Dragicevic starts the party, Raiders win East Division title

Archrival Blades fall 4-3 before electric Art Hauser Centre crowd

The Raiders celebrate a winning goal from Lukas Dragicevic.

PRINCE ALBERT – Lukas Dragicevic couldn’t help but let the emotions out.

On Saturday night playing before 3,264 spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre, the Prince Albert Raiders star 19-year-old defenceman blew home a power-play goal from inside the right faceoff circle to put his squad up 4-3 over the Saskatoon Blades. The tally was Dragicevic’s 18^th goal of the campaign and it came with 3:01 remaining in the third period in a winner take all match between the two sides for the WHL’s East Division championship.

The roar of the fans after the key tally almost blew the roof off the Art Hauser Centre in a contest where the Raiders and Blades closed their respective regular season schedules. The noise from that point of the game was surpassed when the final seconds of the third period clock expired during a mad scramble in the Prince Albert end.

Lukas Dragicevic had the winning goal for the Raiders.

When the final buzzer sounded, the 4-3 score held up as the game’s final outcome. The noise in the building got louder as the archrivals got into some scrum action shortly after the contest ended causing the officials to separate the two sides from each other.

After the officials got the Blades players back to their bench, Dragicevic and his teammates proceeded to skating to centre ice both saluting and hyping up the crowd at the same time. As is the Art Hauser Centre tradition when the Raiders beat the Blades, The Guess Who’s “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon” blared through the building’s sound system.

With a fifth win in a row, the Raiders improved to 39-23-5-1 to become champions of the WHL’s East Division.

The mad scramble around the Raiders net at game’s end.

“It is unbelievable,” said Dragicevic, who remembered his team stumbled out of the gate to a 2-7-2 start. “Just the group that we have in there, you guys know what we’ve been through.

“We were almost last place in the CHL for a bit there, and then we climbed back and now we’re division champions. The work we put in this year just shows what kind of group we have and now much time and effort we put in every single day to claim that banner. Nobody is taking that away from us.

“We’re division champions in the Western Hockey League, so it is super cool. Just to see what we went through this year, I’m just so proud of everyone in there.”

The Raiders and Blades engage in scrums at the end of the game.

Dragicevic’s tally came on what would be just the Raiders second of two power-play opportunities in the contest. Raiders head turning rookie defenceman Daxon Rudolph had the puck at the left point and got a pass down to star centre Aiden Oiring in the left corner of the Saskatoon zone.

Oiring passed the puck up the centre of the ice to Dragicevic, who was pinching down from the right point. The rearguard proceeded to stride into the right faceoff circle where he blew home his winner. He was pumped to be in the right spot at the right time.

Lukas Dragicevic pumps up the Art Hauser Centre faithful.

“We were buzzing all night on the power play,” said Dragicevic. “We just couldn’t get one to go in, and then we finally got one to go in.

“I just let it go, and it happened to go in. Fortunately, it was me (who scored).”

In what was a back-and-forth game, the Blades broke through on the scoreboard first with 8:04 remaining in the opening frame. Blades rookie import left-winger David Lewandowski, who turned 18-years-old in February, had the puck in front of the Prince Albert net and passed it off to rookie linemate Cooper Williams positioned by the left post. Williams, who turned 17-years-old in February, potted his 21^st goal of the campaign to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The fans at the Art Hauser Centre cheer on the Raiders.

The Raiders pulled even at 1-1 when gritty centre Harrison Lodewyk wired home his 11^th over the campaign with 64 seconds remaining in the first.

Just 62 seconds into the second, the Raiders jumped ahead 2-1, when Oiring wired his 29^th of the campaign home converting a drop pass from linemate Brayden Dube.

At the 11:18 mark of the second, Raiders rookie centre Ethan Bibeau made a long looping dump of the puck from his zone into the right faceoff circle of the Saskatoon zone. That created a race to the puck by Raiders 16-year-old right-winger Ty Meunier and Blades sophomore defenceman Jack Kachkowski.

Raiders players salute the fans and say farewell to the Blades.

Meunier fought off Kachkowski for the puck, did a turnaround in close in to the Saskatoon net and wired a shot past Blades star netminder Evan Gardner to put the Raiders up 3-1.

The Blades proceeded to battle back. Breakout right-winger Hunter Laing potted his 25^th goal of the campaign capitalizing on a power-play chance with 3:41 remaining in the second to cut the Raiders lead to 3-2.

At the 9:11 mark of the third just as another power-play chance had expired, the Blades evened the score at 3-3. Blades 20-year-old offensive-defenceman Grayden Siepmann put a backhand pass from the left side of the Prince Albert net across the front of the goal to Blades sophomore centre Hayden Harsanyi. Harsanyi preceded to one-time home the equalizer.

The officials direct the Blades down their dressing room tunnel.

That set the stage for the dramatics with Dragicevic’s winner and the scrum activities at the end of the game. The win allowed the Raiders to take the regular season series against the Blades winning five the the eight head-to-head encounters between the two sides.

“I am extremely proud of the group and just the way we continue to battle,” said Raiders interim head coach Ryan McDonald. “We start off and we have a really good start.

“We bend a little bit in the first period there. I think we just continued to take the game over as it went on and really simplified and got pucks in behind and used our speed to create our chances.”

Cooper Williams scored the Blades and the game’s first goal.

Raiders star 20-year-old netminder Max Hildebrand put in another spectacular performance making 34 saves to backstop the Raiders to victory. Hildebrand loved how his squad stayed composed even when the Blades rallied to tie the game.

“It is kind of something we’ve been talking about down the stretch here just staying even keel no matter what happens,” said Hildebrand. “If we give up a goal or get ahead by a few, you can lose leads fast, and you can get leads fast.

“It is a game of inches out there. I thought we stayed even keel and our power play came clutch like it has all year. That was the difference.”

Aiden Oiring had a goal and an assist for the Raiders.

Gardner turned away 28 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades. The Blades fell to 37-23-4-4 with the loss to finish third in the East Division two points behind the Raiders and one point behind the second place Brandon Wheat Kings (38-23-4-3).

Saskatoon placed sixth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. The Blades wait to find out who their opponent will be in the first round of the WHL Playoffs. They will face the team that loses in Sunday’s clash for top spot in the conference between the Medicine Hat Tigers (46-17-3-1) and the host Calgary Hitmen (45-16-3-3) at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Thanks to finishing first in the East Division, the Raiders will be the second seed in the Eastern Conference for the first round of the WHL Playoffs. 

Evan Gardner made 28 saves in goal for the Blades.

They will face the Edmonton Oil Kings (36-27-2-2) opening the first two games of a best-of-seven series at the Art Hauser Centre. Game 1 is Friday at 7 p.m., and Game 2 follows on Saturday, March 29 at 7 p.m.

McDonald is looking forward to seeing his squad play before the Art Hauser Centre faithful in the post-season. He said the fans gave the Raiders a big boost in Saturday’s win to claim the East Division title.

“They are just absolutely tremendous,” said McDonald. “Our fans, they’re second to none.

“They are the atmosphere in here. They keep our guys going. Their passion is exactly how we play on the ice.

Max Hildebrand stopped 34 shots in goal for the Raiders.

“As a Prince Albert born and raised young man, I’ve been coming to these games for a lot of years. It never ceases to amaze me the support that we have.”

Raiders star 20-year-old right-winger Niall Crocker was pumped to help his squad win the East Division title. 

The last time the Raiders claimed the division crown was during the 2019-20 campaign, which was shortened due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. That was the campaign before Crocker joined the team on a full-time basis.

This season Crocker had career highs in goals (27), assists (38), points (65) and the plus-minus department (plus-four) in helping the Raiders claim a division title.

A total of 3,264 fans packed the 2,580 Art Hauser Centre.

“It is unbelievable,” said Crocker. “From the start of the year to where we are now, I’m just so proud of these guys.

“Some guys counted us out at the start, but we kept at it. We battled. Now, we are East Division champions.

“I’m so proud of these guys.”

While Crocker soaked in the moment on Saturday night, he is looking forward to his last venture through the WHL Playoffs.

“We’ll just take it one game at a time,” said Crocker. “It is nice that we have the home ice advantage.

Max Hildebrand sends a souvenir stick to the crowd.

“I know it is my last year. We have the team to make a big boom here. I’m super excited and looking forward to it.”

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