Raiders overager Remy Aquilon waves to the crowd after getting a star in Game 3 on Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre. (Mark Peterson Media)

By Jeff D’Andrea

Raiders Hockey

Raiders bow out to ICE after insane playoff run

Apr 29, 2022 | 9:08 PM

After their odds-defying playoff run and avoiding elimination with their backs against the wall on three different occasions, the Prince Albert Raiders finally ran out of pixie dust and ended their long reign of being WHL champions from 2019.

The Raiders’ season ended on Friday at the Wayne Fleming Arena, as the Winnipeg ICE won 8-2 to end the first round WHL playoff series between the two clubs in Game 5.

“The group grew from the start of the year, there’s no doubt about that,” Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt said. “I thought that we did a good job, the players did a good job of gelling and finding out what our culture is all about. Our returning guys did a good job of carrying that.”

Even just to be able to face the ICE in the playoffs, the Raiders had to shock the league, their own fans, and even themselves. Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid once described that the qualifying for the playoffs seemed like a “distant dream.”

“We find ourselves halfway through the season, kind wondering where are we? We’re six points up, one point down, we were six points down at one point as well. We took inventory of what we had to do to achieve a goal of getting into the playoffs,” Truitt said. “We talked about it before with 18 games left, the push was on. We thought we could get there, and we thought that anything could happen. Our group grew that way… People didn’t think we would get in the playoffs and we did. That was a good accomplishment.”

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Once they got in, the Raiders had to face the best team in the league in the ICE, eventually falling in five games.

After a 10-1 loss to fall behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series, the Raiders were able to extend the series with a gutsy 3-1 victory on Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre, the ICE came out with bad intentions to start Game 5. They dominated the period by scoring four goals—all even-strength, and held the Raiders to just one shot.

The ICE carried on from there, scoring another in the second period and three more in the third to take the victory. Captain Reece Vitelli scored the Raiders’ first goal, a shorthanded marker in his final WHL game, in front of friends and family in his hometown of Winnipeg. Sloan Stanick scored for the Raiders midway through the third period.

Game Summary

First Period

1-0, ICE, Jack Finley from Owen Pederson, 9:58

2-0, ICE, Zachary Benson from Nolan Orzeck and Matthew Savoie, 14:18

3-0, ICE, Mikey Milne from Jakin Smallwood and Cole Muir, 15:18

4-0, ICE, Jonas Woo from Chase Wheatcroft and Benjamin Zloty, 17:06

Second Period

5-0, ICE, Connor McClennon from Owen Pederson and Jack Finley, 1:57

5-1, Raiders, Reece Vitelli from Evan Herman (shorthanded), 9:46

Third Period

6-1, ICE, Zachary Benson from Conor Geekie and Maximilian Streule, 5:48

7-1, ICE, Matthew Savoie from Zachary Benson and Jonas Woo, 7:26

8-1, ICE, Connor McClennon from Jack Finley and Chase Wheatcroft, 8:17

8-2, Raiders, Sloan Stanick from Nolan Allan, 11:19

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Jeff.dandrea@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW