Raiders wise to focus on Game 5 of WHL Championship Series

Questionable third period calls in Game 4 left in past

An officials’ conference takes place in Game 4 of the WHL final.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Prince Albert Raiders turned the page as soon as their post-game presser on Wednesday night.

That feeling was reinforced in media interviews during an off day on Thursday.

No matter how you cut it, the Raiders are in the classic cliché “do or die” situation in their best-of-seven WHL Championship Series with the Everett Silvertips. With a 5-2 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre, the Silvertips took a commanding 3-1 lead in the series having won the last three straight contests in the set. Everett has also scored first in every game of the series.

Game 5 is slated for Friday at 7:30 p.m. local time at the Hauser. At the moment, the Raiders can only look towards the game Friday.

They can go into the contest with a key motivating factor. They do not want that game to come to a conclusion where the Silvertips are being presented the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions. If that situation materializes, the Raiders will find out one of the hardest things they will experience in sports is seeing an opponent celebrate a league championship in their own home rink and home city.

In the older era of the WHL and even into the early 2010s, teams that made the WHL final did not want to see an opponent enjoy a championship celebration on their home rink. If the Raiders prevail on Friday, they will force the series to head back to Everett for Game 6 on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time at the Angel of the Winds Arena. The last WHL final to go to a Game 6 came in 2022, when the Edmonton Oil Kings beat the Seattle Thunderbirds in six games.

In Game 4 of this year’s WHL final, frustration ensued for the Raiders and their fans as an official’s mistake snowballed on the host side. Raiders fans might not believe this, but there was a game in this year’s WHL Playoffs that snowballed worse due to an official’s mistake. That contest will be brought up a little later, but first the focus goes to the third period in Game 4 of the WHL final.

The fans first got upset when Silvertips star right-winger Carter Bear scored on the power play at the 4:24 mark of the third to put the visitors up 3-1. A replay shown in the building after the goal was scored showing the play was close to being offside on a zone entry. Before the 2023-24 campaign started, the WHL made a rule change eliminating offside plays from a coach’s challenge.

A short time later, Raiders captain Justice Christensen scored to cut the Silvertips lead to 3-2. That set the stage for the biggest controversial play of the contest.

With 11:33 remaining in the third, Raiders star centre Aiden Oiring tried to wrap the puck home at the right side of the Silvertips net. Silvertips star netminder Anders Miller made the stop, but a mad scramble ensued at the right side of the goal.

The puck bounced around a maze of skates and sticks and shot out to Raiders rookie defenceman Benett Kelly in front of the Everett net. Kelly appeared to blast home the equalizer causing the crowd at the Hauser to momentarily erupt.

The officials blew the play dead having lost sight of the puck. They disallowed the goal due to the quick whistle causing the crowd to turn irate. About two or three people ended up throwing debris on the ice.

The officials did a short video review and still held up the no goal call.

That quick whistle was a mistake, and the Raiders should have been in a tie game at that point. What fans often forget in the WHL is that the circuit is a development league for the officials as well as the players. You do run into a handful of fans in every WHL market thinking everything should be executed at an NHL level, which is great to hope for but unrealistic to expect.

On seemingly the next shift with 10:40 remaining in the third, Raiders standout sophomore Riley Boychuk appeared to fire home another equalizer. That goal was waved off as the officials correctly ruled a Raiders player had knocked a Silvertips player into Miller causing inadvertent contact that prevented the netminder from making a save.

The officials got that call right. Still, there were Raiders fans that were mad that goal didn’t count.

The snowball effect carried on.

With 9:40 remaining in the third, the Raiders suffered a bad break that didn’t have anything to do with the officials. While attempting to break out of their zone, Raiders star 20-year-old centre Aiden Oiring and Christensen both blew tires causing the puck to be turned over to Silvertips 20-year-old centre Zackary Shantz along the right boards in the Prince Albert zone.

Shantz passed the puck across the front of the Prince Albert net to linemate in 18-year-old left-winger Shea Busch. Busch popped the puck home to push the Silvertips lead out to 4-2. Matias Vanhanen proceeded to add an empty-net goal to round out the 5-2 final score in favour of the Silvertips.

This wasn’t the only game that went off the rails due to an official’s mistake. An even worse one took place earlier in the current WHL Playoffs on April 15 at the CN Centre in Prince George, B.C.

On that night, the host Prince George Cougars went into Game 4 of a Western Conference Semifinal Series against the Penticton Vees holding a 2-1 lead in that best-of-seven set. The two sides were locked in a 2-2 tie in a very entertaining contest heading into the final six minutes of the third period.

With 5:50 remaining in the third, Cougars defenceman Corbin Vaughan nailed Vees centre Ryden Evers with a shoulder to the chest bodycheck in the centre ice zone. Evers fell face first to the ice and was cut by his visor.

The officials in that game gave Vaughan a major penalty for head checking and a game misconduct. It was clear reviewing the video that no head check occurred on the play.

All of a sudden, the snowball happened. A short time later, Cougars defenceman Arsenii Anisimov cleared the puck over the glass from his own zone resulting in a delay of game penalty.

Vees captain Nolan Stevenson scored on that two-man advantage with 4:16 remaining in the third to put Penticton up 3-2. A handful of Cougars fans were so upset they threw debris on the ice.

After play resumed, a couple of other Cougars fans threw debris on the ice while play was in progress. That caused the officials to blow the play dead with 3:40 remaining in the third and give the Cougars bench a penalty due to the actions of the fans. That is a rule that rarely gets put into action, but that was the right time to call that penalty.

Vees defenceman Ethan Weber scored on that two-man advantage with 2:29 remaining in the third to push the Vees lead out to 4-2. The Cougars penalty box parade continued resulting in Vees left-winger Brady Birnie scoring third power-play goal on a two-man advantage with 51 seconds remaining in the third to round out the 5-2 final score in favour of Penticton.

That ultimately was the contest that saw the Cougars get fined $1,500 on April 17 by the WHL for inadequate security. Vaughan did not receive any further discipline for his hit on Evers. Cougars left-winger Aiden Foster was given a two-game suspension for receiving a head checking major and a game misconduct in the second period of that contest.

In both the Raiders Game 4 situation in the WHL final and the Cougars Game 4 development in their Western Conference semifinal, the fans speak from Raiders and Cougars supporters online was fairly standard regarding how bad the officials were. The men wearing the referee armbands in both games got singled out heat from some fans.

There were some Raiders fans that did not like referees Jeff Ingram and Ward Pateman who worked Game 4 of the WHL final. There were some Cougars fans that did not like referees Bryan Bourdon and Bobby Jo Love who worked Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinal in Prince George.

You also had fans going the conspiracy theory route saying the league was trying to set up some sort of match up or help certain teams win. Every team in the WHL has at least a couple of fans like that, and they’ve kind of said those lines for at least three decades. Those types of fans have a passion in a place where you can’t change their mind.

Switching sports to the world of the NFL, there are still fans out there who believe that league did everything they could to ensure the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, 2024, because Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was the boyfriend of icon of all music icons in Taylor Swift. There are fans that believe the NFL went out of their way to make sure “Goddess Taylor” was happy because of all the fans she brought to the viewership of the game helping the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ERS 25-22 in overtime.

None of those fans said anything when the Chiefs lost Super Bowl LIX the very next year 40-22 in an absolute drubbing handed out by the Philadelphia Eagles. That contest also happened to be attended by the President of the United States of America in Donald Trump, which marked the first time a sitting U.S. President attended the Super Bowl.

Back to the WHL, the Cougars would ultimately lose their Western Conference Semifinal Series to the Vees in six games. Going into Game 5 in Penticton, both teams left what happened in Game 4 of that series in the past and moved forward focusing on controlling what they can control.

When the puck drops for Game 5 of the WHL final on Friday at the Hauser, you can bet both the Raiders and Silvertips will have left what happened in Game 4 of their series in the past. Teams won’t always agree with what the officials call, but there is a realization they are developing and gaining experience too.

For myself, I have actually been fine for the most part with the officiating in the WHL Playoffs outside of a handful of hiccups here and there.

As for the Raiders, they are facing their biggest adversity of the campaign, and their test will be to see how they respond to that adversity. They have taken the first step on that path in focusing on the future.

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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Raiders’ Dube gets confidence boost as regular season ends

Prince Albert blanks Saskatoon 4-0 heading into WHL Playoffs 

The Raiders celebrate the first of two goals from Brayden Dube (#15).

Brayden Dube got the goal-scoring tune up he was looking for heading into his final foray into the WHL Playoffs.

On Saturday, the 20-year-old star right-winger fired home a pair of goals to power his Prince Albert Raiders to a 4-0 victory over the host Saskatoon Blades before 10,861 spectators at the SaskTel Centre. Dube accounted for the Raiders final two markers, and they both came in the second period.

At the 3:45 mark of the second, the Raiders rushed into the Saskatoon zone and defenceman Linden Burrett had the puck just inside the top of the right faceoff circle. He passed the puck down to Dube at the doorstep of the left side of the Saskatoon net, and the Roblin, Man., product one-timed home his first tally of the night to give the Raiders a 3-0 advantage.

Brayden Dube had 24 goals and 27 assists in 55 regular season games.

Dube proceeded to pick up his second goal at the 10:14 mark of the second with his squad working on the power play. Raiders star left-winger Brandon Gorzynski had the puck just coming off the right side boards in the Saskatoon zone and passed the puck to Dube, who was positioned at the top of the left faceoff circle.

Dube one-timed home a laser beam to the top right corner of the Saskatoon net. That tally put the Raiders up by the game’s final score of 4-0.

“It felt really nice, especially before playoffs to get that confidence up,” said Dube, who finished the regular season with 24 goals, 27 assists and plus-20 rating in the plus-minus department in 55 regular season contests. “Hopefully, it leads into playoffs coming up.”

Brayden Dube will make his final foray into the WHL Playoffs.

The win allowed the Raiders to finish with a 52-10-5-1 record. They were locked into finishing first in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings entering play on Saturday.

The 52 victories allowed the current Raiders, who are rated fourth in the CHL’s Top 10 Rankings, to match their 1985-86 team for posting the third highest regular season win total in the club’s history in the WHL. The 1985-86 Raiders posted a record of 52 wins, 17 losses and three ties.

The Blades fell to 34-27-5-2 with the setback. They entered play on Saturday locked into finishing sixth in the Eastern Conference.

Hubert Clarke (#8) fights Triston Mitchell-McElhone (#25).

Having joined the Raiders in a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds early into his rookie season in the WHL in 2022-23, Dube said the current campaign has been his most memorable major junior season. He has enjoyed being on a Raiders side this season where he has been one of nine players who has scored 20-or-more goals. The last time the Raiders had nine players score 20-or-more goals was back in the 1985-86 season.

“It is obviously nice,” said Dube, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 184 pounds. “We can just roll lines.

“Every line is just really, really good. Having lots of goal scorers, it is a good mixture. Every game someone else is having a game, and the next game someone else gets a couple.

Alisher Sarkenov had one goal and one assist for the Raiders.

“It just works out perfect.”

While Dube has been part of a large mix of Raiders players who have had good seasons in 2025-26, Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald does not downplay how big of a part the veteran forward has been for the team.

“He has been huge,” said McDonald. “I mean his pace, the way he skates, the way he can drive the puck inside the dots with his skating and his release is tremendous.

“He is very effective on the hunt and gets under sticks and is able to close on guys quickly on the forecheck. He can also take away time and space on the track and really push the track as well. He does a tremendous job with his battle and is just a big piece of our puzzle.”

Daxon Rudolph had a slick assist for the Raiders.

McDonald said it was great to see Dube find the back of the net twice right before the Raiders embark on their journey through the WHL Playoffs.

“It is about confidence,” said McDonald. “He missed a little bit of time there.

“(It is) really nice to stack up some games for him here towards the end. It is really nice to see him get rewarded.”

In Saturday’s game, the rivalry between the Raiders and Blades hit high-level intensity shortly after the opening puck drop.

Just 19 seconds into the contest, a fight broke out between Raiders 18-year-old rookie defenceman Hubert Clarke and Blades 17-year-old rookie centre Triston Mitchell-McElhone. The two players were tied up for much of the lengthy bout with Mitchell-McElhone getting in the majority of hard punches.

Jonah Sivertson had the Raiders second goal on Saturday.

The Blades came out with some good early jump holding a 6-3 edge in shots on goal early in the opening frame. The momentum changed at the 8:33 mark of the stanza.

Raiders starting netminder Steele Bass passed the puck to rookie defenceman Benett Kelly to start a rush up ice. Kelly drove into the Saskatoon zone and fired a shot on net that was turned away with a blocker stop from Blades star netminder Evan Gardner.

Raiders rookie import 18-year-old left-winger Alisher Sarkenov picked up the rebound in the left faceoff circle and drove home his 21^st goal of the campaign to put the Raiders in front 1-0.

With 5:18 remaining in the opening frame and working on the power play, the Raiders would score again on another offensive zone rush. Raiders star defenceman Daxon Rudolph made a backhanded pass in his own zone to Sarkenov to spring the import forward up ice on a rush.

Steele Bass made 30 saves to pick up the shutout win.

Sarkenov jetted down the left wing into the Saskatoon zone and passed the puck to the front of the Blades net to 17-year-old rookie right-winger Jonah Sivertson. Sivertson promptly fired home his 24^th goal of the season to push the Raiders lead out to 2-0.

When the first period ended, a scrum developed. While no big fights came out of the scrum, Bass and Gardner started skating towards centre ice to potentially have a goalie fight. Both netminders were intercepted by the officials and sent to their respective dressing rooms for the intermission.

“It is definitely a big rivalry,” said Dube. “Every time we play, it gets a little rough as you could tell.

“(There are) a couple of fights every game. Both sides want to win every time you play each other.”

Brandon Gorzynski had an assist on the Raiders fourth goal.

After Dube scored his second goal of the night in the second period, the Blades pulled Gardner. He stopped 20-of-24 shots to take the setback in net for Saskatoon. Riley Budd played the rest of the way in the Blades net in relief stopping all nine shots sent his way.

In the third, the two sides engaged in a major scrum with 1:44 remaining in the frame. Out of that scrum, a main event fight developed between Sivertson and Blades veteran defenceman Jack Kachkowski. Sivertson got the better of Kachkowski in that tilt and ended the bout with a takedown.

The two clubs proceeded to play a peaceful final 1:44 to end the contest.

Bass stopped 30 shots he faced to pick up the shutout win in goal for the Raiders. The shutout was the third of the season for Bass.

The Raiders and Blades scrum it up with 1:44 left in the third.

Kelly finished with two assists and a plus-one rating for the Raiders.

As the Raiders and Blades closed their respective regular season schedules on Saturday and couldn’t make any movements in the standings, they both scratched veterans and played younger lineups. McDonald was pleased with the effort of the players who took the ice for his side on Saturday.

“I thought the group did a great job,” said McDonald. “They pushed right off the start, and again, we answered.

“We continued to play fast. We continued to play north and got to our pace and got to our forecheck, which led to some offensive zone time and some chances for us. The guys did a great job capitalizing and just continued to stick with it and played a real simple road game.”

Jonah Sivertson (#28) fights Jack Kachkowski (#37).

Now both clubs turn their attention to the WHL Playoffs.

The Blades play a first round series against the Edmonton Oil Kings, who are locked into a third place finish in the Eastern Conference going into their final regular season contest hosting the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday. Game 1 of the best-of-seven first round series between the Blades and Oil Kings is slated for Friday at 7 p.m. local time at Rogers Place.

The Raiders will battle the Red Deer Rebels in a best-of-seven first round series. The Rebels finished eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 26-36-4-2 mark. Game 1 of that series is set for Friday at 7 p.m. at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.

Reflecting on the upcoming post-season, Dube said he is looking forward to having a final playoff run with the Raiders and especially with fellow 20-year-olds and longtime teammates in star centre Aiden Oiring and captain Justice Christensen.

The Raiders celebrate their win on Saturday.

“I’ve been with them my whole career, and it has been an honour playing with them,” said Dube. “We’ve got a lot of games left, so it is going to be fun.”

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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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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