Raiders versus Tigers conference final could be epic

Daxon Rudolph (#10) and the Raiders are ready to face the Tigers.

It has the potential to be one of the most epic post-season series ever played in the history of the WHL.

The heavyweight showdown for the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series has materialized. The Prince Albert Raiders will take on the Medicine Hat Tigers. Game 1 of the series is set for Friday at 7 p.m. at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre.

The Raiders topped the Eastern Conference, claimed the East Division title and finished second overall in the WHL with a 52-10-5-1 mark. They were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Raiders swept their archrivals the Saskatoon Blades in an Eastern Conference semifinal.

The Tigers, who are the defending WHL champions, finished second in the Eastern Conference, captured the Central Division title and finished third overall in the WHL with a 50-10-5-3 mark. They were rated fifth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Tigers swept their division rivals the Calgary Hitmen in the other Eastern Conference semifinal.

Last year, the two sides met in an Eastern Conference Semifinal Series that the Tigers took in a sweep on their way to winning the WHL title. While the Tigers were one of the circuit’s powerhouses last season, they were powered by lots of emotion playing for star 20-year-old netminder Harrison Meneghin, whose father, Derek, passed on the final day of the 2024-25 regular season.

Meneghin was playing for his father, and the Tigers were playing for him. They rode that to the team’s sixth WHL championship and a berth in the Memorial Cup tournament’s title game, where they fell 4-1 in the CHL championship contest to the London Knights on June 1, 2025 in Rimouski, Que.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.