Raiders post-season life gets put on Ice

Winnipeg eliminates Prince Albert from WHL Playoffs

The Ice are all smiles to be moving on in the WHL Playoffs.

The stay of execution lasted one game for the Prince Albert Raiders.

The Winnipeg Ice had no intention of returning to the Art Hauser Centre in “Hockey Town North” with a further extension of the best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series between the two sides. In Game 5 of the series on Friday at the Wayne Fleming Arena in the Manitoba capital, the Ice stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first period and rolled to an 8-2 victory to the delight of most of the 1,606 spectators in attendance.

The win allowed the Ice to take the series 4-1. They now wait to see who they will play in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Winnipeg took the first three contests of the series against Prince Albert. Facing their first elimination game, the Raiders posted a 3-1 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre to make a Game 5 of the series back in Winnipeg necessary.

In Game 5, the Ice showed why they were massive favourites in the series in the runaway victory. The Ice topped the WHL’s regular season standings with a 53-10-3-2 record.

The Raiders won their last two regular season outings to finish eighth overall in the Eastern Conference and capture the conference’s final post-season berth with a 28-35-4-1 record. Prince Albert did win three out of the eight head-to-head meetings in the regular season with the Ice.

Connor McClennon scored twice for the Ice on Friday.

Including play in the regular season and post-season, the Ice, who were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings, are 22-2-1-1 in their last 26 games.

In Friday’s series clinching win, the Ice came out of the gates on fire. Raiders rookie import netminder Tikhon Chaika did his best to hold the fort early, but the dam burst right before the midway point of the frame.

At the 9:58 mark of the first, Ice 19-year-old power forward Jack Finley popped home Winnipeg’s first goal from the front of the Prince Albert net after collecting the rebound of a shot from linemate Owen Pederson. The tally was Finley’s first of the post-season after having netted 27 goals in the regular season.

Ice star 16-year-old centre Zachary Benson potted a close in backhander to increase the Ice’s edge to 2-0 at the 14:18 mark of the opening frame. Just one minute later, Ice 19-year-old star left-winger Mikey Milne netted his fifth goal of the playoffs to extend the Ice’s lead to 3-0.

Before the first period expired, Ice 19-year-old centre Chase Wheatcroft made a smart backhanded pass in the centre ice zone to spring 15-year-old Ice defenceman Jonas Woo on a breakaway down the left wing.

Woo sniped his first career post-season goal low right side to the Prince Albert net to send the Ice into the first intermission holding a 4-0 lead. Winnipeg held a 13-1 edge in shots on goal after the opening 20 minutes.

Reece Vitelli had the Raiders first goal on Friday.

Just 1:57 into the second, the Ice upped their lead to 5-0. Pederson had the puck at the right side of the Prince Albert goal and found star 19-year-old right-winger Connor McClennon with a backdoor pass, and McClennon slipped home a backhand shot to give the Ice their five-goal lead.

Following that tally, the Raiders pulled Chaika, who turned away 10-of-15 shots to take the setback in the Prince Albert net. Max Hildebrand played the rest of the way in the Raiders net in relief turning away 17-of-20 shots sent his way.

The Raiders broke through on the scoreboard with a short-handed tally at the 9:46 mark of the second. With the puck in the Prince Albert zone, McClennon fired a shot from the left shot that missed the net and the puck rimmed around the boards out of the Prince Albert zone on the left wing.

Raiders veteran right-winger Evan Herman chased down the loose puck and zipped down the left wing into the Winnipeg zone. Herman passed the puck across the face the Winnipeg goal backdoor to Prince Albert overage captain Reece Vitelli.

Vitelli popped home his third of the playoffs to trim the Ice lead to 5-1 heading to the second intermission. The miracle comeback wasn’t to be.

The Ice started the third with a three-goal surge pushing their advantage out to 8-1 by the 8:17 mark of the frame. Benson started the surge with his second goal of the contest, star centre Matthew Savoie netted his first of the playoffs for the second tally of the surge and McClennon capped the outburst with his second of the contest.

Jonas Woo scored his first career WHL playoff goal on Friday.

Raiders right-winger Sloan Stanick concluded the game’s scoring tipping home a point shot from standout defenceman Nolan Allan to round out the 8-2 final in favour of the Ice. Raiders star right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt also picked up a helper on Stanick’s tally.

Daniel Hauser stopped 11 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Ice.

During the five games of the series, the Ice outscored the Raiders 27-9. Winnipeg also posted a 10-1 blowout victory in Game 3 of the set, which was held on Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre.

The last time a WHL Playoffs were held back in 2019 the Raiders captured the league crown with a powerhouse squad. They took Game 7 of the WHL Championship Series 3-2 in overtime at the Art Hauser Centre with Dante Hannoun scoring the extra time winner.

After the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic gripped the world in March of 2020, the WHL post-season set for that year and in 2021 were nixed.

Wiesblatt was the only regular left from the 2018-19 campaign still on the Raiders roster as Prince Albert was eliminated from the 2022 post-season. Herman and Allan are the only two other Raiders players who saw action during the regular season in the 2018-19 WHL title winning campaign.

The 2021-22 Raiders were in a reload campaign, so it was still big for them to make the post-season. Vitelli and overage defenceman Remy Aquilon both graduate after aging out of the major junior level for the Prince Albert side.

Ozzy Wiesblatt had an assist on the Raiders final goal.

As for the Ice, they move on in the WHL Playoffs as a powerhouse with incredible depth. They have a great opportunity to go all the way.

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