Raiders forward Oli Chenier chases after Broncos defenceman Grayson Burzynski earlier this season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Weekend Home and Home

Weekend preview: Raiders set to start second half of season without Head Coach Truitt

Dec 27, 2024 | 10:41 AM

While some teams in the WHL have reached the 34 games played to reach the halfway mark of their season, the Prince Albert Raiders still have five more games to play before they get to that mark. That means the second half of the calendar for the Raiders is going to be busy, and it starts at home with a weekend double header against the Swift Current Broncos.

It’ll be a different look on the bench for the Raiders as well as they will be without Head Coach Jeff Truitt. It was announced on Thursday that Truitt will be away from the team for the next three to four weeks after a successful eye surgery during the week.

It comes at a time where the Raiders and the Broncos are locked in a tight Eastern Conference race. The Raiders have games in hand over everyone as they sit tied for eighth in the conference with 33 points, the Broncos sit tied for fifth with 35, and the Medicine Hat Tigers at the top of the Conference have 39.

So far in the season, the Broncos have won two of the three games these teams have played against each other, 5-4 on September 28, 9-4 on November 1, and the Raiders picked up the win in their most recent action 6-5. Including this weekend’s action, the two teams play five more times this season.

The Raiders record sits at 15-11-3-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) and with nine days rest, they will be coming off an 8-5 loss in Calgary. Before that, the Raiders had won three straight, 5-2 on the road in Edmonton, 5-3 at home over Brandon, and 6-3 at home over Moose Jaw.

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As for Swift Current, they are on 10 days rest after a win road win in Red Deer 5-4. The Broncos lost the other two games on that Alberta road trip 4-3 in Calgary and 7-3 in Edmonton. The Broncos are 17-13-0-1 on the year, and they won’t be missing anyone due the the World Juniors.

With a total of 111 goals for and 114 goals against this year, the Raiders goal differential sits at -3, thanks to two empty netters against Calgary. That brings the Raiders goals per game up to 3.8, the highest it’s been all season after scoring at least five goals in each of their last four games.

The Broncos goal differential sits at -1 with 119 goals for and 120 goals against this year. That works out to 3.8 goals per game as well.

The Raiders powerplay continues to fire on all cylinders as the hottest in the league with a 30.1 per cent success rate. On the penalty kill, the Raiders have stayed consistent in the bottom quarter of the league, right now sitting 19th.

The Broncos have both of their special teams at 13th in the league. The powerplay is sitting at 21.7 per cent, and their penalty kill is at 75.3 per cent.

Aiden Oiring will start the second half of the season as the leader in the Raiders scoring with 12G-29A-41P. Tomas Mrsic fired home a powerplay goal in Edmonton to keep his spot at the top of the league with 11 powerplay goals, he sits second in Raiders scoring with 18G-21A-39P. Lukas Dragicevic (5G-30A) and Niall Crocker (11G-24A) sit tied for third with 35 points each.

Brayden Dube will start the second half of the season on a five-game point streak and Crocker has a point in every game since putting up four assists against Moose Jaw with 2G-7A in his last four games, and Aiden Oiring also has 1G-5A in his last four games. The last point streak belongs to Tomas Mrsic with 1G-4A in his last three games. Lukas Dragicevic stayed pointless in his last game, but has 3G-4A in the three games prior.

As for the Broncos, Luke Mistelbacher leads the way with 19G-29A-48P on the year and sits sixth in the league. Brady Birnie (15G-28A) and Clarke Caswell (12G-31A) sit tied for second with 43 points each, and Carlin Dezainde rounds out the top group with 16G-22A-38P.

Rylan Gould has points in each of his last 11 games dating back to November 22 with 7G-7A in that time. Carlin Dezainde also has a length point streak going at seven games with 2G-8A in that span. Brady Birnie has four assists in his last three games. Luke Mistelbacher has 2G-1A in his last two games, and both Grayson Burzynski and captain Eric Johnston have an assist in each of their last two games.

On to goaltending where Max Hildebrand has climbed his save percentage up to fourth in the league at 0.908, and his 13 wins this season are tied for fourth in the league. His full record sits at 13-6-3-0 with one shutout this year. Backing him up is Dimitri Fortin, sitting 3-5 in the season, 2-3 as a Raider. His save percentage is 0.872.

In goal for the Broncos is going to be the duo of Reid Dyck and Joey Rocha. Dyck is 10-11 on the season with two shutouts, and he has a save percentage of 0.888 on the year. Rocha has a record of 7-2 on the year with a save percentage at 0.883.

The Raiders battle the Broncos first at home and the Art Hauser Centre on Friday, and then again in Swift Current on Saturday. Puck drops at 7 p.m. for both games, with the pregame show starting at 6:30 p.m. on 900 CKBI.