Riley Boychuk of the Raiders battles with Triston Mitchell-McElhone of the Blades for a centre ice faceoff during the first preseason game. (Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

By Nick Nielsen

Final Preseason Series

Raiders ready to welcome Blades for final home and home of preseason

Sep 13, 2024 | 12:15 PM

We’re officially one week away from the start of the WHL regular season with this weekend’s home-and-home series between the Prince Albert Raiders and the Saskatoon Blades to finish off the preseason.

While the first game Friday night will be played in the usual home venue for the Raiders at the Art Hauser Centre, the road game Saturday will be played at the Home Centre Communiplex in Warman. The Raiders are 2-1 in the preseason so far, while the Blades are winless at 0-3.

The Raiders and the Blades opened the preseason against one another in a young guns game that saw both teams only dress players born in 2007 and earlier with the exceptions of 2006-born defencemen Ty Sobry and Doogan Pederson for the Raiders, and 2006-born forward William James for the Blades. Despite the Raiders dressing only 10 forwards during the game to keep the age group on the ice as young as possible, the Raiders still managed to outpace the Blades, outshooting them in every period on their way to a 4-1 win.

From there, the Raiders have gone on to face the Swift Current Broncos twice with more of the veteran players brought into the lineup. The Raiders again outshot the Broncos in their first matchup against one another but ended up losing 5-2, but back on home ice the Raiders poured on the offence in the second game with a 6-1 win, outshooting the Broncos 20-3 in every period.

As for the Blades, they’ve went on to play the Brandon Wheat Kings in their two preseason games since the initial meeting with the Raiders.

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Playing on the road for their first game, the Blades played a scoreless first period with a one-shot difference in favour of the Wheat Kings, but the second period saw the Wheat Kings score three straight goals on their way to a 4-2 win as they dominated the Blades the rest of the way. In the second game in Saskatoon, the Wheat Kings scored in the first period and kept going on their way to a 6-3 win over the Blades.

The Raiders have four players leading them through the first three preseason games at three points each. Jonah Sivertson has played in all three games for the Raiders and has three goals to show for his efforts, another rookie Riley Boychuk has 2G-1A, second-year Raider Oli Chenier has 1G-2A, and finally, rookie defenceman Benett Kelly has three assists. Tyrone Sobry has one assist and a team-leading plus/minus rating of +5 through his three games.

As for the Blades, they’ve been led through the preseason by the newly acquired Ben Riche with four assists through two games, who also leads the preseason in assists in the WHL. Only two other players for the Blades have managed more than a point in the preseason, four-year Blades forward Tyler Parr with three goals and rookie defenceman Brayden Klimpke with two assists. Only three players for the Blades have a plus/minus rating above zero, Grayden Siepmann at +2, and then Ben Riche and Brandon Lisowsky at +1.

Looking at goaltending, the Raiders have split the crease between two goaltenders for each of their three preseason games. Cooper Anderson leads the save percentage numbers for the Raiders with a 0.941 save percentage in 60 minutes of play. Max Hildebrand, the oldest and most likely to be the regular starter for the Raiders this year, has only played 30 minutes for the Raiders so far. At the other end, the Blades have given three goaltenders a full game to show what they’re capable of. Ryley Budd and Logan Cunningham both lead the Blades in save percentage at 0.892 with an identical 33 saves on 37 shots.

Looking at special teams, the Raiders hold the edge on the powerplay with a goal in each of their three preseason games, going 3/8 for a 37.5% compared to the Blades’ 1/7 and 14.3%. On the penalty kill, the Blades hold the advantage so far with a 70% success rate, while the Raiders are operating at 66.7%.

The Raiders are 2-0 at home through the preseason, while the Blades are 0-2.

Friday’s game time between the Raiders and the Blades is 7:00 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre, and you’ll be able to listen to the game on 900 CKBI with the pregame show starting at 6:30 p.m. Saturday’s game in Warman will not be broadcast due to technical issues in the rink.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com