Raiders hope to find next Hannoun

Dante Hannoun (#17) enjoys a WHL title winning OT goal on May 13, 2019.

The Prince Albert Raiders would love to relive the Dante Hannoun trade and the moments that came in the months after it.

Way back on January 3, 2019, the Raiders sat on top of the entire WHL standings and were looking for a way to slightly tweak their roster without throwing any wrenches into the chemistry that had been built. On that day, they acquired 20-year-old centre Dante Hannoun, a fourth round pick and an eighth round selection in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft from the Victoria Royals in exchange for 20-year-old centre Kody McDonald, 18-year-old centre Carson Miller and a third round selection in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft. The deal came seven days before that season’s WHL trade deadline.

Hannoun, who stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 160 pounds, had been a high-scoring career WHL member of the Royals until coming to “Hockey Town North.” In just a little over five months as a member of the Raiders before exhausting his WHL eligibility, Hannoun appeared in 28 regular season games with the club posting 10 goals, 21 assists and a plus-16 rating in the plus-minus department. Prince Albert topped the WHL’s overall standings with a 54-10-2-2 record.

Hannoun skated in all 23 contests the Raiders played in the 2019 WHL Playoffs recording 14 goals, 10 assists and a plus-11 rating. He tied for the team high in game-winning goals at four with Brett Leason and Noah Gregor, but everyone who lives in Prince Albert knows one of Hannoun’s winners overshadowed all the others.

On May 13, 2019, the Raiders hosted Game 7 of the WHL Championship Series against the Vancouver Giants in front of a sellout crowd of 3,289 spectators at the storied and historic 2,580-seat Art Hauser Centre. Locked in a 2-2 with 1:35 remaining in overtime, Hannoun tapped home a backdoor feed at the right side of the Giants net that came from Gregor to deliver the Raiders to a 3-2 victory in the game and a 4-3 win in the series.

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

Fonstad heats up for Raiders, scores twice in Saturday’s win

Cole Fonstad (#24) celebrates his second goal for the Raiders on Saturday.

    PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Cole Fonstad is all about team success, but he still wants to play a bigger part in making the party great.

    The 18-year-old left-winger, who was selected in the fifth round and 128^th overall in last June’s NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, has contributed to a special start this season season for the Prince Albert Raiders. With that said the Estevan, Sask., product hasn’t been the biggest driving offensive force that has helped the Raiders get voted into the top spot on the CHL’s Top 10 rankings.

    It appears Fonstad is starting to find his time to play a bigger part in contributing to the Raiders success.

    On Saturday night before a packed standing room crowd of 3,107 at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre, Fonstad scored two key goals to power the Raiders past the Brandon Wheat Kings 5-2 in a WHL regular season tilt.

Cole Fonstad has points in his last six games for the Raiders.

    The win allowed the Raiders to improve their WHL leading record to a remarkable 28-1-0-1.

    Fonstad now has points in his last six straight games totalling four goals and four assists over that span of time.

    “I think that is my role is to contribute offensively,” said Fonstad, who has 10 goals and 13 assists appearing in all of the Raiders 30 games this season. “Obviously at the start of the year, it wasn’t going as well as I thought.

    “It is nice to kind of get back and start making plays again and feeling more confident with the puck and build some chemistry with my linemates.”

    In recent games, Fonstad has been played on the line with overage standout Noah Gregor at centre and talented 16-year-old rookie Ozzy Wiesblatt at right wing. Fonstad said he has found a groove playing with Gregor and Wiesblatt.

    “Once you get chemistry, you kind of know where guys are,” said Fonstad, who was selected by the Raiders in the first round and fifth overall in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft. “Then, you can just get rolling.

    “It is a lot easier on the ice to kind of know where guys are.”

Cole Fonstad was selected in the NHL Entry draft by Montreal.

    When he wasn’t putting up points, Fonstad was pumped to see his teammates have success. He said he will always support and congratulate his teammates, when they do well.

    He was really excited to see how well 19-year-old right-winger Brett Leason has done in his third full season in the league. Leason had a pair of assists on Saturday, and he has netted at least one point in all 30 games the Raiders have played to this point in the campaign.

    The Calgary, Alta., product has obliterated his career highs in leading the WHL in scoring with 28 goals and 36 assists for 64 points. Leason and Raiders star goaltender Ian Scott have been invited to the main selection camp for Canada’s world junior team, which starts Tuesday and runs through to Friday in Victoria, B.C.

Cole Fonstad controls the puck in the offensive zone.

    “We all knew Leas (Brett Leason) was a great player last year,” said Fonstad. “To see him come and how much he is producing this year, it is special to see.

    “It is pretty amazing for a guy to go unnoticed the last couple of years and just come into this year and take off like that. Obviously, we are really happy for him to go to the world junior camp. We think he is going to be great there.”

    As for Saturday’s game, the Wheat Kings withstood the Raiders initial push and opened the game’s scoring at the 14:18 mark of the first period. While working on the power play, Wheat Kings left-winger Linden McCorrister gathered a loose puck in front of the Raiders net and popped home his 10^th tally of the season to give Brandon a 1-0 lead.

    At the start of the second, Brandon tried to clamp down on the host side with some tight checking.

Cole Fonstad, right, celebrates his first goal in Saturday’s game.

    With 5:29 to play in the second, the Raiders offence exploded scoring three times in a span of 89 seconds to go ahead 3-1.

    Fonstad started the surge sniping home a shot from the slot.

    Just 40 seconds later, fan favourite and power forward Kody McDonald knocked home a rebound from a shot taken by offensive defenceman Max Martin to put the Raiders ahead 2-1.

    Just 49 seconds after that tally, overage centre Sean Montgomery scored on the power play to complete the Prince Albert surge. Leason picked up an assist on Montgomery’s goal to ensure his point scoring streak to start the season stayed alive.

    Fonstad was pumped he was able spark his club scoring his team’s first goal.

Brett Leason has points in all of the Raiders 30 games this season.

    “It felt good,” said Fonstad. “We were taking some penalties there and kind of got away from our game.

    “It was good to kind of get the momentum back. I think it got some energy back. I think, when we are on our game or get some little momentum like that, we can score a lot of goals really fast.”

    The Wheat Kings gained some traction before the second frame ended, when star right-winger Luka Burzan scored 50 seconds after Montgomery’s marker to cut Prince Albert’s edge to 3-2.

    At the 1:56 mark of the third, Fonstad scored his second of the night firing home the rebound of a shot taken by Gregor to give the Raiders a 4-2 advantage.

    Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid was pleased to see Fonstad hit another gear and expects the third-year winger will have more big moments as the campaign moves on. 

Noah Gregor had three points for the Raiders on Saturday.

    Habscheid said it will make the Raiders that much more able to keep winning, if Fonstad keeps hitting a higher gear.

    “He is a big part of our team,” said Habscheid. “He is a big part of last year.

    “If he can step up and keep playing, that will help our depth and just make us more hard to defend against. Goal scorers score goals, and if they don’t, they get frustrated and they lose a little bit of confidence. He got a couple tonight, and that should help his confidence.”

    Brandon appeared to trim the Raiders edge to one goal later on in the third, but McCorrister had a goal disallowed because he grabbed the puck and chucked it into the Prince Albert goal on a net scramble.

    Gregor scored the Raiders final goal with 5:30 remaining in the third period to go along with two assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department. The tally by the Beaumont, Alta., product was his 100th career WHL regular season goal.

    Scott turned away 39 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Jiri Patera turned away 42 shots to take the setback in net for the Wheat Kings, who fell to 14-9-3-3.

Riley the Raider has fun with a young fan.

    Fonstad wants to keep his hot streak going, especially considering the Raiders could potentially be without Leason and Scott for some time if they make Canada’s world junior team.
    Both are slated to leave the Raiders for the Hockey Canada selection camp on Monday.

    “Obviously, those guys are huge parts of our team,” said Fonstad. “Scotty (Scott), he can win you a game.

    “He is the best goalie in the league by far. We feel that, and we’re lucky to have him. People are going to have to step up and fill their roles.

    “We’re just going to have to buckle down and get these wins.”

The Raiders salute the fans at the Art Hauser Centre.

    The Raiders return to action on Sunday, when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blades (4 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

    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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Blades rally past Raiders with third period surge

Chase Wouters netted the winning goal for the Blades on Friday.

    The power play got hot at the right time for the Saskatoon Blades.

    Trailing the host Raiders in Prince Albert 1-0 before 3,033 spectators at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday night, the Blades scored two power-play goals inside of the final six minutes of the third period to pull out a 2-1 victory in a WHL regular season clash.

    Working on a five-on-three power play, Blades left-winger Eric Florchuk took an offensive zone faceoff and won it back to right-winger Max Gerlach, who was positioned at the centre of the ice at the top of the two faceoff circles. The 19-year-old sharpshooter blasted home his 32^nd goal of the season to tie things up at 1-1 with 5:23 to play in the third period.

    With 1:41 to play in the third period, sophomore centre Chase Wouters scored the winning goal for the Blades with a beauty effort on the power play. Wouters got the puck at the right side boards from overage left-winger Braylon Shmyr, cut to the front of the Prince Albert goal, went forehand to backhand and put a shot past a screened Raiders netminder Ian Scott to give the visitors a one-goal victory.

    Friday’s encounter turned into a classic rivalry clash these two teams are famous for resulting in three fights.

    In the second period, Blades defenceman Jake Kustra tangled with Raiders left-winger Justin Nachbaur and Saskatoon Russian import defenceman Mark Rubinchik battled with Prince Albert power forward Kody McDonald.

    Kustra and McDonald went at it in the third period. A scrum and drama also ensued at the end of the game.

Jake Kustra was involved in a couple of fights on Friday.

    Outside of the physical aspect of the contest, the Raiders took a 1-0 lead with just under 30 seconds to play in the first period on a short-handed goal from right-winger Parker Kelly. Kelly blocked a shot in his own zone, sped down the ice fighting off the backcheck of Blades rookie centre Kirby Dach, got on a short breakaway and snapped a shot past Blades overage netminder Tyler Brown.

    It appeared Kelly’s goal, which was his 29^th of the season, was going to hold up as the only tally of the contest until the Blades scored their two late power-play goals.

    Brown had a big night making 24 saves including a few stellar ones to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. Scott turned away 20 shots to take the setback in goal for the Raiders.

    The Raiders, who had earned points in the standings in their previous 11 games, fell to 32-26-9-4, but they are cemented as the second wildcard team in the WHL Eastern Conference. They will face the Moose Jaw Warriors, who finished first overall in the league, in a best-of-seven first round series.

    The Blades improved to 34-33-3-1 with their second win in a row and actually secured at least an eighth place overall finish in the 12 team Eastern Conference. Under the current WHL playoff format where the top three teams in each division and two wildcard teams with the next best records in each conference make the post-season, the Blades won’t take part in any playoff action. They have missed the playoffs for five straight years. 

Braylon Shmyr picked up an assist on the Blades’ winning goal.

    Saskatoon sits five points behind Prince Albert for the second wildcard spot. The Blades stumbled out of a playoff spot posting a 3-6-1 record in their last 10 games.

    Under the old playoff format that was last used in the 2013-14 campaign where the two divisional winners and the next six best records in each conference made the post-season, the Blades would have locked up a playoff berth.

    The Blades and Raiders will close out their respective regular season schedules with one last head-to-head encounter on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

    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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