Brandon Gorzynski celebrates his goaltender Steele Bass' third shutout of the season. (Image Credit: Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Raiders win 4-0

Run it back in Saskatoon: Raiders repeat shutout performance over Blades

Mar 22, 2026 | 2:03 AM

After shutting out the Saskatoon Blades 4-0 on home ice the night before to clinch the first seed of the Eastern Conference on home ice, the Prince Albert Raiders drove back down Highway 11 for a rematch and the final game of the regular season. With the standings set, the season series decided, some players resting, and nothing else on the line, the Highway 11 Rivalry still put on a show in another 4-0 win for the Raiders.

For the third time in the eight game season series, the game started with a fight in the first 38 seconds of the game. This time it only took Hubert Clarke and Triston Mitchell-McElhone 19 seconds to drop the gloves. This was another long fight that saw Mitchell-McElhone take over the fight early on and he even got Clarke down to a knee, but Clarke got up and started to fight back. Soon Mitchell-McElhone caught Clarke in a headlock, and the officials seperated the two.

Once both guys left the box, for the second straight night it was the Raiders that responded. At 8:33, the Blades cleared the puck into Raider territory, and Steele Bass played the puck to the corner for an assist as he fed Benett Kelly. The young defenceman streaked up the ice from his own zone and right through the middle into the Blades side, then fired a wrist shot. It popped right off the blocker out to a streaking Alisher Sarkenov who quickly fired the loose puck in for his 21st of the season.

The Raiders would get a powerplay after that after Jack Lavallee took a breakaway chance away from Ben Harvey with a hook, and Alisher Sarkenov went back to work. Daxon Rudolph picked up an assist for collecting the puck in his own zone and curled found Sarkenov streaking out the left side to centre. Sarkenov took the feed, burned a defender with a toe drag to enter the zone with speed, then from the corner sent a great feed through a few sticks to Jonah Sivertson right in the slot, and Sivertson got all of it for his 24th of the season at 14:42.

At the end of the period, a scrum had seen all the skaters on the ice lock up along the wall near the Raiders blueline. With the refs occupied, Steele Bass and Evan Gardner started to skate to centre. Unfortuneately, the officials noticed in time before the gloves came off, and it was never meant to be.

Raiders win 4-0

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After 1: Raiders 2 – 0 Blades, shots 12-12

If Alisher Sarkenov was the star of the first period, Brayden Dube was the star of the second. Just 3:45 in, the Raiders had a 3-on-2 rush with Owen Corkish attacking with the puck from the right, Dube streaking down the left, and third man ahead of Corkish down the wall. Corkish found the other option though, a drop pass back to Linden Burrett, opening the seem for a Brayden Dube onetimer that ripped under the bar for his 23rd of the season.

After some overlapping penalties saw Brayden Dube exit the box and give the Raiders a powerplay, he joined the rush and quickly scored again. Benett Kelly started the play with the breakout of his own zone, and he gave it to Brandon Gorzynski moving in from the right. Dube exited the box and Gorzynksi realized the Raiders had a powerplay, stopped on the right side wall and let the powerplay set up, and Dube walked right into his spot on the left point where Gorzynski fed him again, and Dube onetimed his second of the night and 24th of the season at 10:14 to chase Evan Gardner from the goal.

After 2: Raiders 4 – 0 Blades, shots 14-10 Raiders, 26-22 Raiders overall

The Raiders had some great chances in the third period, Owen Corkish nearly burned a defender with a back and forth move followed up by a wrist shot. But, the Raiders would start to test some of their younger players with bigger minutes in the third period, including lots of time for Liam Myhre in his first game with the Raiders this season.

Steele Bass was also tested in the third period as the Blades put up only eight shots, but they were quality shots that Bass had to be sharp on. Bass didn’t get to drop the gloves, but instead he got his third shutout of the season.

With one final scrum with less than two minutes left, the Raiders got a powerplay out of a scrum that saw players from both teams sent to the dressing room early, and soon the game would end with the same score as the night before.

FINAL: Raiders 4 – 0 Blades, shots 8-7 Blades, 33-30 Raiders overall

In the final three games of the regular season between the Raiders and Blades, the Raiders kept the Blades off the board since the 7:42 mark of the second period of February 14’s game. That works out to a total of 152:18 straight without a goal from the Blades, including consecutive shutouts from Steele Bass and Michal Orsulak.

The Raiders finish the season with nine differen players scoring 20 goals this season. Daxon Rudolph will share the record for most goals by a Raider defenceman with Josh Morrissey’s 28 goals in the 2013-14 season. The other 20 goal scorers this year are Max Heise with a team leading 29, Aiden Oiring with 28, Brandon Gorzynski with 27, Braeden Cootes, Brayden Dube, and Jonah Sivertson all with 24, Alisher Sarkenov with 21, Maddix McCagherty with 20, and Justice Christensen just two shy at 18.

Aiden Oiring has now played 237 consecutive games with the Raiders spread out of the course of four seasons. Oiring has not missed a game in three full seasons with the team plus 31 games since he was acquired from the Winnipeg Ice in 2022-23.

The Raiders will play the Red Deer Rebels for the opening round of the playoffs starting on Friday at the Art Hauser Centre.