Raiders ready to welcome Blades for final home and home of preseason
We’re officially one week away from the start of the WHL regular season with this weekend’s home-and-home series between the Prince Albert Raiders and the Saskatoon Blades to finish off the preseason.
While the first game Friday night will be played in the usual home venue for the Raiders at the Art Hauser Centre, the road game Saturday will be played at the Home Centre Communiplex in Warman. The Raiders are 2-1 in the preseason so far, while the Blades are winless at 0-3.
The Raiders and the Blades opened the preseason against one another in a young guns game that saw both teams only dress players born in 2007 and earlier with the exceptions of 2006-born defencemen Ty Sobry and Doogan Pederson for the Raiders, and 2006-born forward William James for the Blades. Despite the Raiders dressing only 10 forwards during the game to keep the age group on the ice as young as possible, the Raiders still managed to outpace the Blades, outshooting them in every period on their way to a 4-1 win.
From there, the Raiders have gone on to face the Swift Current Broncos twice with more of the veteran players brought into the lineup. The Raiders again outshot the Broncos in their first matchup against one another but ended up losing 5-2, but back on home ice the Raiders poured on the offence in the second game with a 6-1 win, outshooting the Broncos 20-3 in every period.