Raiders’ Hildebrand robs Blades with 41-save sizzler

Prince Albert upsets Saskatoon 4-3 in Game 1

Raiders G Max Hildebrand stops Blades captain Trevor Wong.

Max Hildebrand should have been hauled away by the Saskatoon Police Service for grand larceny.

However, Saskatoon’s top cop in Patrick Nogier is now the chief of the Prince Albert Police Service, so that means Hildebrand has the freedom to be as heroic as he wants as a goalie. On Thursday night at the SaskTel Centre, Hildebrand was sensational making 41 saves helping his heavy underdog Prince Albert Raiders down their archrivals in the host Saskatoon Blades 4-3.

Most of the 6,757 spectators in attendance exited the building in stunned silence outside of the sizable contingent that came down from Prince Albert to support the Raiders. The win allowed the Raiders to take the opening contest in a best-of-seven first round series in the WHL Playoffs against the Blades. The two sides go at it again in Game 2 on Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Max Hildebrand (#30) makes a pad save on Egor Sidorov.

The Blades enter the series having finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 50-13-2-3 record. The Raiders came into the series capturing eighth place and the final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 31-32-2-3 mark. Prince Albert placed 14^th in the WHL’s overall standings.

The two sides started out Thursday’s game playing fairly evenly. With 8:41 remaining in the first, the Blades held a slim 5-4 edge in shots on goal.

Max Hildebrand made 41 saves to power the Raiders to victory.

The host side proceeded to on come with huge pressure forcing Hildebrand to make a number of big saves. On one sequence in a short time span, Hildebrand stoned Blades centre Lukas Hansen on a wraparound, robbed left-winger Hudson Kibblewhite at the right side of the goal and put up a wall on right-winger Vaughn Watterodt from the front of the Raiders net.

With 20.2 seconds remaining in the first, the Blades finally broke through on the scoreboard. While working on the power play, Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov got the puck on the right side boards from offensive –defenceman Tanner Molendyk.

Sidorov skated just pass the right faceoff dot and snapped home the game’s opening goal to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

Max Hildebrand pushes a puck out of the way of harm.

From that point, it appeared the Blades were going to roll.

Just 59 seconds into the second, Blades import star right-winger Alexander Suzdalev found himself alone at the left side of the Prince Albert net. Suzdalev slid a shot between the legs of Hildebrand to put the hosts up 2-0.

On the play, Suzdalev got one handed clipped in the face by the stick belonging to Raiders star left-winger Sloan Stanick. Stanick was given a double minor for high sticking which will be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The first half of the double minor was eaten up on Suzdalev’s goal as a delayed penalty tally. The Blades were unable to increase their lead on the second half of the double minor.

The Raiders proceeded to put the brakes on the Blades momentum with a huge push back. At the 8:41 mark of the second, Raiders 18-year-old centre Aiden Oiring fired a midrange shot past Blades star netminder Austin Elliott to cut the Blades lead to 2-1. Oiring’s drive was the Raiders seventh shot on goal of the contest.

Max Hildebrand, left, and Sloan Stanick share a fun moment.

With 9:07 remaining in the second, Raiders 19-year-old defenceman Easton Kovacs floated a long shot from the left boards that deflected off a Blades skater past Elliott to even the score 2-2. Kovacs’ tally came on the Raiders eighth shot of the game.

A short time later, the Raiders found themselves on the power play after the Blades were penalized for having too many men on the ice. On that power play, Raiders star right-winger Ryder Ritchie wired the go-ahead goal past Elliott to put the visitors up 3-2. An initial shot taken by Stanick deflected off a Blades player to Ritchie in a prime scoring spot, and Ritchie made no mistake in giving the Raiders the lead.

The Blades attempted to push back.

The Raiders and Blades engage in a scrum.

Early in the third, Molendyk placed a shot on the Prince Albert goal through a screen that Hildebrand was somehow able to see and make a glove save on to keep the Raiders in the lead. A short time later, Hildebrand turned away Blades veteran winger Tyler Parr on a prime scoring chance after Parr made a slick toe-drag move.

At the 8:13 mark of the third, the Raiders pushed their edge out to 4-2 scoring on the power play. Ritchie took a shot from the right side of the Blades net that Elliott stopped, but Raiders 19-year-old right-winger Niall Crocker popped home the rebound from the front of the Saskatoon net to give the visitors their two-goal edge.

Egor Sidorov fires home the Blades first goal on Thursday.

The Blades didn’t give up and continued to press their attack against Hildebrand, who continued to protect the fort. That included Hildebrand robbing Molendyk, who was alone in front of the Prince Albert net when Saskatoon was working on a fifth power-play chance.

With Elliott pulled for an extra attacker, Blades 20-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright got the puck over to Sidorov at the right wing. Sidorov skated to the top of the right faceoff and snapped home a shot to the top right corner of Prince Albert net to cut the Raiders lead to 4-3 on his team’s 40^th shot on goal.

Hildebrand proceeded to slam the door from there. That included making three big saves inside the final 10 seconds of the third, when the Blades again had Elliott pulled for an extra attacker.

Alexander Suzdalev had the Blades second goal on Thursday.

With 5.7 seconds remaining in the third, Hildebrand swallowed up a close in drive from Wong. After the Blades won the ensuing faceoff, Hildebrand turned away Wong again from the right side of the Prince Albert net.

The rebound of that shot came to Blades star centre Fraser Minten in front of the Prince Albert net. Minten was denied by Hildebrand, who covered the puck for another faceoff in the Prince Albert zone with 1.3 seconds remaining in the third.

The Raiders won that draw and burned of the rest of the third period clock holding on to the puck behind their own goal.

Elliott turned away 16 shots to take the setback in goal for the Blades.

Ryder Ritchie had a goal and an assist for the Raiders.

A bigger concern for the Blades in goal is that Elliott looks to have followed a not so good tread from last year’s post-season. In the 2023 WHL Playoffs, Saskatoon advance to the Eastern Conference Championship Series falling to the Winnipeg Ice.

The Blades won a first round series against Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats in seven games and a second round series against the Red Deer Rebels in seven games. The Blades trailed the Rebels 3-0 and became just the third team in the history of the WHL rally back from that type of series deficit to win the set.

Elliott was the Blades starting goalie at the beginning of both those series falling behind the Pats 2-0 and the Rebels 3-0. To turn the tide, the Blades began starting Ethan Chadwick to get both those series in goal, and Elliott ultimately came back to get the Game 7 wins to finish off those sets.

Aiden Oiring had the Raiders first goal on Thursday.

Before the start of the 2023-24 campaign, the Blades dealt Chadwick to the Everett Silvertips electing to pair rookie Evan Gardner, who turned 18-year-olds in late January, as a backup to Elliott as the starter.

Gardner improved a tonne as the season went along appearing in 30 games posting a 21-5-2 record, a 1.91 goals against average, a .927 save percentage and four shutouts. He has the lowest goals against average in the WHL and the best save percentage on the circuit.

Elliott still had a great regular season for the Blades appearing in 43 games posting a 29-8-3 record, a 2.39 goals against average, a .904 save percentage and four shutouts.

Still, the Raiders got championship level goaltending from Hildebrand in Game 1, and Elliott wasn’t on that level in that contest. You have to wonder if the Blades will turn to Gardner as the series goes on.

The Raiders begin celebrating their win on Thursday.

Overall on an objective front, the Blades should have won Game 1 against the Raiders on Thursday and should have scored more goals than they did.

Hildebrand ensured none of those things came to pass, and now the Raiders have some extra real belief they can create some major misery for their archrivals.

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