Raiders forward Brayden Dube battles with Hurricanes forward Logan Wormald during the Raiders first matchup of the season against the Hurricanes. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Four points away from clinching

Raiders looking for redemption as they welcome Lethbridge

Feb 26, 2025 | 12:23 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders are back in the top spot of the East Division after two wins on the weekend that finished off a busy stretch. Now with a chance to clinch a playoff spot before the end of the week, the Raiders are getting set to take the recently clinched Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The Raiders sit second in the Eastern Conference because of that top spot in the East Division, and a record of 33-19-3-1 (W-L-OTL-SOL) on the year. The Hurricanes sit fourth in the Conference despite having five more points than the Raiders and a record of 36-19-2-1. In their Central Division, the Hurricanes are third behind Calgary and Medicine Hat.

This will be the third of four meetings between the two teams. The Raiders won the first back on Nov. 3 in Prince Albert with a 3-2 score. Most recently though, the Raiders were trampled 6-1 in Lethbridge as part of a three-game road swing, and the Raiders turned that around into a big win over Medicine Hat.

The Hurricanes are coming off of a 2-0 win Tuesday night in Saskatoon to start a four-game road swing. Before that, the Hurricanes won 5-4 in a shootout at home over Kamloops, and that shootout win snapped a three-game losing skid.

On to goal-scoring numbers, the Raiders are still averaging a little below 3.9 goals per game with 217 goals for this season. They’ve only given up a total of 192 against, good for a +25 differential.

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The Hurricanes have played a ton of close games this year, scoring the eighth least amount of goals this year in the WHL at 190, while only giving up the third least amount of goals against in the league at 164. That differential sits at +26, and averages to about 3.3 goals per game. Out of the 16 teams sitting in a playoff spot, the Hurricanes are one of three that have not reached the 200-goal plateau.

On special teams, the Raiders powerplay went 0/3 in their last outing against Regina despite moving the puck well and generating shots, and they still sit second in the league at an even 29 per cent. As for the penalty kill, the Raiders also went 3/3 in Regina, but still can’t jump out of that third last in the league spot at 73.2 per cent mark.

For the Hurricanes, their powerplay is sitting ninth in the league with an even 25 per cent to their record, but despite being such a defensive team they have given up ten shorthanded goals. Their penalty kill is the third best in the league while operating at an even 81 per cent.

Tomas Mrsic goes into his birthday game while leading the Raiders in scoring with 32G-48A-80P, and he also sits ninth in league scoring. Aiden Oiring sits second on the Raiders with 22G-50A-72P, good for 16th overall, and in third sits Lukas Dragicevic who also sits second in league scoring by defencemen with with 14G-49A-63P on the year.

At the moment, no one is on a point streak longer than two games for the Raiders, but there are four players at that mark: Tomas Mrsic (1G-3A), Aiden Oiring (1G-2A), Brayden Dube (1G-3A), and Niall Crocker (1G-1A).

Brayden Yager leads the Hurricanes in scoring and also sits in a tie for 17th in the league at 23G-48A-71P. Brayden Edwards sits second with 25G-42A-67P, and Logan Wormald is third at 28G-29A-57P on the year.

As for scoring streaks for the Hurricanes, Brayden Edwards has the longest at three games with 3G-2A in that time. Logan McCutcheon has 1G-3A in his last two games, and both Vojtech Port and Luke Cozens have 0G-2A in their last two games.

In goal, Max Hildebrand’s save percentage of 0.917 is the highest it’s been all season as he sits alone at the top of that metric. He’s also tied fo the second most wins in the league with a record of 28-13-3-0, and is coming off of his third shutout of the season. Backing up is Dimitri Fortin with a save percentage at 0.887 and a record of 6-6-0-1 on the year, most recently helping the Raiders with a win over Calgary where Fortin went 0.949 on the night.

For the Hurricanes goaltenders, Jackson Unger is coming off his second shutout of the season last night in Saskatoon. His save percentage sits at 0.898 on the year with a record of 22-17-4-1. It’s more likely the Raiders will face off against their backup goaltender Koen Cleaver who boasts a 0.900 save percentage and a record of 10-8-0-0 on the year. including two shutouts.

The Raiders and the Hurricanes get set to take each other on for the third of four meetings this season at the Art Hauser Centre at 7 p.m. The pregame show on 900 CKBI begins at 6:30 p.m.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com