Prince Albert takes slim edge for first in
East Division
On Friday night, the host Raiders stormed out to an early 4-1 lead and downed their archrivals the Saskatoon Blades 6-3 in a WHL regular season clash to the delight of a standing room crowd of 2,919 spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The win was the fifth straight for the Raiders allowing them to improve to 24-15-3 to hold the slim edge for first place in the WHL’s East Division.
The Raiders and Blades, who fell to 23-16-2-3, have the same amount of standings points at 51, but the Prince Albert side holds the standings tiebreaker due having more wins. The squad from “Hockey Town North” also has a pair of games in hand on “The Bridge City Bunch.” After the Blades traded away their three best veteran players to get some quality younger players and acquire WHL Prospects Draft capital, the Raiders faithful were waiting for their Saskatoon rivals to fall back to the pack.
The Blades have recorded just one win and one standings point from an extra time setback in their last six games. During the losses over this six game stretch including Friday’s clash, the Blades did have their momentum carrying moments where it appeared they would potential steal a win before ultimately falling on the scoreboard.
In Friday’s contest between the Raiders and Blades, it appeared for a time the music operators in the Prince Albert side’s storied home rink might start playing The Guess Who’s “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon” at an early juncture. As has been the tradition in Prince Albert for a lengthy stretch of time, the song “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon” is played every time the Raiders, the Prince Albert Mintos under-18 AAA team and the Prince Albert Northern Bears under-18 AAA female squad defeat their respective rival foes from Saskatoon.
Just 2:31 into Friday’s encounter, Raiders standout 16-year-old rookie defenceman Daxon Rudolph scored to give the host’s a 1-0 lead. At the 5:42 mark of the opening frame, Raiders 19-year-old right-winger Brayden Dube potted his 20th goal of the campaign to push Prince Albert’s edge out to 2-0. Raiders 16-year-old rookie right-winger Riley Boychuk proceeded to put his squad up 3-0 at the 13:34 mark of the first as the Art Hauser Centre was rocking.
The Blades broke through on the scoreboard just 33 seconds after Boychuk’s tally with standout 16-year-old rookie centre Cooper Williams potting his 13th goal of the season to trim the Raiders lead to 3-1.
Raiders 19-year-old star centre Aiden Oiring restored the host side’s three-goal edge netting his 19th goal of the campaign with 70 seconds remaining in the first.
At that point, the Blades proceeded to put a scare into the Raiders and their fans. Inside the final minute of the first, the Blades scored twice to cut the Raiders advantage to 4-3. Blades sophomore centre Hayden Harsanyi tallied with 43.8 seconds remaining in the first and 18-year-old right-winger Hunter Laing recorded his 12th of the campaign with 12 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
The Blades came out buzzing in the second period holding a 16-5 edge in shots on goal and pinning the Raiders inside their own zone for lengthy stretches of time. Raiders star 20-year-old Max Hildebrand made a number of big saves to ensure his squad still held a 4-3 lead going into the second intermission.
The Raiders found their stride again and closed the contest out in a fairly evenly played third period.
With 4:16 remaining in the third, Raiders 18-year-old rookie centre Jackson Kostiuk scored his first career WHL goal to push the Raiders lead out to 5-3. Kostiuk joined the Raiders on January 10 after starting the current campaign in the junior A ranks with the Steinback Pistons of the MJHL.
Raiders star left-winger Tomas Mrsic rounded out the game’s scoring with an empty-net goal with 35.1 seconds remaining in the third.
Hildebrandt stopped 32 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Evan Gardner turned away 26-of-31 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades.
Both Oiring and Mrsic finished the night recording one goal and two assists for three points.
The Raiders get back at it on Saturday, when they travel to Regina to take on the 12-26-4-2 Pats (6 p.m., Brandt Centre). The Blades are idle on Saturday.
The Raiders and Blades will tangle again on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.
Tigers rally past Chiefs for eighth straight
victory
On Friday playing on the road before 7,134 spectators at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, the Tigers found themselves trailing the host Chiefs 2-0. Medicine Hat proceeded to rally with three straight goals in the final 10 minutes of the third period to pull out a 3-2 victory.
Just 31 seconds into the contest, Chiefs star 20-year-old left-winger Shea Van Olm opened the game’s scoring with his 34th goal of the campaign to give the host side a 1-0 edge. The Chiefs pushed their advantage out to 2-0 at the 5:17 mark of the third on a goal by import 18-year-old rookie right-winger Assanali Sarkenov.
At that point, the Tigers offence came alive. With 9:58 remaining in the third, Tigers 20-year-old defenceman Josh Van Mulligen netted his second goal of the campaign to cut the Chiefs lead to 2-1.
Working on the power play with 6:54 remaining in the third, Tigers star 17-year-old left-winger Gavin McKenna one-timed home a power-play goal on a nice setup pass from 16-year-old centre Markus Ruck to even the score at 2-2.
With 4:57 remaining in the third, Tigers offensive-defenceman Jonas Woo potted the winner that gave the visitors their 3-2 victory.
Harrison Meneghin stopped 27 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Tigers. Dawson Cowan turned away 27 shots to take the setback in net for the Chiefs.
McKenna had a pair of assists to go with his goal. Van Mulligen had an assist to go with his tally and Tigers star 18-year-old right-winger Ryder Ritchie picked up a pair of helpers.
Chiefs star 19-year-old right-winger Andrew Cristall picked up an assist and leads the WHL in scoring with 78 points coming off 31 goals and 47 assists. McKenna sits second in the league scoring race with 76 points coming off 21 goals and 55 assists.
With their eighth straight win, the Tigers improved to 29-15-2 to lead the Eastern Conference and Central Division by two points over the Lethbridge Hurricanes (28-14-1-1). The Hurricanes have two games in hand on the Tigers.
The Calgary Hitmen (26-12-3-2) sit three points back of the Tigers and one point back of the Hurricanes. The Hitmen have three games in hand on the Tigers and one game in hand on the Hurricanes.
The Chiefs fell to 30-16 and remain second overall in the Western Conference and the U.S. Division.
The Tigers return to action on Saturday when they travel to Kennewick, Washington, to take on the 22-17-3-1 Tri-City Americans (6 p.m. local time, Toyota Centre).
The Chiefs are off until Friday, January 31, when they will host the Victoria Royals (7 p.m. local time, Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena).
Braillard’s hatty keeps Hurricanes on heater,
other notes
On Friday night playing before 3,927 spectators at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena, Braillard, who is a 19-year-old import right-winger, picked up hat trick to power his host Hurricanes past the Red Deer Rebels 4-1. The victory was the ninth straight for the Hurricanes, who improved to 28-14-1-1 to sit two points back of the Medicine Hat Tigers (29-15-2) for top spot in the Eastern Conference and the Central Division. Lethbridge has two games in hand on Medicine Hat.
In Friday’s clash with the Rebels, Braillard opened the game’s scoring netting a pair of power-play goals 14 seconds apart from each other just before the nine-minute mark of the first period.
Hurricanes star 19-year-old left-winger Logan Wormald recorded his 27th tally of the campaign before the first period came to a wrap to push his squad’s advantage out to 3-0.
At the 2:03 mark of the second, Rebels 19-year-old right-winger Talon Brigley netted his fifth goal of the campaign to cut the Hurricanes advantage to 3-1.
Braillard completed his hat trick tallying at the 5:12 mark of the third to round out the scoring in the contest.
Koen Cleaver, who is a 17-year-old rookie, stopped 24 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Hurricanes. Peyton Shore, who is a 16-year-old rookie, turned away 32 shots to take the setback in net for the Rebels.
Wormald had a pair of assists to go with his goal.
The Hurricanes went 3-for-7 on the power play in the win, while the Rebels failed to score on their three power-play opportunities.
The Rebels fell to 15-23-4-2 and haven’t posted a win over their last 13 contests picking three standings points in extra time setbacks over that span of games.
The Hurricanes return to action on Saturday host the Calgary Hitmen (26-12-3-2) at 6 p.m. local time at VisitLethbridge.com Arena. The Hitmen sit one standings point back of the Hurricanes.
The Rebels also get back at it on Saturday hosting the Moose Jaw Warriors (10-29-4-2) at 7 p.m. local time at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
- On Friday in Kamloops, captain Emmitt Finnie of the host Blazers had a pair of goals including the overtime winner and an assist in a 4-3 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. That result gave Blazers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston his 580th career regular season head coaching victory in the WHL. He needs two more wins to equal Marc Habscheid, who is best remembered for serving as head coach for the Rockets and Prince Albert Raiders, for fifth on the all-time list at 582 victories.
- On Friday in Edmonton, 17-year-old right-winger Lukas Sawchyn had a pair of goals and an assist to power the host Oil Kings to a 5-1 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. The win was a third in a row for the Oil Kings who improve to 25-16-1-2.
- On Friday in Prince George, star 20-year-old right-winger Koehn Ziemmer had the winning goal and an assist to lead the host Cougars past the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-2. Star 18-year-old netminder Joshua Ravensbergen made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Cougars.
- On Friday in Wenatchee, 19-year-old right-winger Dawson Seitz scored the overtime winner to give the host Wild a 3-2 upset victory over the WHL leading Everett Silvertips. The Wild improved to 17-22-3-1 to sit eighth overall and hold the final playoff berth in the Western Conference. The Silvertips record moved to 32-6-4-3.
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