Raiders kick off final week of regular season with Moose Jaw

The Raiders won their last two games on the road, a dominant 4-1 win over Edmonton and a 4-3 overtime win over the Red Deer Rebels. Before that, the Raiders were on a three game losing skid dropping scores of 5-3 to Lethbridge, 4-1 to Saskatoon, and another 3-2 loss to Saskatoon.

As for the Warriors, they had the lead late in their last game but dropped a 5-4 decision in overtime to Brandon. That extended the Warriors’ losing skid to the last three games, 4-1 again to Brandon and 6-4 to Red Deer, but before that the Warriors had big wins 7-1 and 3-2 over Regina, and 6-2 over Saskatoon to start the month of March.

The Raiders have scored a total of 243 goals for this year but have also allowed 222, good for a +21 differential. The Raiders goals per game average has dropped down to 3.7 goals per game.

As for the Warriors, they have only scored 180 this year while giving up 298, meaning they’ve allowed a league worst 118 more goals than they have scored. The Warriors on the season are averaging a little below 2.8 goals per game, but through the month of March that average is much higher at 4.2 goals per game.

The Raiders powerplay is still sitting as the second top spot in the league despite only five chances in their last two games. The Raiders are at 28.4 per cent on the man advantage, and the penalty kill is the highest it’s been all season ranked 18th in the league at 73.5 per cent.

As for the Warriors, their powerplay is sitting at the 11th place spot in the league operating at about 24.1 per cent on the year. As for their penalty kill, they’re tied at the 16th in the league mark at 74.9 per cent.

Looking at the top scorers for the Raiders, Tomas Mrsic leads the team at 32G-55A-87P and is tied for 11th in league scoring. Aiden Oiring is back in the top 20 for league scoring, tied for 19th, with 28G-53A-81P on the year. Lukas Dragicevic rounds out the top three scorers for the Raiders with 16G-52A-68P on the year, and still sits third amongst defencemen in the league.

After some long streaks were broken, a number of Raiders have points in the last three games. Oiring has 4G-2A including his first career hat trick, Mrsic has 0G-4A, and Daxon Rudolph has 1G-3A all in the last three games. In the last two games, Niall Crocker has 2G-1A in his last two.

Leading the Hurricanes in scoring is Brayden Yager who sits right ahead of Oiring tied for 19th in league scoring with 25G-52A-77P. Brayden Edwards sits second with 29G-42A-71P, and Logan Wormald is third with 29G-34A-63P.

As for the Warriors, Lynden Lakovic is their leading scorer with 24G-31A-55P, followed by Aiden Ziprick with 12G-34A-46P, and Pavel McKenzie at 17G-27A-44P. Former Raider Krzysztof Macias is sitting fourth with 18G-21A-39P.

Lakovic is the only Warrior with an active 4G-6A in his last six games, posting one assist in each game.

In goal, Max Hildebrand’s save percentage of 0.917 is still second in the league (although the gap has closed between Hildebrand and Raiden LeGall), and with a record of 30-16-5-0, he sits third in league wins. Backing up is Dimitri Fortin with a save percentage at 0.886 and a record of 7-7-0-1 on the year.

For the Warriors goaltenders, Matthew Hutchison has played in 40 games this year with a 0.886 save percentage and a record of 14-18-4-0. Josh Banini has 24 games to his name, his record sits at 3-15-0-1 and a save percentage 0.896.

The chase for the top spot in the East Division will come down to the final week, and the Raiders will start off that final week against Moose Jaw on Tuesday.

nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Raiders kick off final week of regular season with Moose Jaw

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