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| Carson Latimer scored twice for the Raiders on Wednesday. |
On Wednesday night playing before 2,430 spectators at the Art Hauser Centre, the Raiders downed the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings 2-1. The win allowed the Raiders to halt a four-game losing streak that include one overtime and three regulation setbacks.
The WHL leading Winnipeg Ice were responsible for giving the Raiders the one overtime and two regulation setbacks over that four-game skid.
In Wednesday’s win over the Wheat Kings, left-winger Carson Latimer scored twice in the first period to give the Raiders a 2-0 edge. That proved to be all the offence the Raiders needed as they eventually held on for a one-goal win.
With 5:33 remaining in the first, Latimer potted his first goal of the contest after collecting the rebound from a shot taken by linemate Evan Herman.
Latimer struck for his second tally with 3:27 remaining in the third scoring from a bad angle to the left side of the Brandon net after collecting a crossbar rebound from a shot taken by import linemate Vladislav Shilo.
The Wheat Kings cut the Raiders lead to 2-1 with 6:40 remaining in the second on a goal from associate player call up Charlie Elick. The defenceman, who turned 16-years-old in January, took a shot from the point that was going wild of the goal, but the puck bounced off Raiders defenceman Eric Johnston into the Prince Albert net.
The marker was Elick’s first career WHL regular season goal. The Calgary, Alta., product joined the Wheat Kings after playing for the Edge School’s under-18 prep team.
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| Tikhon Chaika made 34 saves for the Raiders on Wednesday. |
Ethan Kruger turned away 24 shots to take the setback in goal for the Wheat Kings, who fell to 30-25-3-2.
The Raiders sit ninth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 55 points in the standings. They trail the Lethbridge Hurricanes (27-30-3-1) by three points for eighth place and the conference’s final playoff berth.
The Hurricanes fell to eighth place after dropping a 6-4 decision at home on Wednesday to the Swift Current Broncos. The Broncos have won six out of their last seven games to improve to 26-31-5-2 to sit seventh overall in the conference one point ahead of the Hurricanes and four points ahead of the Raiders.
Also on Wednesday, the Calgary Hitmen downed the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 3-2. The Hitmen improved to 23-31-6-2 to sit 10th overall in the Eastern Conference standings one point behind the Raiders and four points behind the Hurricanes.
The Regina Pats are staying in the congested playoff push having downed the visiting Saskatoon Blades 3-2 on Wednesday. The Pats improved to 24-31-3-2 to sit 11th overall in the Eastern Conference five points behind the Hurricanes.
The Broncos have four games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Raiders and Hitmen have six games remaining on their respective slates, the Hurricanes have seven contests left on their schedule and the Pats have eight regular season contests remaining.
The Raiders and Wheat Kings go at it again on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.
Blades rally comes up short in 3-2 loss to
Pats
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| Kyle Crnkovic scored for the Blades on Wednesday. |
On Wednesday night at the Brandt Centre, the Pats built a 3-0 lead and held on for a 3-2 victory to delight most of the 3,713 spectators in attendance.
Rookie 17-year-old right-winger Borya Valis gave the Pats a 1-0 lead in the first period. Tanner Howe, the Pats 16-year-old star right-winger, and Connor Bedard, the Pats 16-year-old phenom centre, combined to set up linemate Logan Linklater for a second period tally to put the Pats up 2-0.
Just 91 seconds into the third, Pats overage offensive-defenceman Ryker Evans netted his 14th goal of the season to give the Pats a 3-0 advantage.
With 8:34 remaining in the third, Blades star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic netted his 36th goal of the season to cut the Pats lead to 3-1. Blades rookie import right-winger Egor Sidorov deflected home a shot from Blades star overage centre Tristen Robins to further trim Regina’s edge to 3-2 with 2:06 remaining in the third.
Saskatoon had pulled overage star netminder Nolan Maier for an extra attacker on Sidorov’s goal.
The Blades were unable to get the equalizer at that point.
Right before the third period ended, Sidorov and Evans engaged in a fight.
Drew Sim stopped 21 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Pats (24-31-3-2). Maier turned away 26 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades (34-24-3-1).
Wednesday’s clash marked the sixth and final time the Blades and Pats faced each other in the regular season, and the Blades had won the previous five clashes between the two sides.
The Blades sit fifth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and sit three points behind the 35-22-3-2 Moose Jaw Warriors for fourth overall in the conference. The fourth place team in the conference will have home ice advantage over the fifth place club in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
The Blades and Warriors face each other on Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
The Pats also return to action on Friday hosting the WHL leading 48-9-3-2 Winnipeg Ice (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).
Earlier in the day on Wednesday, the Blades announced Robins will be the captain for the rest of the 2021-22 campaign as regular captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere is set to have season ending shoulder surgery. The standout defenceman is expected to return for the start of next season for his overage campaign.
The Blades injury list is a lengthy one. Centres Trevor Wong, Jayden Wiens and Lukas Hansen, right-winger Noah Boyko and defenceman Rhett Rhinehart are all out with upper body injuries. Hansen and Rhinehart are listed as out week to week, while Wong, Wiens and Boyko are labeled as day to day.
Saskatoon/Regina make pitch as joint world
juniors host
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On Wednesday, Tourism Saskatoon and Tourism Regina announced in a joint release that Canada has been asked by the IIHF to come up with a plan to host the 2023 world juniors, and as a result, a joint bid is being planned from Saskatoon and Regina.
The tournament was originally scheduled to start Dec. 26, 2022 and run through to Jan. 5, 2023 in Novosibirsk, Russia.
Back on Feb. 28, the IIHF announced it was stripping Russia of its hosting rights among other sanctions due to that country’s military invasion of Ukraine.
If the Saskatchewan bid is successful, the communities of Humboldt, Swift Current, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw could also host games for world juniors.
Saskatchewan played host to the tournament in the 1990-91 and 2009-10 campaigns.
The city councils in both Saskatoon and Regina will hold special meetings on Friday to discuss a joint bid.
The SaskTel Centre, Regina Exhibition Authority Limited and the Saskatoon Destination Marketing Hotels are collaborating with Tourism Saskatoon and Tourism Regina on this venture.
Cities are required to have a business plan and event bid in to Hockey Canada by this coming Monday. A final decision is to be made on April 25 or 26.
Sharks grad Marshall gets U Sports silver
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| Chloe Marshall in action for the Sharks in December 2015. |
At the elite-eight style event, the 24-year-old Neilburg, Sask., product backstopped the North Bay, Ont., based Nipissing University Lakers to a silver medal finish at the U Sports nationals that were held at the MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
In a quarter-final contest held last Thursday, Marshall made 41 saves to allow the sixth-seeded Lakers to pull out a 1-0 overtime victory over the Canada West champion University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. Defender Madi Solie, who is a graduate of the Weyburn Richardson Pioneer Gold Wings female under-18 AAA team, scored the overtime winner for the Lakers.
Solie played three seasons for the Gold Wings from 2013 to 2016 and was a member of their 2013-14 squad that won the Esso Cup as female national under-18 AAA hockey champions.
Last Saturday, Marshall proceeded to make 16 saves to back the Lakers to a 4-0 victory in a semifinal contest over the second seed University of New Brunswick Reds, who were the Atlantic University Sport conference champions. Solie had a goal in the victory over the Reds.
In the gold medal final last Sunday, Marshall stopped 33-of-36 shots in a 4-0 loss to the top-seeded Concordia University Stingers, who were the champions of the Reseau du Sport Etudiant du Quebec. The Stingers netted their final tally into an empty net.
Marshall played two seasons for the Sharks from 2014 to 2016. Before joining the Lakers, Marshall played one season for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in 2017-18 and one campaign for the now defunct University of Lethbridge Pronghorns in 2019-20.
The Lakers roster also contained defender Allison Hayhurst, who is a graduate of the now defunct Melville Prairie Fire female under-18 AAA team. Hayhurst played for the Prairie Fire for five seasons from 2014 to 2019.
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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