By Trevor Redden

Confidence high as Raiders aim for seventh heaven

Apr 3, 2018 | 8:00 AM

After a dramatic 5-4 victory on Sunday night, the Prince Albert Raiders are headed to a game seven for the first time in nearly 13 years.

The last game seven for the Raiders took place May 3, 2005, when Prince Albert went to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings for a berth in the WHL championship series. Following a 3-2 OT victory on home ice in game 6, the Raiders couldn’t get past the Wheat Kings, who later fell to Marc Habscheid’s Kelowna Rockets in the final round.

This time around, the Raiders are up against the WHL’s regular season champions, the Moose Jaw Warriors, and forced the seventh game with back-to-back victories in games five and six.

“The team’s playing with a lot of confidence, so we all feel good,” Forward Brett Leason said as the team departed for Moose Jaw Monday afternoon.

After a 5-1 game five Raider victory in Moose Jaw Saturday, the series shifted back to Prince Albert Sunday night with nearly 3,000 fans packed into the Art Hauser Centre, creating a deafening roar in the final minutes that made it nearly impossible to hear the officials’ whistles.

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“That was a big crowd, biggest of the season,” said Vojtech Budik, who leads all defencemen in the series with five points through six games. “They push us forward for sure and we played pretty good in game six, so we just have to keep going tomorrow and beat them.”

This will be the sixth time in the Raiders history they are headed to game seven, and the first time it’s happened in the quarterfinal round. So far, Prince Albert has a 2-4 record.

As for the Warriors, game seven memories are much fresher as Moose Jaw fell to Swift Current in round one last spring. In franchise history, Moose Jaw is 1-3 in game sevens. Prince Albert and Moose Jaw have never met before in a seventh game.

Coming into this year’s playoffs as the lowest seed in the Eastern Conference, the Raiders have embraced their underdog role against the Scotty Munro trophy winners.

“I think they are under pressure,” Budik said. “We are free to play our game, play physical, play smart with intensity, and score some goals and win.”

The winner of Tuesday night’s game will move on to face the Swift Current Broncos, who eliminated the Regina Pats in game seven Monday night.

trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden