Desperation brings out best effort in Raiders

Prince Albert bashes Blades 8-1 at SaskTel Centre

The Raiders celebrate a second goal from Keaton Sorensen (#20).

It was a great afternoon to cheer, if you were a fan of the Prince Albert Raiders, and an afternoon to sit in stunned silence, if you were a booster of the Saskatoon Blades.

On Sunday, the Raiders showed the desperation they needed for 60 minutes to keep their post-season hopes realistic. They bombed their archrivals in the Blades 8-1 before 4,875 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

The win allowed the Raiders to end a four-game losing streak and improve to 26-33-3 to get closer into the WHL’s playoff chase that is in the stretch run. The Blades, who won seven of the 10 head-to-head contests with the Raiders this season, saw their seven game winning streak come to an end.

Keaton Sorensen (#20) celebrates his first goal on Sunday.

Prince Albert still sits 11^th in the WHL’s Eastern Conference, but moves to within five points of the final playoff berth in the conference. The Brandon Wheat Kings (26-29-8), Swift Current Broncos (28-30-1-3) and Calgary Hitmen (26-27-5-3) all sit tied for eighth and the Eastern Conference’s final playoff berth with 60 standings points.

The Hitmen have seven games remaining on their regular season schedule, the Raiders and Broncos have six contests to play on their regular season slates, and the Wheat Kings have five regular season games left.

Raiders 21-year-old centre Keaton Sorensen led the way for a great all-around effort by his club with a pair of goals and an assist. The Red Deer, Alta., product along with captain Evan Herman and offensive-defenceman Landon Kosior, are playing out the final games of their major junior careers.

Keaton Sorensen has career highs in goals (25) and assists (28).

Sorensen said the urgency of trying to keep the campaign going for as long as possible is felt by the trio.

“It is not just something that comes up now,” said Sorensen, who has career highs in goals (25), assists (28) and points (53) this season. “It has kind of been a thought in the back of our mind all year just thinking that it is our last shot.

“It is now or never. There is no next season for us in this league, so it is definitely a big step here. I guess it has been almost the whole season we’ve kind of felt that way.

“It is good to see all the boys pulling in the right direction.”

The Raiders broke through on the scoreboard at the 10:21 mark of the opening frame Sorensen potted his 24^th goal of the season from the front of the Saskatoon net to give the visitors a 1-0 edge. Sorensen converted a sweet pass from Raiders star 16-year-old right-winger Ryder Ritchie from behind the icing line at the right side of the Saskatoon net.

Brandon Lisowsky had the Blades lone goal on Sunday.

Just 46 seconds later, the Blades pulled even at 1-1 as star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky drove down the left wing and fired home his 33^rd tally of the season.

Prince Albert jumped back ahead 2-1 just under three minutes later, when captain Evan Herman blasted home his 16^th of the season from the front of the Saskatoon net. Herman converted a beauty setup pass from 19-year-old star left-winger Sloan Stanick, who was position by the left boards at the edge of the faceoff circle.

Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt said he could see his club was playing with an elevated effort compared to when the Blades dumped the Raiders 6-2 on Friday in Prince Albert.

Evan Herman had the Raiders second goal on Sunday.

“I liked our response from 48 hours ago,” said Truitt. “You didn’t know what the guys were thinking, but when we talked about it, we could just see that a lot of the guys are determined coming into the game.

“It was good that we got off to a good start in the first period. We never looked back. I thought pace, our determination and our compete we played the right way.”

At the 5:37 mark of the second, the Raiders pushed their advantage out to 3-1, when 18-year-old left-winger Carter Anderson banged home a rebound from point blank range in front of the Saskatoon goal. Anderson’s gritty tally was his 11^th of the season.

Things proceeded to get feisty shortly after Anderson’s tally. Blades import rookie 17-year-old defenceman Tomas Zizka nailed Ritchie with a hard hit into the boards in the Prince Albert zone.

Carter Anderson celebrates scoring for the Raiders on Sunday.

Raiders 16-year-old rookie centre Grady Martin proceeded to quickly skate towards Zizka to start a fight. Martin, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 167 pounds, and Zizka, who stands 6-feet and weighs 172 pounds, traded some good punches before falling to the ground, where the officials proceeded to break up the bout.

Martin received a minor for instigating, a major for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct, and Zizka was assessed a major for fighting.

At the 11:02 mark of the second, the Raiders had control of the puck in the Saskatoon zone and scored on a delayed penalty call extend their lead to 4-1 on a goal from centre Hayden Pakkala. Pakkala deflected home a point shot from Herman to account for his eighth tally of the season.

Blades D Tomas Zizka (#45) fights Raiders C Grady Martin (#28).

The Blades pulled starting netminder Ethan Chadwick after Pakkala’s tally. Chadwick turned away 5-of-9 shots sent his way to take the setback in goal for the Saskatoon side. Austin Elliott turned away 12-of-16 shots playing the rest of the way in relief.

The Raiders weren’t done there. With 0.6 seconds remaining in the second, 17-year-old rookie defenceman Justice Christensen fired home a shot from the high slot to give the visitors a 5-1 lead.

Sorensen enjoyed seeing numerous players on the Raiders roster find success on the ice on Sunday.

“It is awesome,” said Sorensen. “I haven’t had many of those games in my career.

The Raiders celebrate a goal from Justice Christensen (#7).

“It is awesome to see everyone clicking. All the bounces, I guess, are going our way too. Everyone is just working.

“It is very contagious out there when one line is going and then the next line is going. It just goes down the whole lineup starting from our goaltender just right up to the forwards.”

Just 89 second into the third, Sorensen netted his second of the contest and 25^th marker of the season and Stanick tallied 68 seconds later to surge the Raiders out to a 7-1 lead. Sophomore left-winger Harrison Lodewyk popped in the Raiders final goal on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the third to round out the games scoring.

With 1:27 remaining in the third, Anderson and Blades centre Jayden Wiens engaged in a short fight, which was quickly broken up by the officials. Both were given fighting majors.

Ryder Ritchie had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

Ritchie and 17-year-old defenceman Terrell Goldsmith each had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

Tikhon Chaika stopped 32 shots to pick up the win in net for the Raiders and many of his stops were quality ones. Truitt said Chaika’s play keeping the Blades at bay proved to be key in the Raiders pulling away on the scoreboard.

“We said even after the first period that he was kind of dialled in,” said Truitt. “It was a situation where he was quick in the net.

“Our defence were there to clear pucks away, but he obviously the difference in this game. It could have went either way. We had some pucks bouncing in the slot that they couldn’t get to.

Terrell Goldsmith had two assists for the Raiders on Sunday.

“He had a couple of saves that he made that you might not think he could. That is what we needed. We needed a big goaltending performance tonight, and we got it.”

The Blades, who are rated 10^th in the latest CHL Top 10 Rankings, fell to 44-14-4-1 with their loss on Sunday to sit fourth overall in the WHL, and they need to earn four standings points in their last five games to finish second overall in the Eastern Conference. Saskatoon sits five points up on the Red Deer Rebels (41-17-3-3), who have locked up first in the Central Division.

In the first round of the WHL Playoffs, the two division winners are given the first and second seeds. From the second round onwards, the teams are reseeded by standings points, which means the Blades at the moment would have home ice advantage for any potential post-season encounters with Red Deer.

Tikhon Chaika made 32 saves in goal for the Raiders.

Saskatoon has five games remaining on its regular season slate, while Red Deer has four regular season outings left to play.

The Raiders get back at it on Tuesday when they return home to host the WHL leading 52-9-1 Winnipeg Ice (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Blades return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Broncos (7 p.m., InnovationPlex).

Sorensen said the Raiders have to get ready to have a good focused effort against the Ice.

“It is definitely important just kind of after a game like this to reset,” said Sorensen, who clubs still had to play the Ice three more times this season. “It is a zero-zero hockey game every game we start with.

The Raiders celebrate their win on Sunday.

“We just have to get after them right away and keep to our structure all game and just burying our chances and playing good in the D-zone. I think we’ll have good shots and good games against Winnipeg.”

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