Tyrone Sobry closes off a Pats forechecker from the puck in the first game of the season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Fourth matchup of season

Raiders look to get back in win column against Pats

Nov 23, 2024 | 11:30 AM

Although the win streak has been snapped at four, the Prince Albert Raiders unbeaten streak continues after an overtime loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday. With the return of the ‘Cobra Chickens’ jerseys set for Saturday, the Raiders will welcome the Regina Pats to town for the fourth matchup of the season.

The Raiders and Pats opened the season against each other on Sep. 20 in Prince Albert where the Pats earned a 3-2 win in overtime. After that, the Raiders picked up two wins in Regina in the span of a week, 5-1 on Oct. 30 and 4-3 in a shootout on Nov. 5.

The Pats sit tenth in the Eastern Conference with a 6-12-2-2 (W-L-OTL-SOL) record on the season through 21 games. The last four games for the Pats have all ended with a 4-3 score, first an overtime win in Brandon, then an overtime loss in Brandon, a loss in a shootout to the Tri-City Americans at home, and finally last night where they lost to Swift Current in regulation. The Pats have gone to overtime eight times this year, tied with Tri-City, and have records of 3-2 when the game ends in overtime, and 1-2 in shootouts.

This will be the second game the Pats play after trading away Prince Albert local and now former Pats captain Tanner Howe, taking away one of the biggest scoring threats the Pats had. In exchange, the Pats added Reese Hamilton and Keets Fawcett from Calgary, but that isn’t the only roster change since the Raiders and Pats faced off last. The Pats also traded away Jaxsin Vaughan to Everett, adding Caden Brown to their roster, and Jaxsin’s twin brother Corbin Vaughan is currently indefinitely suspended from the Pats and awaiting a trade, and the Pats added Zach Pantelakis from the Kamloops Blazers.

The Raiders are coming off a loss on Wednesday to the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-2 in overtime, the first time since Oct. 19 the Raiders failed to score at least four goals. With four straight wins before that, the Raiders have points in their last five games and wins in six of their last eight.

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Because of the overtime loss, the Raiders dropped out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot by just a single point. The Raiders do still maintain their .500 record with only 19 games played, the least in the league, and an 8-8-3-0 record.

Looking into scoring, the Raiders’ 67 goals on the season works out to 3.5 goals per game. With 78 goals against on the year, the Raiders sit with a –11 goal differential. As for the Pats, they’ve mustered 62 goals for and 84 goals against, good for a –22 goal differential. The Pats’ 62 goals for are the second worst in the league only behind the Red Deer Rebels.

On special teams, the Raiders continue to stand at the top of the league’s powerplay rankings at 29.4%, a full 1.4% ahead of Vancouver in second, and the Raiders penalty kill was the worst in the league three games ago, but continued improvement has brought them up to 72.9% for the 19th place spot. As for the Pats, their powerplay sits 17th in the league at 20.0% and their penalty kill is 13th in the league at 75.6%.

Tomas Mrsic and Aiden Oiring are both tied at the top of the Raiders scoring with 25 points, Mrsic with 13G-12A and Oiring with 8G-17A. Lukas Dragicevic sits third with 1G-22A-23P, and Niall Crocker sits fourth with 8G-14A-22P.

Mrsic had his seven-game point streak snapped in his last action, but managed 14 points in that time. Both Krzysztof Macias and Oiring come in with points in their last four games. Macias has a goal in each of his last three for 3G-3A in four games, and Oiring scored in his 150th game in the WHL to extend his streak with 2G-6A in his last four.

The Pats are led by Tye Spencer with 6G-9A-15P, while defenceman John Babcock sits second with 0G-13A-13P on the year. Zackary Shantz is tied for third in scoring with 6G-6A-12P and Braxton Whitehead at 3G-9A-12P.

Newly acquired Caden Brown has an assist in each of his first two games as a Pat, extending his point streak to three games with 1G-2A. Also recently acquired Keets Fawcett had a goal last night, he has 2G-1A in his last four games.

Looking at goaltending, Max Hildebrand has a .904 save percentage and an 8-6-0-0 record on the season and in his last three games, Hildebrand has stopped 123 of 130 shots, good for an average of over 43 shots per game and a .946 save percentage. Cooper Anderson has played in four games this year and he’s 0-2-0-0 on the year with a save percentage of .802.

Kelton Pyne is one of their bright spots this season as the 19-year-old goaltender was rested last night and comes in with a save percentage of .907 with a 5-7-1-2 record on the year through 16 games with one shutout. Meanwhile, backup Ewan Huet sits at .875 on the year with a record of 1-5-1-0.

The Raiders play the Pats 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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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com