Predators goaltender Oliver Volek makes a stop in the season opener against the Saskatoon SWAT. (paNOW Staff/Nick Nielsen)

By Nick Nielsen

Title on the line

Championship weekend looming as Predators seek third straight title

Jul 25, 2025 | 6:00 AM

There’s one game left of the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League (PGLL) playoffs, and the Prince Albert Predators are sitting poised to win their third consecutive championship after game one of the finals against the Moose Jaw Mustangs. The final series is a best-of-three, and the Predators will have a chance to win it all on home soil after a 13-7 win on the road.

The Predators have not lost a game since May 13, 2023. That’s 37 games in the PGLL without a loss (and two ties), but the Predators weren’t their usual dominant selves in the early goings of game one. Predators Head Coach Lucas Wells said that after taking a 3-2 lead out of the first, followed by a slow second period, the Predators train started finding momentum in the third.

“As a coaching staff where we joke we’re like, we’re like a train, so it takes a while for us to get going, and then once we get going, it takes a while for us to slow down. So that was kind of the story of last Saturday. I thought we all in all battled well, Moose Jaw played really well, but at the end of the day we still came up with a win and that’s all that matters.”

Wells attributed the slow start of the Predators in game one to the fact that they had not played a meaningful game in almost three weeks. As the top team in the league, the Predators earned a bye to the finals.

That meant the Mustangs would play two games while the Predators were stuck practicing against themselves. While you can only play so competitively against your own team in practice, the Predators also needed the time off to recover a bit for the final.

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“The rest was key for us, too. We had a lot of injuries, so we were able to get a little bit healthier. We still have two guys out hoping they’re going to play Saturday, but yeah, the rest was needed. But in saying that, it was almost three weeks since we had played a meaningful game, so that makes it tough. But like I said, I was very happy with the outcome. You could see our experience of being there before for the last two years really showed off.”

While the Predators have four of the top five scorers in the league, the Mustangs have Ryder Gilroy, who finished second in the PGLL. Despite the slow start offensively in game one, how they handled things defensively and shut down Gilroy was a highlight of game one for Wells.

“I thought we managed him pretty well. He took some nice looks, but I mean, he’s going to get that; he’s a goal scorer, so I thought we managed him well. All in all, I thought our defence played really well. Our goalie, Oliver Volek, he played really well, and we minimized the good scoring chances. There were a lot of outside shots and nothing in tight.”

Saturday’s game will have a 50/50 starting at $1000. The first faceoff hits the court at 7:00 p.m. at the Kinsmen Arena in Prince Albert.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com