Weekend Preview: Raiders have chance to take first in East Division with games against Saskatoon and Regina

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The Blades have played their last three games at home with the most recent game on Sunday where they lost 3-2 to Swift Current. Before that, the Blades had two straight games go to overtime where they won the most recent 4-3 over Red Deer and lost 4-3 to Portland.

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The Raiders are right on the heels of the Blades for the top spot in the East Division. The Raiders have 49 points on the year with a record of 23-15-3-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL), which currently has them sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference, and the Blades have 51 with a 23-15-2-3 record, good enough for fourth in the Conference, but because the Blades lead the Division they actually sit second in the Conference.

The goal differential for the Raiders has finally moved in the positives, scoring 160 goals for and 152 against this year for a +8 rating and an average of 3.9 goals per game.

For the Blades, they have allowed less goals on the season with 138 goals against but have also scored less with 150 goals for. That means they’ve scored 12 more goals than they’ve given up, and are averaging about 3.5 goals per game.

On special teams, the Raiders powerplay still sits second in the league at 29.1 per cent behind only Spokane, but the penalty kill has not been able to climb out of second last in the league still sitting at 71.3 per cent.

The Blades powerplay is also one of the top ones in the league at 27.9 per cent, tied with Medicine Hat for the third-best powerplay in the league. Their penalty kill is sitting in the middle of the pack at 13th in the league, operating at an even 75 per cent.

A six-point weekend has moved Tomas Mrsic to the top of the Raiders scoring leaders with 26G-33A-59P this season, and he still leads the league in powerplay goals with 14. Aiden Oiring sits second in team scoring with 18G-39A-57P, and Lukas Dragicevic rounds out the top three with 9G-40A-49P and a league-leading 25 assists on the powerplay.

As for Raiders’ point streaks, 16-year-old defenceman Daxon Rudolph has had a point in all nine games since the start of the new year with 1G-11A in that time. Rilen Kovacevic has had a point in each game he’s played in Raider green, he’s on a six-game streak with 4G-4A with a goal in each of the last four games. On three-game streaks are Mrsic with 3G-4A, Dragicevic with 1G-4A, and Riley Boychuk who has 2G-1A.

As for the Blades, the trade deadline saw their two top scorers sent elsewhere, opening the door for Tyler Parr to lead the team with 16G-24A-40P on the year. Behind him is Rowan Calvert with 16G-20A-36P, 12 of those goals coming on the powerplay. Grayden Siepmann sits third with 5G-26A-31P.

Three Blades are on three-game point streaks coming into Friday: Siepmann has 1G-3A, Hunter Laing has 1G-2A, and Tanner Scott has 1G-2A in his last three. David Lewandowski has 0G-3A in his last two games and Brayden Klimpke has an assist in each of the last two.

The goaltending matchup will see two of the best in the league do battle as Max Hildebrand comes in with the second-best save percentage in the league at 0.912 on the year, and he sits tied for third in the league with the most wins at 19, full record of 19-9-3-0 and two shutouts. Dimitri Fortin will backup with a record of 5-6 and a save percentage of 0.879 this season, 4-4 and 0.886 since joining the Raiders.

As for the Blades netminders, Evan Gardner’s save percentage of 0.908 has him at fifth in the league with a record of 17-11-2-1 with one shutout on the year. His 17 wins also have him tied for fifth in the league. Their backup is Ethan McCallum who has a save percentage of 0.886 and a record of 3-5-0-2 on the year.

On to Saturday’s matchup, the Raiders will head to Regina to take on the Pats for the fifth time this year. The Raiders dropped the first game of the season to the Pats 3-2 in overtime, but the Raiders have won the last three since 5-1, 4-3 in overtime, and most recently on Nov. 23, the Raiders won 5-0 on home ice.

The Pats sit second last in the league and the Eastern Conference with 30 points on the year only ahead of the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Pats have also lost their last four games, most recently on the road Wednesday 4-2 to Lethbridge.

The Pats have scored 121 goals this season and have given up 187, meaning they’ve scored 66 less goals than their opponents this year. They’ve averaged about 2.8 goals per game.

Special teams have not been great this year for the Pats as they sit 20th in the league both on the powerplay and their penalty kill. Their powerplay sits at 16.2 per cent on the powerplay, and the penalty kill is at 71.8 per cent.

The Pats two leading scorers put up the majority of their points with the Everett Silvertips before the trade deadline. Those are Julien Maze with 9G-24A-33P and Caden Brown with 15G-12A-27P this year. John Babcock sits third for the Pats at 1G-18A-19P.

Kelton Pyne has had the majority of the starts this year with a record of 9-16-3-2 on the year with one shutout and a save percentage of 0.884. His backup is Ewan Huet with a record of 3-8-1-0 on the year and a 0.878 save percentage.

All three games this weekend for the Raiders will be on 900 CKBI with the pregame show and the game starting at:

• Friday vs. Saskatoon: pregame show 6:30 p.m, puck drop at 7:00 p.m.
• Saturday @ Regina: pregame show 5:30 p.m, puck drop at 6:00 p.m.
• Sunday @ Saskatoon: pregame show 3:30 p.m, puck drop at 4:00 p.m.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com