Raiders HC Truitt said return to playoffs huge for club

20-year-olds made impact, future bright for returnees

The Raiders celebrate a goal on April 2 at the Art Hauser Centre.

Jeff Truitt said the 2023-24 campaign was a season of development for his Prince Albert Raiders.

The Raiders head coach said that due to coming into the campaign with a younger group the focus for the season was on establishing culture. Prince Albert ultimately played well enough to post a 31-32-2-3 record to finish eighth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and capture the conference’s final playoff berth.

The Raiders posted their record even with having to play their archrivals the Saskatoon Blades 10 times in the regular season, and the Blades finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 50-13-2-3 mark that included going 7-2-0-1 against the Raiders. In the WHL Playoffs taking on the Blades in a best-of-seven first round series, the Raiders claimed Game 1 by a 4-3 score on March 28 in Saskatoon before the Blades claimed victory in the next four straight contests to take the set 4-1.

Prince Albert’s campaign came to an end on Friday with a 6-2 loss in Game 5 of that series to the Blades in Saskatoon.

“Getting into the playoffs, it was a real good education for everybody,” said Truitt. “I feel bad for our 20-year-olds.

Jacob Hoffrogge joined the Raiders on October 7, 2023.

“That ends their season. For the rest of the guys in this group, it was a real good education about what it takes to win at this level.”

Due to the 20-year-old shuffle that happens annually in the WHL as each team can only have three players in that age group. Star left-winger Sloan Stanick was the most tenured player on the team in that age group arriving in Prince Albert early in the 2021-22 campaign in a very early season trade with the Regina Pats.

The Raiders two other 20-year-old players actually didn’t start the 2023-24 campaign with the club. Defenceman Jacob Hoffrogge came to the Raiders in a trade on October 7, 2023 with the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Centre Turner McMillen was released by the Kelowna Rockets on October 11, 2023. Just two days after that release, McMillen was added to the roster of the Estevan Bruins joining the junior A ranks of the SJHL.  He returned to the major junior ranks being added to the Raiders roster on January 5.

Hoffrogge had one assist in three games with the Oil Kings in the 2023-24 campaign before joining the Raiders. In 60 regular season games with the Raiders, Hoffrogge recorded one goal and 17 assists. The Saskatoon product had one assist in the Raiders five post-season contests.

Turner McMillen joined the Raiders on January 5.

“Jacob was just a steady guy nothing flashy or anything like that,” said Truitt. “He is a tremendous skater that helped out with our younger guys kind of taking care of (Doogan) Pederson and (Tyrone) Sobry back there a little bit.

“You can’t ask much more from a 20-year-old that way.”

McMillen, who is an alumnus of the Prince Albert Mintos under-18 AAA team, had two goals and two assists in six games with the Rockets before being released. The Cairevale, Sask., product posted five goals and five assists in 11 games with the Bruins.

In 31 regular season games with the Raiders, McMillan had seven goals and 11 assists. He was held off the score sheet in the Raiders five post-season outings.

“We picked him (McMillan) up, and he came in and did a tremendous job,” said Truitt. “He is a good player.

“He plays with some power. He takes the body. He can shoot.

Sloan Stanick (#23) lead the Raiders with 84 points in 2023-24.

“He has that 20-year-old little bit of savvy too as well, which is great.”

Stanick, who is from Rapid City, Man., had an outstanding season leading the Raiders in scoring with 84 points coming off 30 goals and 54 assists appearing in all of the team’s 68 regular season contests. He had four assists in the Raiders five post-season games.

In 196 career regular season games with the Raiders, Stanick posted 81 goals and 112 assists for 193 points.

“Sloan Stanick again is just a tremendous player that we’re hoping that he gets a pro opportunity,” said Truitt.

Looking towards next season, the Raiders are going to return a solid core groups with one more season of experience under their collective belts. Barring any trade activity, that group will contain star right-winger Ryder Ritchie, who will be 18-years-old, offensive-defenceman Justice Christensen, who will be 19-years-old and star netminder Max Hildebrand, who will be 20-years-old.

“That is going to be the nucleus of our team,” said Truitt. “(Terrell) Goldsmith is in there as well.

The Raiders contemplate their campaign coming to an end on Friday.

“There are lots of them. Aiden Oiring has been a tremendous player for us as well. We like the pieces that we have coming back, and we’ll add to it with some of our younger guys.”

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Raiders capitalize on power play, schedule quirk

Prince Albert does in short-staffed Wheat Kings 5-2

Sloan Stanick, right, scores his first of three goals on Saturday.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Jeff Truitt was pleased his Prince Albert Raiders took advantage of a good hand that was dealt their way.

On Saturday night, the Raiders went 4-for-9 nine on the power play and downed a short-staffed Brandon Wheat Kings side 5-2 in a WHL regular season clash before an appreciative 2,626 spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The Wheat Kings were also playing their third game in three nights all on the road.

Brandon slipped past the Raiders 3-2 when the two sides met Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre. The Raiders proceeded to have Friday night off, while the Wheat Kings went to Saskatoon and beat the WHL leading Blades 4-1.

The Raiders celebrate a second goal from Sloan Stanick, centre.

In Saturday’s clash between the Raiders and Wheat Kings, the Brandon side played with only 15 skaters. The Wheat Kings were three short of the full complement of 18 skaters due to injuries and one suspension.

Truitt, who is the Raiders head coach, said it was important his team took advantage of a scenario that lined up in his club’s favour.

“We needed it,” said Truitt. “We need to play desperate.

“We knew they had a tough schedule with three in three, which is always hard to play with a short bench as well. We had to take advantage of it, and we did.”

The Wheat Kings injuries included forwards Roger McQueen, Joby Baumuller and Hayden Wheddon, who were all listed as day-to-day with upper body injuries. Centre Nicholas Johnson is listed as week to week with an upper body injury, netminder Ethan Eskit is day to day with a lower body injury and import defenceman Andrei Maliaven was out with an undisclosed ailment suffered on Friday in Saskatoon.

Sloan Stanick had his third career hat trick on Saturday.

Veteran 19-year-old centre Rylen Roersman was out serving a suspension with a length that is still to be determined for being given a checking from behind major in the Wheat Kings victory in Saskatoon on Friday.

When the Raiders went ahead 5-2 with 6:21 remaining in the third on a hat trick goal from star 20-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick, frustration seemed to boil over on the Wheat Kings side. The final 6:21 featured one big scrum and a few moments when the visitors were losing their cool.

“They are on big three in three,” said Stanick, whose team was wearing special jersey’s for the club’s Kid Takeover Night. “We knew we had to get on their defencemen, and they were down some bodies.

Dominik Petr scored both Wheat Kings goals on Saturday.

“They obviously got a little frustrated there, but it was just saying on the bench just play between the whistles here and let’s get two (standings) points that we really need. You obviously want to defend your teammates and stick up for each other for sure. We were just trying to stay between the whistles.

“You can’t control what they do. We just have to control what we can do.”

The Wheat Kings opened the scoring in Saturday’s contest scoring on the tail end of power play. With 3:55 remaining in the opening frame, Wheat Kings 16-year-old right-winger Brady Turko had the puck at the left side boards and passed it to the doorstep of the right side of the Prince Albert net to 18-year-old import centre Dominik Petr. Petr popped home his 15^th of the season to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

Justice Christensen had three assists for the Raiders.

Before the first intermission came around, the Raiders scored on a power play of their own. With two minutes remaining in the opening frame, Raiders centre Aiden Oiring tipped home a point shot from offensive-defenceman Justice Christensen to even the score at 1-1.

At the 7:44 mark of the second, the Raiders jumped in front 2-1 when Stanick wired home his 25^th goal of the campaign with his squad once again working on the power play. The hosts really started to take over play territorially in the second holding a 9-4 edge in shots on goal for the frame after holding a 10-8 advantage in shots on goal in the first period.

Aiden Oiring had a goal and two assists for the Raiders.

Stanick said it was big for his club to have the success they did on the power play on Saturday.

“We’ve been working on it lots,” said Stanick, who now has three hat tricks in his WHL career. “It is something that is going to help us win games getting those power-play goals, and it felt good.

“We’re clicking right now - just knock on wood keep it going.”

In the third, Raiders overage centre Turner McMillen scored off a rush to push the host side’s lead out to 3-1 at the 4:38 mark of the frame. Just under four minutes later, Stanick smartly put home his second of the night placing home a shot through a screen with the Raiders working on a two-man advantage to give Prince Albert a 4-1 lead.

Krzysztof Macias had three assists for the Raiders.

With 6:46 remaining in the third, Petr scored short-handed for his second goal of the night to cut the Raiders lead to 4-2. That wasn’t able to spark a comeback.

Just 25 seconds later, Stanick fired home his hat trick goal with his squad still working on the power play to give the Raiders a 5-2 advantage. Stanick said it was big for his side to respond quickly after Petr scored his short-handed goal.

“It was a good shot from their player there,” said Stanick, who has 27 goals and 46 assists for a team high 73 points this season. “We just wanted to stay composed.

“We knew we could win the game. We just had to play our game and to get that one to make it 5-2 was really good.”

Max Hildebrand stopped 15 shots to pick in goal for the Raiders. Carson Bjarnason turned away 29 shots to take the setback in net for the Wheat Kings.

Saturday’s game in Prince Albert include some word exchanges.

Oiring had a pair of assists to go with his goal. Christensen and import left-winger Krzysztof Macias both record three assists each for the Raiders.

The win allowed the Raiders to improve to 27-26-1-3 to remain seventh overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference three points up on the eight place 25-26-5 Lethbridge Hurricanes and four points up on the ninth place 23-25-7-1 Calgary Hitmen. The Hurricanes and Hitmen each have a game in hand on the Raiders and will play each other on Sunday in Calgary.

The Wheat Kings fall to 29-23-5-1 to remain sixth in the Eastern Conference six points up on the Raiders.

The Raiders return to action on Wednesday when they host the Red Deer Rebels (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Eric Johnston (#3) stands his ground defensively for the Raiders.

The Wheat Kings are off until Friday when the will host the visiting Raiders (7 p.m. local time, Westoba Place).

The Raiders play seven out of their last 11 regular season games at home, and Truitt wants his side to strive to play more consistently both at home and on the road.

“It gives you confidence that is for sure, but we’ve been up and down,” said Truitt. “We were great at home and then we weren’t great at home.

The Raiders salute the crowd after their win on Saturday.

“We were great on the road. It flip flopped. It is always an advantage to play at home there is no doubt about that.

“You have to be able to manufacture things. No matter where you play at home or on the road you have to be to play the right way and play with pace and play with sacrifice and structure and things like that. It is nice to win at home don’t get me wrong, but somewhere in the later on down the line too you have to win on the road.”

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Blades dominant at home, improve to 23-1-1 at SaskTel

Rowan Calvert (#23) celebrates his second period goal on Friday.

The Saskatoon Blades have replaced Disneyland making the SaskTel Centre the greatest place on Earth for their fans.

In the current 2023-24 WHL campaign, opposing teams have to hang on tight when they visit the SaskTel Centre and hope they can stay close to the host Blades. As the Blades have jetted to the top of the WHL standings, they have done so by posting an almost near perfect record at home.

On Friday playing before 5,058 spectators on home ice, the Blades dumped their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders 6-1. The two clubs were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes before the Blades pulled away taking a 3-1 edge into the second intermission and pouring in the final three tallies of the contest in the third.

Fraser Minten had one goal and two assists for the Blades.

The Blades improved their WHL leading record to 38-9-2-3 and have gone an impressive 23-1-1 at the SaskTel Centre. Friday’s win concluded a seven game home stand for the Blades, and they claimed victory in all seven of those contests in building their current seven-game overall winning streak.

“The Bridge City Bunch” have won their last 12 straight games at home. The Blades last home loss came back on December 16, 2023, when they dropped a 5-4 decision in overtime to the Kelowna Rockets.

Saskatoon’s record has been solid on the road too. The Blades, who are rated first in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, are 15-8-1-3 away from the SaskTel Centre.

Raiders goalie Max Hildebrand sprawls to make a save.

With the dominance at home and leading the WHL overall standings, one could be forgiven if you didn’t realize the Blades moved within two standings points of clinching a berth in the WHL Playoffs with their win on Friday.

Once upon a time, the notion of the Blades having a home ice advantage was passed off. In most seasons, the Blades average around 4,500 at the SaskTel Centre, which has an NHL sized capacity.

The maximum attendance the Blades can hold at home is 14,768. They achieved that attendance between the regular season and playoffs last season on three occasions, when they hosted phenom centre Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats.

Alexander Suzdalev set up the Blades winning goal.

The SaskTel Centre doesn’t have the intimidation factor like the small centre Saskatchewan rinks do in the Art Hauser Centre, which is home to the Raiders, or the InnovationPlex, which is home to the Swift Current Broncos. In both those rinks, it feels like the crowd is on top of you.

As far as the mid-sized Alberta centres go, it feels like the fans are a force for the Hurricanes at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, and aura of the Sutter family gives the Red Deer Rebels an edge in the Peavey Mart Centrium. Co-op Place in Medicine Hat can be a tough building to play in when a full house backs the Tigers, but it still doesn’t feel like it gives the edge the Tigers had in their old historic storied for their first 45 seasons in The Arena.

Rowan Calvert scored the winning goal for the Blades on Friday.

When you go play any of the squads in the WHL’s U.S. Division, that fans in those rinks go for decibel levels banging on the glass and getting as close to the ice surface as possible. The five rows nearest to the ice surface are prime seats in arenas in U.S. Division buildings.

The Blades are averaging 4,917 spectators per game over their first 25 home days this season, which is the fourth best average home attendance in the WHL. The Blades have been great at attracting the young fans of child age that drag their parents along to games.

The youngsters create an excited youthful energy in the Blades home rink, which has been really positive for the team. Parents in Saskatoon are learning that if you bring your children to a Blades game it will be a great night out. It also helps the Blades win seemingly every night out too.

Turner McMillen (#27) scored short-handed for the Raiders.

The Blades ensured there was a lot to cheer about on Friday night, and they started scoring just 91 seconds into the contest on their first power-play chance. Star offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk fired a shot through a screen to put the hosts up 1-0.

Later on in the frame, Blades import star right-winger Alexander Suzdalev tried to make all the highlight reels scoring on a Michigan shot, but he was turned away by Raiders star netminder Max Hildebrand.

With 1:26 remaining in the opening frame, the Raiders got a big traction moment while on the penalty kill. The visitors sprung overage centre Turner McMillen, who turned 21-years-old in late January, on a breakaway. On the short-handed breakaway, McMillen went forehand to backhand and put his sixth of the season past Blades netminder Evan Gardner to even the score at 1-1.

Tanner Molendyk had a goal and an assist for the Blades.

The Blades retook the lead working on another power play at the 3:20 mark of the second. Suzdalev had the puck inside the right faceoff circle. He put a shot pass in the direction of linemate Rowan Calvert in front of the Prince Albert net, and Calvert deflected home his ninth goal of the season to give the hosts a 2-1 advantage.

Following that tally, Blades star 19-year-old centre Fraser Minten proceeded to show why he is one of the WHL’s elite players. With 5:40 remaining in the second, Minten drove hard down the left wing on a rush, blew by a Raiders defenceman and put a backhand shot past Raiders netminder Max Hildebrand to push the Saskatoon lead out to 3-1.

The Blades enjoy a short-handed goal from Tyler Parr (#20).

In the third, the Blades sealed victory scoring a backbreaking short-handed goal off a two-on-rush at the 10:04 mark of the frame. On the rush, Minten burst into the Prince Albert zone down the left wing.

He fed a pass across the front of the Raiders net to winger Tyler Parr, who jetted into the offensive zone down the right wing. Parr made no mistake in burying his 10^th of the season to give the Blades a 4-1 lead. Just 55 seconds later, left-winger Rhett Melnyk scored for the Blades, and Misha Volotovskii followed with a single for the hosts to round out the game’s scoring.

Hildebrand turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders. Gardner stopped 19 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades.

Rhett Melnyk scored for the Blades on Friday.

Minten finished with a three-point night coming off one goal and two assists to go with a plus-two rating in the plus-minus department. Molendyk and Calvert each finished with a goal and an assist.

The Raiders fell to 23-25-1-3 with the setback to sit ninth in the Eastern Conference they are one standings point back of the Hurricanes and the Calgary Hitmen from moving into a playoff position. The Hurricanes sit seventh in the conference with a 24-23-3 mark, while the Hitmen are eighth in the conference with a 22-20-6-1 record.

Last season, the Blades posted a 25-6-3 record at home, and the odds are high they will surpass that win total. Due to the fact they will play 34 regular season games at home, they won’t get to the WHL record for most wins at home during the regular season.

Brandon Lisowsky circles with the puck for the Blades.

The 1988-89 WHL and CHL champion Swift Current Broncos and the Kamloops Blazers and Seattle Thunderbirds both from the 1989-90 campaign each won 33 home games in a schedule where they hosted 36 regular season home dates.

Last season, the Winnipeg Ice had the WHL’s best home record while hosting 34 regular season home games at 30-3-1.

For now in Saskatoon, the faithful in “Blades City” will have to wait a little bit before seeing their team play at home again. The Blades play their next four games on the road starting on Saturday when they travel to Swift Current to take on the 26-18-4-2 Broncos (7 p.m., InnovationPlex).

The Raiders get back at it on Saturday when they return home to host the 26-19-5-1 Brandon Wheat Kings (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Blades celebrate their win on Friday.

The Blades will return home on Friday, February 23 when they host the Wheat Kings at 7 p.m. At this point, you can’t blame the Blades faithful if they have dreams of another victory dancing in their heads.

At the moment for Blades fans, every home game is a memorable one.

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What a thrilling comeback!

Raiders rally past Blades 5-4 after tiebreaking shootout

The Raiders celebrate their 5-4 (SO) win on Friday night.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Like a textbook match by The Undertaker in WWE, the Prince Albert Raiders came back seemingly from the dead to pull out victory.

On Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre, the Raiders, who were rebranded as the Cobra Chickens for a one night promotion, appeared to be dead in the water taking on their archrivals in the WHL leading Saskatoon Blades. After 40 minutes of play, the Blades were up 4-2 and held a 28-11 edge in shots on goal.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the Raiders found a new higher gear in their skating legs. Raiders feisty 18-year-old centre Aiden Oiring scored at the 6:31 mark of the third period to cut the Blades to 4-3.

Aiden Oiring scored the Raiders third goal on Friday.

Working on the power play and with netminder Max Hildebrand pulled for an extra attacker, Raiders 20-year-old centre Turner McMillen popped home the equalizer during a net scramble at the left side of the Saskatoon goal with 40.3 seconds remaining in the third to force a 4-4 tie and overtime.

Following a scoreless overtime period, the two sides went to a tiebreaking shootout. In the three round shootout, star import right-winger Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades. Star 20-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick and 19-year-old import left-winger Krzysztof Macias tallied for the Raiders to give the host a 2-1 win in the tiebreaking session and a 5-4 victory in the WHL regular season contest.

After stopping Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky on the final attempt in the shootout, Hildebrand did a sort of a chicken dance as he was mobbed by his teammates. The 2,709 Raiders faithful in attendance at the 2,580 seat building soaking in the playing of “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon” by The Guess Who as the host side brought an end to a five-game losing streak.

Turner McMillen (#27) celebrates scoring the equalizer for P.A.

“It is a big character win,” said Raiders rookie centre Oli Chenier, who turned 17-years-old on Friday. “We showed that we really can compete with anyone in this league tonight.

“If we play a full 60 (minutes), I don’t think a lot of teams have a chance with us. It is just up to us to show up prepared for every game.”

The Raiders opened the game’s scoring tallying on the power play just 2:41 into the opening frame. Raiders winger Brayden Dube had the puck on the left wing boards and centred a pass to Chenier in front of the Saskatoon net. Chenier tipped the puck home to give the host side a 1-0 edge.

Chenier was pumped to score on his birthday.

Max Hildebrand (#30) covers a loose puck during a net scramble.

“I couldn’t ask for a better gift right there,” said Chenier. “That was really good to start off the night like that.”

The Blades evened things up at 1-1 scoring a power play of their own with 8:04 remaining in the first, when veteran centre Tyler Parr snuck in a shot from the front of the Prince Albert net.

With 3:36 remaining in the opening frame, Stanick circled from the right boards to the front of the Saskatoon goal and blew home his 20^th tally of the season to give the hosts a 2-1 edge.

The Blades controlled a lot of the zone play in the opening 20 minutes outshooting the Raiders 12-5 in the frame.

Brandon Lisowsky scored twice for the Blades on Friday.

At the 4:08 mark of the second, the Blades evened the score at 2-2 when Lisowsky slipped home his 27^th goal of the season from a bad angle from the left side of the Prince Albert net.

The Blades proceeded to go ahead for the first time on the night when star 20-year-old left-winger Easton Armstrong snapped home his 23^rd goal of the tally of the season from the front of the Prince Albert net to give the visitors a 3-2 edge. With 5:37 remaining in the second, Lisowsky scored on the power play to account for their second tally of the contest to push the Blades edge out to 4-2.

Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt said the players said to themselves in the second intermission they weren’t going to give up. They made a renewed commitment to get back into the contest.

Easton Armstrong scored the Blades third goal on Friday.

“It is a character builder,” said Truitt. “It is a lesson, and our guys just seemed to rise to the occasion at times against a very good team.”

In the third period, the Raiders outshot the Blades 14-11 on their way to getting goals for Oiring and McMillen to pull even on the scoreboard. McMillen, who is from Cairevale, Sask., played two seasons for the Prince Albert Mintos Under-18 AAA team from 2018 to 2020 before embarking on his junior career.

After playing a little over four seasons with the Kelowna Rockets, McMillen was released this past October, and he moved to the junior A ranks joining the SJHL’s Estevan Bruins. The Raiders added McMillen to their roster on January 8.

McMillen said he remembered everything with his equalizer as just being a blur. He remembered hearing the crowd at the Art Hauser Centre sounding really loud and was pumped to help the Raiders get the comeback win.

Oli Chenier scored the Raiders first goal on Friday.

“I love it here,” said McMillen, who had an assist to go with his goal. “I love the city.

“It was definitely one of my favourite rinks. I can say that again. The fans are amazing.”

Hildebrand stopped 41 shots in goal for the Raiders over 65 minutes and two-of-three shooters he faced in the shootout. The Raiders improved to 20-22-1-3 with the win and remained tied with the Calgary Hitmen (19-18-5-1) for eighth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 44 standings points. The Hitmen have three games in hand on the Raiders.

Evan Gardner turned away 21 shots in net for the Blades over 65 minutes and turned back one-of-three shooters in the shootout. The Blades, who are rated second in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, continued to top the WHL’s overall standings as their record moved to 31-9-2-3.

Raiders mascot PIMS hangs with the Art Hauser Centre faithful.

The two sides go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

Overall, Truitt was proud of how his players rallied to pull out the come-from-behind victory.

“It was no easy task,” said Truitt. “It was a bit of an emotional game.

“The emotions were up 2-1 and were down 4-2 and comeback to 4-4. To do it against this team, you respect your opponent there is no doubt. There is a reason why they are ranked number one.

The Raiders salute their fans after Friday’s win.

“They’ve got a deep, deep lineup and good players all over the place. I have to give our guys a lot of credit here tonight for coming back the way they did.”

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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