Raiders forward Oli Chenier skates with the puck against the Tigers last season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Ritchie returns

Raiders and Mrsic ready to welcome Tigers and Ritchie back to Art Hauser

Nov 20, 2024 | 1:50 PM

With wins in their last four games, the Prince Albert Raiders come into Wednesday night’s game with the longest active win streak in the WHL. The Raiders look to continue that momentum against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday night.

Tonight marks the first matchup of the season between the Raiders and the Tigers after a blockbuster trade during the summer where the Raiders sent 2006-born forward and Minnesota Wild prospect Ryder Ritchie in exchange for 2006-born forward and St. Louis Blues prospect Tomas Mrsic, a third-round pick in 2025, and a conditional pick in 2028.

Ritchie has been injured for the majority of the season and has only played in seven games. He played five games to start the season and was pointless for the first four, but earned an assist in the October 9th game against Red Deer where he sustained an upper-body injury. Since then, he’s come back for the last two games and has a goal and an assist across the two games, totalling 1G-2A-3P in seven games this year.

As for the Raiders side of the trade, Mrsic comes in as the WHL player of the week with seven points in his last two games, including his first career hat trick. Mrsic has been great for a much longer stretch with a point in each of the last seven games for the Raiders totalling 7G-7A-14P in seven games. Mrsic leads the Raiders in points with 13G-12A-25P, including a league-leading nine goals on the powerplay.

Moving on to how the two teams have played, the Tigers come into Prince Albert on their second day of three games in four nights on the road. The Tigers opened their road trip in Saskatoon last night, losing 5-3 to snap a three-game winning streak. In that winning streak, the Tigers had wins over Victoria 5-1 at home, Edmonton 2-1 on the road, and Moose Jaw 8-4 at home.

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The Tigers sit fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 12-10-0-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) on the season through 22 games. Only one game this season has gone to overtime for the Tigers this season on October 30 where the Tigers won 4-3 in a shootout over Calgary.

As for the Raiders, the Raiders treated their visiting parents well with two wins in regulation on the weekend, snapping a 12-game win streak of the Tri-City Americans on Friday to win 5-3 and earning a solid 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings Saturday, extending the Raiders’ win streak to four games and earning the Raiders wins in six of their last seven games including two wins in overtime.

The Raiders sit eighth in the Eastern Conference, finally getting their record back to .500 with a 8-8-2-0 record through 18 games. In their last win, the Raiders got back into a playoff spot for the first time since the start of the season.

The Raiders have scored at least four goals in each of their last seven games, averaging 3.6 goals per game on the season with 65 goals on the season. The Raiders goal differential sits at -10 with 75 goals against so far this season, but removing two bad games in particular, a 10-1 loss to Vancouver and a 9-4 loss to Swift Current, the Raiders move to 60-56 in the goals for and against for a +4 rating.

As for the Tigers scoring, they’ve put an Eastern Conference leading 87 goals in the back of their opponent’s net this season while only giving up 76, good for a +11 goal differential. The Tigers are averaging just over 3.9 goals per game, but have been held to just two goals twice in their last four games.

For the second straight game, the Raiders powerplay comes in with the top powerplay in the league operating at 29.6% on the season, and the penalty kill sits third last in the league but is trending upward at 71.2%. As for the Tigers, their powerplay and penalty kill are both sitting 11th in the league, with their powerplay at 23.3% and their penalty kill at 77.4%.

As mentioned earlier, Tomas Mrsic has taken the team lead in points for the Raiders with 13G-12A-25P on the season, leading the league in powerplay goals. Aiden Oiring sits second on the team with 7G-17A-24P and sits tied for fourth in the league in powerplay assists. Lukas Dragicevic leads the league in powerplay assists and sits third in team scoring with 1G-22A-23P on the season.

Also mentioned earlier, Mrsic comes into the game with 14 points in his last seven games including seven points in his last two. Lukas Dragicevic is right behind him with 13 assists in his last seven games, and Aiden Oiring comes into the game with 1G-6A-7P in his last three games, six of those points coming in the last two games. Krzysztof Macias also comes in on a three game streak with 2G-2A in that time

As for the Tigers, Gavin McKenna leads the league in both points and assists with 14G-30A-44P on the season, and he also sits tied for second in the league in powerplay assists. Oasiz Wiesblatt sits second on the team with 10G-20A-30P, and Hunter St. Martin sits third with 17G-4A-21P. St. Martin also leads the league in shorthanded goals with three, and Andrew Basha sits right behind him with two.

McKenna comes into the action on a six game point streak with 5G-10A in that time, and Oasiz Wiesblatt is also on a six game streak with 5G-9A. Liam Ruck has a point in each of his last three games with 2G-1A, and Ryder Ritchie also has a point in each of his last three games despite

Finally on to goaltending, the Tigers started their season with 2007 born Jordan Switzer, who has a 4-2 record and a 0.868 save percentage on the season. The Tigers acquired 2004 born Harrison Meneghin from Lethbridge earlier this year, sitting 7-7 since coming to Medicine Hat and 7-8 on the season with a 0.890 save percentage.

For the Raiders, Max Hildebrand has now played in 17 games this season with a 8-6-2 record and a save percentage at 0.900, and in his last two games he’s stopped 71 of 75 shots faced, good for a 0.947 save percentage over the weekend. Cooper Anderson has played in four games this year, and he’s 0-2 on the year with a save percentage at 0.802.

The Raiders play the Tigers at the Art Hauser Centre tonight at 7:00 p.m. with the pregame show starting at 6:30 p.m. on 900 CKBI.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com