoon Blade 6-1 in Game 1 of a best-of-seven WHL Eastern
Conference semifinal series. Game2 of the series is set for Sunday at 6 p.m. at
Art Hauser.
In the romp, the Raiders showed why they finished first
overall in the WHL regular season standings posting a 54-10-2-2 record and were
rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings.
The victory was so definite that the Blades, who finished
fourth overall in the WHL with a 45-15-8 mark and were an honourable mention in
the final CHL Top 10 rankings, looked like they didn’t belong on the same ice
surface as the Raiders.
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| Sean Montgomery jets into the offensive zone for the Raiders. |
As far as Game 1 was concerned, that whole situation became
a non-story. If the rest of the series plays out like Game 1 did, the Raiders
figuratively could sweep the best-of-seven series against the Blades in three
contests.
The fans at the Art Hauser Centre weren’t going to show
their rivals any sympathy either.
During a television timeout with 12:56 remaining in the third
period, the Blades pulled starting netminder Nolan Maier, when they were down
5-1. Maier turned away 31-of-36 shots taking the setback in goal for the Blades.
Associate player call up Koen MacInnes, who turned
17-years-old in January and was playing for the Burnaby Winter Club Prep team,
stopped two of three shots in relief to mark his debut in the WHL.
Dorrin
Luding, who is the Blades regular backup goalie, was sidelined with an upper
body injury.
 |
| Parker Kelly scored twice for the Raiders on Friday. |
When MacInnes took the ice to play goal, the Raiders fans chanted,
“We want Maier.”
That was a move that showed no mercy and mirrored the crowds
that pack Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg, Man., to cheer on the NHL’s Jets.
Overage centre Sean Montgomery, who is a career member of
the Raiders, posted his first career hat trick in the WHL having played 345
regular season games and 17 post-season contests.
Star right-winger Brett Leason had a goal and three assists.
Combined with what his father Darryl accomplished as the quarterback of the
Regina Rams football team in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Leason family is
6-0 against Saskatoon based teams in the post-season.
 |
| The Raiders fans cheer on their team at the Art Hauser Centre. |
Still, Friday’s game started out as a competitive one.
At the 3:47 mark of the opening frame, Montgomery popped
home his first of the contest from in front of the Saskatoon net to give the
Raiders a 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, the Blades evened things up at
1-1, when captain Chase Wouters knocked home the rebound of a shot taken by
overage rearguard Brandon Schuldhaus.
With 7:53 remaining in the first, Leason backhanded home the
rebound of a shot taken by veteran Raiders defenceman Jeremy Masella to give
the host side a 2-1 edge.
 |
| Brett Leason had a goal and three assists for the Raiders. |
At that point, the Prince Albert side hit high gear, while
the wheels fell off for Saskatoon.
With 8:21 remaining in the second, Leason one-handed a pass
from the left boards to Montgomery, who sniped his second tally of the night to
the top left corner of the Saskatoon goal to give the Raiders a 3-1 advantage.
Prince Albert extended its advantage to 4-1 with 2:18
remaining in the second period, when Kelly chipped the puck home from the right
side of the Saskatoon goal after receiving a smart pass from import defenceman Sergei
Sapego.
Montgomery recorded his hat trick goal at the 5:51 mark of
the third with the Raiders working the power play. Kelly rounded out the game’s
scoring with a power-play goal of his own with 6:20 remaining in the third.
Kelly’s power-play tally came with Blades standout
right-winger Ryan Hughes serving a double minor for high-sticking.
That
infraction will trigger an automatic review by the WHL office for a possible
suspension.
 |
| A Raiders fan has a sign for the Blades. |
Ian Scott made 23 saves to pick up the win in goal for the
Raiders.
The Raiders delivered hits that pleased their faithful too.
Rookie right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt rocked Blades star centre Kirby Dach into
the right corner boards of the Saskatoon zone in the second period.
Sophomore Raiders centre Eric Pearce nailed Blades import
defenceman Emil Malysjev hard into the right corner boards of the Saskatoon
zone in the third period.
Had Friday’s game been a heavyweight fight, the referee
would have stopped the proceedings and declared a technical knockout in favour
of the Raiders. The building started playing “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon” with 3:58 remaining in the third period.
The solace Blades head coach Mitch Love and his team can
take was the fact Friday’s contest was only one game. The Raiders can’t carry
over any of their goals into Game 2 on Sunday.
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| The Raiders celebrate their Game 1 victory on Friday. |
The Blades know they can be better. If they can regroup and
post an upset win on Sunday, the series becomes a different one when the scene
switches to Saskatoon for Game 3 on Tuesday.
For now, fans in “Hockey Town North” are celebrating a
Friday that was the Raiders day.
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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