Dube delivers winner takes all showdown with OT tally

Raiders/Blades meet for final East Division title battle Saturday

The Raiders pile on Brayden Dube after their overtime win.

Brayden Dube forced another big game.

On Friday night playing before a season high 10,990 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, Dube broke the hearts of the host Saskatoon Blades and their faithful. Locked in a 2-2 tie playing a three-versus-three overtime period, Raiders captain Justice Christensen put a shot on goal from the top of the right faceoff circle that was deflected home by Dube just 98 seconds into the extra session.

Dube’s tally, which was his second goal of the contest, delivered the Raiders to a 3-2 victory in the WHL regular season clash. Following the overtime goal, the Raiders poured of their bench to celebrate in the left corner of the Saskatoon zone to the appreciative cheers of their contingent of fans who were in the crowd.

Brayden Dube scored the OT winner for the Raiders.

The victory allowed the Raiders to push their winning streak to four games and improve to 38-23-5-1. They have 82 standings points which equals the Blades, whose record moved to 37-22-4-4, for first place in the WHL’s East Division. Prince Albert holds the standings tiebreaker due to having more wins.

That result created a situation where the Raiders and Blades will play one winner take all contest for the East Division title. Both squads close their regular season schedules playing each other on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.

Prince Albert’s extra time win on Friday also knocked the Brandon Wheat Kings out of contention for first in the East Division. The Wheat Kings dumped the visiting Regina Pats 7-3 on Friday night at Westoba Place in Brandon.

The Raiders fan contingent soaks in the overtime win.

With the win, the Wheat Kings improved to 37-23-4-3 to sit one point back of both the Raiders and Blades. The Wheat Kings and Pats (16-43-5-3) close their respective regular season schedules going at it again on Saturday in Regina (6 p.m., Brandt Centre).

Dube’s overtime winner was his second goal of Friday’s contest. The 19-year-old right-winger from Roblin, Man., has had an amazing breakout season having set career highs in goals (31), assists (35), points (66) and the plus-minus department (plus-20). He has also appeared in all of the Raiders 67 regular season contests to date in the 2024-25 campaign.

Raiders G Max Hildebrand (#30) denies Blades C Hayden Harsanyi.

Dube got things rolling early for the Raiders scoring 24 seconds into Friday’s game to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. At the centre ice zone, Raiders star centre Aiden Oiring made a backhanded pass to the left wing to spring Dube into the Saskatoon zone.

He proceeded to jet past the Blades defence, cut across the front of the Saskatoon net, and tucked home his first marker of the night.

Just 73 seconds later, the Blades had a great chance to get the equalizer. Blades 18-year-old right-winger William James received a backdoor pass at the right side of the Prince Albert net. He put a shot on goal only to be robbed by Raiders star 20-year-old netminder Max Hildebrand, who slid across his crease to make the stop.

David Lewandowski had the Blades first goal on Friday.

The Raiders had a glorious chance to increase their lead while working on the power play. On a rush into the Saskatoon zone, Raiders rising star defenceman Daxon Rudolph, who turned 17-years-old earlier this month, received a backdoor pass at the right side of the Blades net. Rudolph quickly released a shot only to be denied by a left pad save from Blades star netminder Evan Gardner.

The Blades found the equalizer that forced a 1-1 tie with 4:43 remaining in the opening frame. Blades 18-year-old head turning right-winger Hunter Laing came down the right wing on a rush and put a shot on goal that Hildebrand stopped but rebounded out the left of the Prince Albert net.

Blades rookie import left-winger David Lewandowski jumped on the loose puck and put it into an empty cage to force the even score.

Zach Olsen had the Blades second goal on Friday.

At the 6:07 mark of the second, the Blades went on the power play after Oiring picked up an interference minor after hitting Saskatoon import centre Frantisek Dej from behind into the boards in the right corner of the Blades zone. Dej went down on the ice and had to be helped off the ice. He would quickly return to the game after getting to the Blades bench.

On the ensuing power play, Blades rookie centre Cooper Williams, who turned 17-years-old in February, directed a shot pass midrange from the left of the Prince Albert net to the right side of the visitors goal. Blades rookie right-winger Zach Olsen, who turned 17-years-old earlier this month, redirected the puck into an empty cage to put the host side up 2-1.

The Raiders celebrate an equalizer from Harrison Lodewyk (#29).

At that point, the rest of the second period seemingly became the Hildebrand show with the Raiders netminder making a number of big saves. Those included turning away Blades standout left-winger Rowan Calvert in close with a pad save and denying Blades centre Hayden Harsanyi with a blocker save close in.

From there, Hildebrand made a pair of diving stops on Laing and put up a wall on Blades 20-year-old offensive-defenceman Grayden Siepmann twice in close. The Blades had every opportunity to bury the Raiders, but thanks to Hildebrand, Saskatoon had only a one-goal edge heading into the second intermission.

When the third period got rolling, Hildebrand made key stops on Calvert, Blades star right-winger Tyler Parr and Lewandowski. That gave the Raiders traction to get on even terms.

Justice Christensen had an assist on the Raiders OT winner.

With 5:07 remaining in the third, Raiders star 20-year-old right-winger Niall Crocker had the puck in the right corner of the Saskatoon zone, and he centred a pass to gritty centre Harrison Lodewyk, who turned 20-years-old earlier this month. Lodewyk was stoned on his first shot by Gardner, but the veteran forward collected his own rebound at the left side of the Saskatoon net and put home the equalizer that forced a 2-2 tie and ultimately overtime.

The Raiders had the only two shots on goal in the extra session. Gardner made a glove stop off Raiders start left-winger Tomas Mrsic but was ultimately beat by Dube’s deflection goal.

Hildebrand stopped 35 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Gardner turned away 20 shots to take the extra time setback in net for the Blades.

At first, it was viewed that Friday’s game at the SaskTel Centre was going to be the biggest clash of the season for the two archrivals. Now, they will meet in what will be the biggest game of the campaign between the two sides on Saturday in Prince Albert as they battle for a prize only one can win in an East Division banner.

The Raiders celebrate their win on Friday night.

You can expect the Raiders faithful with make the Art Hauser Centre a madhouse as it not every day the Raiders and Blades play their respective final regular season games against each other in a winner take all clash for the division crown.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------                                                                

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.