The Raiders look to keep their five game point streak going on the road against the Brandon Wheat Kings. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Return of the Cobra Chickens

Weekend preview: Raiders make pitstop in Brandon before welcoming Medicine Hat for Cobra Chicken night

Nov 28, 2025 | 10:26 AM

After a busy stretch that saw the Raiders play seven games in ten days, the Raiders had just one game in the last 13 days. Now the Raiders are getting back into the busy schedule starting with a one day road trip to take on the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday, then returning home where the Raiders become the Cobra Chickens and welcome the Medicine Hat Tigers.

In the last five games, the Raiders have four wins and an overtime loss. Those games have been a 4-1 win at home over Brandon, a 4-3 overtime loss in Wenatchee, a 5-4 overtime win in Seattle, and regulation wins 4-2 and 4-1 over Portland and Everett respectively.

The Raiders are still sitting second in the Eastern Conference two points behind the Edmonton Oil Kings, but the Raiders have five less games played with a record of 16-1-4.

Friday @ Brandon

This is the third time this season the Raiders and Wheat Kings will do battle out of a total six times this year. So far, the Raiders have won both games, most recently that already mentioned 4-1 win at home on Nov. 21, and on Sept. 27 where the Raiders came back and won 5-4 in overtime in Brandon.

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The Wheat Kings have played once since that 4-1 loss to the Raiders on Friday. The following day they were in Saskatoon, where the Wheat Kings took a 3-2 lead in the second and held on for a win over the Blades. In their last five games, the Wheat Kings are 3-2-0.

After a tough start to the season where they didn’t win any of their first five games, the Wheat Kings have not lost two games in a row since and have been slowly climbing the standings. Right now the Wheat Kings are sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference with a record of 11-10-1, three points back of Moose Jaw with three games in hand.

Looking at special teams, the Raiders powerplay went 1/8 during Friday’s game against the Wheat Kings, they sit 16th in the league at 21.5%. On the penalty kill, the Raiders went 4/5 against the Wheat Kings, on the year the Raiders sit sixth in the league at 80%.

As for the Wheat Kings, they went 1/1 on the powerplay against the Blades on Saturday to keep themselves as the second ranked powerplay in the league at 33.8%. On the penalty kill, the Wheat Kings went 5/5 in Saskatoon to bring them up two spots to fourth last in the league at 70.2%.

On to leading scorers where the Raiders have a tie at the top between Brayden Dube and Aiden Oiring who have identical 9-14-23 statlines. Riley Boychuk takes up third in Raider scoring with 4-18-22 on the year, and Daxon Rudolph sits fourth with 6-11-17 on the year.

As for the Wheat Kings, it’s Jaxson Jacobson leading the way with 8-30-38 on the year, followed by former Swift Current Bronco Luke Mistelbacher at 17-15-32. Joby Baumuller sits third with 13-14-27, tied with Jordan Gavin at 9-18-27.

As for the goaltending battle, Michal Orsulak has played both games against the Wheat Kings this year and posted a 0.898 save percentage in those two games. On the year, his 0.922 save percentage sits second in the league, his 1.91 goals against average is first, and he has a record of 9-0-3. Dimitri Fortin has not faced the Wheat Kings as a member of the Raiders, but he brings in a season record of 6-1-1 and a 0.866 save percentage.

For the Wheat Kings, Prince Albert native Jayden Kraus has also played both games this year and has posted a 0.895 save percentage. On the year, Kraus sits at 2-6-1 with a 0.867 save percentage. The other Wheat Kings goaltender is Filip Ruzicka who got most of his starts while Kraus was hurt, he sits at 9-3-0 on the year with a 0.886 save percentage.

Saturday vs. Medicine Hat

After Friday’s game, the Raiders will make the 662km drive back home in time to take on the Medicine Hat Tigers for the first time since the Tigers swept the Raiders in the second round of last year’s playoffs.

Before playing the Raiders, the Tigers will make a stop in Saskatoon to take on the Blades on Friday. Coming into the weekend, the Tigers have won two straight games over the Calgary Hitmen 3-2 and 7-6, suffered a 4-3 loss to the Red Deer Rebels, another win over the Hitmen 6-2, and a 6-5 loss to Brandon.

On the season, the Tigers are sitting third in the Eastern Conference with a record of 14-6-5. They sit three points back of the Raiders but with four extra games played.

The Tigers powerplay has been around the middle of the pack all season, they sit 15th in the league at 22.4%. As for the penalty kill, they have taken the second most penalties in the league (103), but they’ve had an effective penalty kill at 79.6%, good for eighth in the league.

Markus Ruck leads the Tigers in scoring with 6-21-27 on the year, he’s followed by his brother Liam Ruck with 8-16-24 and Bryce Pickford with 12-12-24. In the fourth spot is Jonas Woo with 11-12-23.

As for goaltending, the Tigers have run with the tandem of Jordan Switzer and Casey Carter. Switzer has had the majority of the starts with a record of 8-3-3 along with an 0.882 save percentage. Carter on the other hand has a 6-3-2 record with a 0.894 save percentage and one shutout on the year.

The Raiders will take on the Wheat Kings for the third time this season Friday night in Brandon at 7:00 p.m. Saskatchewan time, and then return home to become the Cobra Chickens as they take on the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.

Both games will be live on 900 CKBI and Brandt Raider Radio starting with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m.