Lukas Dragicevic battles with Blades forward Tyler Parr in an earlier matchup this season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Final weekend of the regular season

East Division title on the line as Raiders and Blades battle in home-and-home this weekend

Mar 21, 2025 | 12:20 PM

When the schedule first came out at the beginning of the year and people first saw that the Prince Albert Raiders would finish the season in a home-and-home series with the Saskatoon Blades, some people predicted that the Raiders would be fighting Saskatoon on the final weekend of the season for the top spot in the East Division. While those people were right, there’s also the added pressure by the Brandon Wheat Kings from behind who also have a shot at the division.

Starting with the potential for the playoffs, the Blades lead the East Division with 81 points on the year, the Raiders are second with 80, and the Wheat Kings sit third with 79. While the Raiders and Blades face each other over who could win the division, there are two scenarios where the Raiders and Blades split the weekend series and Brandon comes away with the East Division title.

The East Division title means a lot this year. Whoever finishes first in the division locks up second in the Eastern Conference, securing home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. For the teams that finish second and third in the East Division, they could finish anywhere between fifth and seventh in the Conference. For the teams that finish fifth and sixth, they’ll play either Calgary, Lethbridge, or even possibly Medicine Hat in the first round, and all three of those Alberta teams have a ton of star power.

For the Raiders to win the division, the easiest way is for P.A. to win both games against Saskatoon. Then neither Saskatoon nor Brandon can catch the Raiders at 84 points. The Raiders can still win the division with 83 points, meaning a win and an overtime loss, but they would have to win in regulation over Saskatoon to tie them at 83 points, and they would need Brandon to lose one game in any fashion.

For Saskatoon, if they can get to 84 points, they win the division, so they only need a win and an overtime loss. There are a few scenarios where the Blades win at 83 points, but they all involve the Raiders and Blades trading regulation wins.

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There are only two scenarios where the Brandon Wheat Kings win the East Division, but they need to win both of their games against the Regina Pats for that to happen. In one scenario, the Raiders and Blades would split regulation wins, meaning the Blades and Wheat Kings finish at 83 while the Raiders finish at 82, and the Wheat Kings would have the tiebreaker over the Blades.

There’s also the chance Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and Brandon all finish with 83 points on the year. For that to happen, the Raiders would need to win in regulation and lose in overtime against the Blades, and Brandon would have to win both games against Regina. If all three teams tied at 83 points, the first tiebreaker of wins this season would be tied at 38 for all three teams. The second tiebreaker is goal differential, and the Wheat Kings enter the weekend with a +34 differential that would secure them first, the Raiders second at +23, and the Blades third at +19.

Matchup vs. Saskatoon

On to the game’s at hand, the Raiders will start the weekend in Saskatoon Friday before welcoming the Blades back to the Art Hauser Centre on Saturday. So far this season, the Raiders have played the Blades six times, and the Blades have a one point lead in the season series thanks to an overtime loss, but each team has won three.

The Blades won the first matchup on Dec. 30, 4-2 in Prince Albert, but the Raiders turned around and won in Saskatoon 6-3 on Jan. 1. Then on Jan. 24 and 25, the Raiders picked up two straight wins 6-3 and 4-3 in overtime. The Blades won the last two on Mar. 7 and 8 3-2 and 4-1 respectively.

Both teams come in with incredibly even stats: both have won their last three games, both teams have 37 wins on the year, and their goal differentials are tight which could be the tiebreaker that decides the playoff positions. The Raiders have the advantage there with a +23 differential, while Saskatoon sits at +19.

On special teams, the Raiders have dropped to third in the league at 28.2 per cent after going 0/4 on the powerplay in their last two games. Their penalty kill however has climbed up to 18th in the league at 73.6 per cent, going 6/7 in the last two games and killing off five straight powerplays.

As for the Blades powerplay, they sit sixth in the league at 26 per cent even, and their penalty kill is 12th in the league at 75.7 per cent.

Tomas Mrsic enters the final weekend of the season as the Raiders leading scorer and 11th in the league with 33G-55A-88P. Aiden Oiring is tied for 17th in league scoring and sits second on the Raiders with 28G-54A-82P on the year. Third on the Raiders and third amongst defencemen league-wide is Lukas Dragicevic with 17G-52A-69P on the year.

Daxon Rudolph scored on Tuesday to extend his point streak to four games with 2G-3A. Also in the last four games, Aiden Oiring has 4G-3A, and Tomas Mrsic also has 1G-4A. In the last three games, Niall Crocker has 2G-2A.

As for the Blades, it’s Tyler Parr leading their scoring race with 20G-40A-60P. Cooper Williams sits second with 20G-35A-55P, and Rowan Calvert is third with 24G-28A-52P.

Three Blades are on point streaks. First is David Lewandowski with 4G-3A in his last five games. Ben Saunderson has one assist in each of his last four games (0G-4A), and Hunter Laing has 1G-3A in his last three games.

The matchup in goal may be the most interesting with Max Hildebrand’s save percentage of 0.918 is second in the league behind Raiden LeGall’s 0.919 although Hildebrand has played 30 more games. Hildebrand’s record sits at 31-16-5-0, 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 Blades goaltenders, Evan Gardner sits tied for third in the league save percentage at 0.913 and a record of 23-12-3-1. Ethan McCallum has played a lot before Gardner returned from injury, his record sits at 11-11-0-3 and a save percentage at 0.896.

The final battle for the East Division starts in Saskatoon on Friday and then back in Prince Albert on Saturday. If you can’t make the game, Nick Nielsen will have the call for you on 900 CKBI with the pregame show starts at 6:30, and puck drops 7:00 for both nights.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com