Ty Meunier scored his first WHL goal against the Moose Jaw Warriors in the second game of the season, and is coming off his first two goal game of his career. (Nick Pettigrew/Moose Jaw Warriors)

By Nick Nielsen

Second Meeting this season

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Last weekend, the Prince Albert Raiders were faced with two very physical games with a win against Calgary at home before travelling to Brandon for a loss. Now for Tuesday night, they face a depleted last in the league Moose Jaw Warriors in their second matchup of the season. In the first meeting of the year, just the second game in, the Raiders ruined the Warriors banner raising ceremony 6-4.

After points in eight straight games, the Raiders are 1-2 in their last three games this week, but all in tough contests. Since the start of December, the Raiders have lost at home to Red Deer 3-2, won over Calgary 4-3 at home, and followed it up with a 7-3 loss to Brandon on the road where the Raiders seemed to run out of gas halfway through the second.

The Raiders have been bouncing in and out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, currently sitting ninth with 27 points, but they sit just three points behind Edmonton and Lethbridge tied for seventh, four points out of Red Deer in sixth, and the Raiders have at least one game in hand over every team in the league. Their record sits at 12-10-3-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) on the season.

As for the Moose Jaw Warriors, they sit last in the league at 6-17-3-1 on the year, and they have lost their last three in a row in games with Swift Current, Lethbridge, and a 9-0 drubbing at the hands of the Calgary Hitmen. Last year’s WHL Champions just finished a major trade earlier last week that sent away star 2005-born forwards Brayden Yager along with their starting goaltender 2005-born Jackson Unger to Lethbridge. The exchange was for 2005-born goaltender Brady Smith, 2006-born forward Landen Ward, and 2009-born defenceman Colt Carter along with six draft picks ranging from this coming season to the 2028 draft.

The Raiders goal differential has only been getting better and better this year, now down by –8. The Raiders have 90 goals for this season compared to 98 against, good for an average of 3.6 goals per game that has not changed in weeks.

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As for Moose Jaw’s scoring, they have given up 127 goals against the season, one off from the league worst Seattle Thunderbirds, and they are tied for fifth last in the league with only 85 goals scored on the year. That leaves the Warriors at a differential of –42, and an average of 3.1 goals per game.

For the first time in weeks, the Raiders will head into a game without the top powerplay in the league. The Raiders are now down to third in the league at 28.3 per cent, and the penalty kill is continuing its climb of the standings after going 5/5 in Brandon. They now sit 16th in the league at 74.2 per cent.

On the powerplay, the Warriors are down near the bottom of the league at 19th overall with a 17.8 per cent success rate, but they’ve been pretty solid on the penalty kill where they sit ninth in the league at 78.6 per cent. The Warriors have three shorthanded goals on the year, all of which have been scored by Rilan Kovacevic.

Aiden Oiring finally had his point streak snapped after nine games as he leads the Raiders in scoring with 11G-24A-35P on the year, followed closely by linemate Tomas Mrsic with 17G-17A-34P and still leading the league with 10 goals on the powerplay. Lukas Dragicevic has dropped to second in league powerplay assists, he sits third in Raiders scoring with 2G-26A-28P on the year.

With Oiring’s streak snapped at nine games with 5G-13A, that leaves the only Raider with a point streak going as Daxon Rudolph, who has four assists across his last four games. Luke Moroz is starting to generate some more points too with 1G-4A in his last six games, and Ty Meunier is coming off his first two goal game of the season.

As for Moose Jaw, they are lead in scoring by Lynden Lakovic with 13G-17A-30P on the year who is looking to be drafted this season, still tied for the team lead with Brayden Yager at 30P before being traded. The shorthanded 20-year-old superstar Rilen Kovacevic sits second with 15G-9A-24P, and 19-year-old Pavel McKenzie sits third with 6G-8A-14P.

Kovacevic comes into the action with goals in each of his last two games, and nine goals in his last seven games. The other Warrior on a point streak is Lakovic, who managed a point in every game but one through November with 6G-4A in his last eight games after missing the shutout against Calgary.

In goal, former Warrior Dimitri Fortin has made the last four starts for the Raiders while Max Hildebrand has dealt with a minor injury. Tuesday night should mark the return of Hildebrand should everything from pregame skate go well, he comes in with a save percentage at 0.906 for seventh in the league. Fortin was pulled in his last action against Brandon, dropping his save percentage since joining the Raiders to 0.886, but in the three games prior to being pulled Fortin is 0.918.

If for some reason Hildebrand can’t go, then Steele Bass will back up again. He made his Raiders debut Saturday night in relief of Fortin, facing 13 shots and stopping 12.

As for the Warriors, they traded away their goaltending tandem of Fortin and Jackson Unger that got them a WHL Championship last year in the span of a week. That leaves the job to former Lethbridge Hurricane Brady Smith and 2006-born rookie Josh Banini. Smith has started both games for the Warrior since his acquisition, losing twice with a 0.909 save percentage as a Warrior, and 0.889 on the season. Banini has not started since October 26, but he is 1-2 on the season with a 0.935 save percentage.

The game is also the Raiders Santa Anonymous night, so fans are encouraged to bring unwrapped toys and gifts that can be donated to Salavtion Army and the Optimist Club. Puck drops at 7 p.m., with the pregame show starting at 6:30 p.m. on 900 CKBI.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com