Riley Boychuk salutes the crowd after scoring in round three of the shootout to secure the Raiders victory. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders.)

By Nick Nielsen

Raiders Win 5-4 (SO)

Raiders protect home ice in electric preseason comeback over Blades

Sep 14, 2024 | 10:15 AM

With one week to go before the regular season, the Prince Albert Raiders welcomed the Saskatoon Blades to the Art Hauser Centre Friday night for the second time this preseason and the fourth game for both teams. The Raiders were looking to win the rematch and stay undefeated on home ice.

A user on X, formerly known as Twitter, described the game best:

After falling behind early, the Raiders clawed their way back multiple times to win 5-4 in a shootout.

The Blades came out of the gates with a little more jump than the Raiders, and they put the first mark on the score sheet at 5:38 when Tyler Parr won a battle in the corner to give the puck to Rowan Calvert. Calvert then circled from the wall to the blueline just above the slot and fired through traffic to score the game’s first goal.

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The Raiders picked things up from there and they started to put on pressure, and after a failed powerplay the Raiders would score. Jonah Sivertson found Daxon Rudolph at the point, and Rudolph fired a shot towards the net. While his shot was blocked, he continued to drive the net and grabbed his rebound, toe dragged the puck to change the angle of his shot, and let go of a wrister short side to tie the game at 13:43.

After 1: Raiders 1 – 1 Blades, shots 15-6 Raiders

Between the first two periods, both the Raiders and the Blades had four powerplays a piece, but both teams shut the door. Cooper Anderson made eight saves on nine shots before he was pulled at the halfway mark to swap with Eric Kahl right at the beginning of a penalty kill.

It wasn’t until the 19:59.7 mark that the Blades found the back of the net to take back the lead. After cycling the puck along the blueline from Brayden Klimpke to Tyler Parr, Ben Riche fired a shot through a screen and hit the back of the net.

After 2: Raiders 1 – 2 Blades, shots 10-7 Raiders, 25-17 Raiders overall

The Blades doubled their lead at the 1:50 mark. The play started in the Blades zone with a pass from Lukas Hansen up the right wall to William James, springing a 2-on-1. James outwaited a diving defender, then passed to the middle to Vlastimil Blazek, and Blazek sent the return feed back for a one-timer from James.

The Raiders got it back at the 4:38 mark when Dayce Derkatch won a defensive zone battle and gave the puck to Cole Peardon on the rush. Peardon broke to the left of the net and fed a great pass across for Jonah Sivertson to tap in.

The middle portion of the period was filled with more powerplays, but the Raiders managed to tie the game at 15:42 when Aiden Oiring cycled the puck along the wall with Ryan Gower, and Gower put a shot off a defender’s stick and into the net

Then the game really heated up.

Harrison Lowewyk was in the wrong place at the wrong time and bumped into one of the Blades to give them a powerplay with less than four minutes left. On the penalty kill, Aiden Oiring managed to steal the puck at the blue line and was on a breakaway, but he was hauled down from behind without a call. Amidst the chorus of boos, the Blades went down the ice with the numbers game in hand, and Rowan Calvert one-timed his second of the game with assists from Tyler Parr and Brayden Klimpke.

A scrum at the end of a play with 1:26 left on the clock issued roughing calls to Justice Christenson and Cole Peardon for the Raiders, and Colten Worthington and Zach Olsen of the Blades, and with Olsen receiving a double minor the Raiders had a powerplay. Four seconds into the powerplay, Brayden Dube caught a defender with a high stick and it was back to four-on-four.

The Raiders managed to get control of the puck long enough to pull Eric Kahl, and with the extra man on Aiden Oiring got his redemption after his shorthanded chance was taken away. The puck cycled from left to right, Doogan Pederson to Daxon Rudolph, then to Oiring, and Oiring put a shot off a defender that hopped in the air and landed the perfect chip shot over the goalie’s head and into the back of the net with 34 seconds to go.

After 3: Raiders 4 – 4 Blades, shots 8-12 Blades, 33-25 Raiders overall

In the 3-on-3 overtime, the Raiders made the best of their possession time and outshot the Blades 6-1, but Austin Elliot stood tall in net and forced the shootout.

With a goal and an assist already on his stat line, Aiden Oiring scored in round of the shootout for the Raiders while Ben Riche was stopped. In the second round, both Jonah Sivertson and Tyler Parr were stopped, and Riley Boychuk found the back of the net in the third round to give the Raiders their first lead of the game 65 minutes in.

FINAL (SO): Raiders 5 – 4 Blades, shots 6-1 Raiders, 39-26 Raiders overall

In net for the Raiders, Cooper Anderson stopped 8/9 shots faced in the first half of the game for a 88.8% save percentage on the night, while Eric Kahl went 14/17 for an 82.4% save percentage as well as two stops in the shootout.

The two teams meet again for the final game of the preseason on Saturday at the Legends Centre in Warman. The game will be the final meeting between the Raiders and the Blades until December 30.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com