Raiders caught in a trap

Gardner stops 29 to power Blades to shutout win

Evan Gardner, right, and the Blades get a big road win.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Can someone say trap game.

On Saturday night, the Prince Albert Raiders hosted their archrivals the Saskatoon Blades at their storied and historic rink in the Art Hauser Centre. The clash marked the fourth time the two sides went at it in the current WHL regular season.

The Raiders came into the contest riding an eight game winning streak and sat second in the WHL’s overall standings, first in the Eastern Conference and the East Division and were rated first in the CHL Top 10 rankings that were released on Tuesday.

The Blades had lost their last three straight with all those setbacks coming on the road, and they had been having some decent success on the road this season. They sat solidly holding a playoff position sitting sixth overall in the Eastern Conference and were looking to get any sort of positive momentum.

Evan Gardner plays the puck behind his own net.

With all signs trending towards a Raiders victory, what happens?

The Blades skated away with a 4-0 shutout victory before a standing room crowd of 3,044 spectators at the 2,580 seat facility.

Blades star netminder Evan Gardner, who turned 20-years-old earlier this week, made 29 saves to pick up his third shutout of the season. He also became the first netminder to collect a shutout win over the Raiders in the current campaign.

Gardner, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, has quietly been having a solid season. In 36 appearances for the Blades in the 2025-26 campaign, Gardner has posted a 19-10-3 record, a 2.70 goals against average, a .909 save percentage and three shutouts.

Evan Gardner (#35) freezes the puck for one of his 29 saves.

He came up with a big night as Blades continue to have three regular defencemen out of the lineup due to injury. Saskatoon was without rearguards Derek Thurston and Kaden Allan due to upper body injuries and Jordan Martin due to a lower body injury. All three are not expected to return at any time in the near future.

The Raiders went into Saturday’s game without three very key players. Star 18-year-old import rookie netminder Michal Orsulak is out day-to-day with a minor undisclosed injury. Star 20-year-old right-winger Brayden Dube and standout 19-year-old defenceman Linden Burrett are still listed as day-to-day with lower body injuries.

Blades RW Hunter Laing (#27) fights Raiders RW Jonah Sivertson (#28).

Raiders rookie netminder Steele Bass, who turned 18-years-old earlier this month, made his eighth start for the club after picking up victories in his seven previous starts. Brady Holtvogt dressed as an associate player call up backup netminder for the Raiders coming in from the junior A Humboldt Broncos of the SJHL.

The two sides started Saturday’s clash transitioning up and down the ice, where the Raiders held a 5-1 edge in shots on goal 10:30 in.

With 7:19 remaining in the opening frame, a fight broke out between Raiders 17-year-old right-winger Jonah Sivertson and Blades 19-year-old right-winger Hunter Laing. The two unexpected combatants put together an even and fairly spirited bout, which the Blades seemed to get a lift from.

Benett Kelly starts a rush up ice for the Raiders.

With 4:20 remaining in the first, Blades 18-year-old import left-winger David Lewandowski had the puck off right of centre on the top of the edge of the right faceoff circle. He snapped a shot past Bass to give the visitors a 1-0 edge. Lewandowski’s goal came on the Blades second shot on goal in the contest.

Just 36 seconds later, the Blades pushed their advantage out to 2-0 striking on the power play. Blades star 20-year-old left-winger Rowan Calvert had the puck at the left side of the Prince Albert net and fed a pass across the face of the net to 17-year-old Blades star centre Cooper Williams at the right post. Williams tapped home his 17^th goal of the campaign to give the visitors their two-goal edge.

At the 4:50 mark of the second, Lewandowski had the puck to the left of the Prince Albert goal. He passed the puck across the face of the Raiders net to import rookie left-winger Dustin Willhoft streaking towards the right post. Willhoft popped home his third of the campaign to push the Blades out to 3-0.

David Lewandowski had one goal and one assist for the Blades.

The Raiders made a big push back for the rest of the second and a third period where they held a 14-5 edge in shots on goal for the frame. Raiders 17-year-old rookie defenceman Benett Kelly came the closest to getting the host side on the scoreboard by ringing a drive in the third period off the post of the Saskatoon net.

With 4:08 remaining in the third and having a faceoff in the Saskatoon zone, the Raiders pulled Bass for an extra skater. Any thoughts of a miracle rally were put to rest when Blades standout veteran centre Hayden Harsanyi scored into an empty net to round out the 4-0 final score in favour of Saskatoon.

Bass returned to the Raiders net to finish out the contest. He turned away 12-of-15 shots to take his first loss in goal in his WHL career. Bass has posted a 7-1 record, a 1.63 goals against average, a .915 save percentage and one shutout this season.

Dustin Willhoft had one goal and two assists for the Blades.

Willhoft had a pair of assists to go with his goal, and he was a plus-three in the plus-minus department.

The Blades improved to 25-19-3-1 with the win. The Raiders fell to 36-7-4 with the setback.

Heading into Saturday’s game, the Raiders and Blades had met three times previously in the campaign. They opened their regular season schedule playing each other on September 19, 2025, where the Raiders pulled out a 4-2 victory at the Hauser. 

The two sides went at it the next night in Saskatoon with the Blades claiming a 3-2 victory in overtime.

The two sides then went at it on December 14, 2025 at the SaskTel Centre where the Raiders edged the Blades 5-4.

The two squads go at it again on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

The Blades celebrate their win on Saturday.

When the Raiders and Blades get together, it is always a drama that is worth watching. These two clubs are always thorns in each others’ sides.

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

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