By Raiders Rant

Tales of two teams, two games and one rivalry

Nov 29, 2010 | 10:10 AM

The Raiders and Blades split their home and home series which isn't a huge surprise, that's usually the case between these two teams. However, the games could have been subtitled “and now for something completely different.”

The Raiders stormed out of the gate Friday in front of the biggest crowd of the season, which was pushing 2,900. Brandon Herrod's net presence resulted in the only two goals the Raiders would need as they led 2-1 after one period. Jonathan Parker's 16th goal of the season on a third period power play put it away.

The 3-1 victory was the best defensive effort of the season for the Raiders as the back liners kept the big, strong and skilled Blades forwards to the outside all night long. They also stayed composed and energized until the final buzzer allowing Eric Williams to get the win making the majority of his 28 saves look routine.

It was a Saskatoon Saturday night at Credit Union Centre as the Blades turned breakdown induced turnovers into a 2-0 lead just eight minutes into the game. Williams' mishandling of the puck behind the P.A. net resulted in the Blades third goal, five and a half minutes into the second. Andrew Herle, the best Raider player of the night deflected a Brock Balson shot past former Raider Steven Stanford to pull P.A. to within a pair. However the Blades best player Curtis Hamilton would count his second of the night restoring Saskatoon's three goal lead on a scrambled type of play that was indicative of the Raiders' Saturday night fever. Williams stopped Josh Nichols on a breakaway but the puck was knocked loose by a diving Ryan Button who was trying to stop Nichols. Hamilton jammed the puck into the back of the net essentially putting the game away.

The Raiders played their best hockey early in the third culminating with Brandon Herrod's goal, his fourth in three games, but the Blades would answer with goals on an odd man rush and a goal mouth deflection. Then it was Saturday night at the fights with three spirited bouts.

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Now the Raiders head west for three beginning Wednesday in Edmonton. They trail the Oil Kings by a point and Brandon who holds down the final playoff spot, by a pair. There is also a Saturday night date against the first place Rebels in Red Deer and another key Eastern Conference matchup Saturday night in Lethbridge.

The Raiders take a pair of positives into the trip. Brandon Herrod who had not scored in 14 games now has four in the last three contests and it seems as Herrod goes, so do the Raiders. Igor Revenko is also back in the line-up with two games under his garter belt (if hockey players still wear them), after an abdominal strain kept him out for five.

If you go back to Wednesday and a 3-2 come from behind win over Moose Jaw, the Raiders took two out of three last week so, “don't be sad … two out of three ain’t bad.”

Kalen Kovich and I will look back at the week that was and the week ahead Monday night at 6 p.m. on 900 CKBI's faceoff. Your opinions and comments matter. Call us at (306) 764-2524 or e-mail us at faceoff@rawlco.com.

dwilson@rawlco.com