Raiders defender Max Martin hopes to continue his success this year against the Edmonton Oil Kings. (Robert Murray/WHL)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Game Day Preview

Getting you set for Game 1 of the WHL Eastern Conference Finals

Apr 19, 2019 | 1:00 PM

Moments after beating the Saskatoon Blades in six grueling games on Sunday, Prince Albert Raiders Head Coach Marc Habscheid was so dialed into the series he wasn’t ready to look ahead. He joked about not knowing a thing about the Edmonton Oil Kings, the upcoming opponents in the WHL Eastern Conference Finals.

“I don’t even know what their colour jerseys are or anything. You just get immersed in this. I can’t tell you where Edmonton is really, I don’t know,” Habscheid said.

But by the time Habscheid took interviews at the rink on Thursday, the last practice before the Raiders take on the Oil Kings in the WHL Eastern Conference Finals starting on Friday, Habscheid has a much clearer view on his opponents. He knows now the Oil Kings have a red sweater with blue and gold trim, and he knows that Edmonton is just shy of a six-hour drive west of Prince Albert.

But most importantly, Habscheid knows Edmonton will be another tough team to beat. Oil Kings had one of the better second halves of the season in WHL with a 24-6-0-2 record, for a second-best .781 winning percentage behind only the Blades. They’re also coming off a second round sweep over the Calgary Hitmen.

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“They’ve had some success, so their confidence is growing. That’s the biggest thing for them,” Habscheid said. “When your confidence is growing, you feel better about yourself and you play better. They’ve had some success later in the year, and playoff success by beating two pretty good teams.

In the regular season, Trey Fix-Wolansky was far and away the top producing Oil King. He had 102 points in 65 games, while overage forward Vince Loschiavo was second on the team with 62 points.

But in the playoffs, the rest of the Oil Kings have been doing most of the lifting. Fix-Wolansky was held to one point in the second round against the Calgary Hitmen, but the Oil Kings still managed to outscore the Hitmen 15-4 in the four-game sweep. Jake Neighbours, who’s playing in his true-rookie 16-year-old season, led the Oil Kings in scoring with three goals and five points in the series. Overager Quinn Benjafield had two goals and five points, and six other players had three points in the series.

“It’s been nice to see that they’ve had that depth scoring shine through, because as you can imagine in the playoffs, teams are heavily keying on Trey Fix-Wolansky,” Andrew Peard, voice of the Oil Kings said. “Other guys are finding a way to grab a hold of the rope and tug on it.”

One of the Raiders that could be an X-factor in the series is defenceman Max Martin. Martin quietly had six points and was a team-best +7 in four games against the Oil Kings this year. Martin also scored two of his season’s six goals in that series as well.

“Nothing different really. Maybe some added success against them,” Martin said. “We all are confident going into this series. Anyone can contribute at any time, we know that, it’s been true all year. I’m sure it will stay the same. We’re just excited to get going here.”

The Raiders did beat the Oil Kings 3-1 in the four-game regular season series, and are 11-5 against Edmonton in the last five years.

But at least to start the series, the Raiders could continue to be shorthanded.

They will miss big forward Justin Nachbaur, who will serve his second of a two-game suspension for his interference major on Blades defenceman Dawson Davidson at the tail-end of Game 5. Raiders playmaker Cole Fonstad also missed the last two games of the series due to injury and is “day-to-day” heading into the weekend.

“We were without those players for Game 6 and our group played well,” Habscheid said. “We would prefer a full lineup, we don’t have a full lineup with Nachbaur out for sure. That’s the way it is, but we need to find a way to win.”

Games 1 and 2 are at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday and Saturday, while the Oil Kings will host Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday at Rogers Place.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW