The last time the Portland Winterhawks visited Prince Albert, the Winterhawks were lead by Prince Albert local Gabe Klassen as their captain. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

beginning of four game homestand

Raiders return home to welcome Winterhawks

Jan 14, 2025 | 12:00 PM

After the Prince Albert Raiders went 1-2 in their Alberta road swing and finished with a 3-0 shutout in Red Deer that snapped their three game losing streak, the Raiders are set to return home ice on Tuesday when they welcome the Portland Winterhawks.

The Winterhawks are in the midst of their own road trip that started in Brandon and is continuing through Saskatchewan. Portland has big wins on the road trip so far, 6-3 in Brandon and 7-3 in Regina, with their last loss coming in the last game before they went on the road, losing 6-3 to Wenatchee at home.

In the standings, the Raiders have bounced around from eighth to fourth in the Eastern Conference standings in recent weeks, but currently they sit tied for sixth with the Brandon Wheat Kings at 43 points, four points back of Edmonton in fifth. The Raiders are sitting 20-15-3-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) through 38 games this year, having lost their last two games at home.

As for Portland, they sit fifth in the Western Conference at 49 points. The Winterhawks are 40 games into the season with a record of 23-14-2-1.

In their only meeting of the season last year, the Raiders beat the Winterhawks on the road 2-1 back on November 17.

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The Raiders are averaging just over 3.8 goals per game so far this year with 145 goals for and 146 goals against, being outscored by just a single goal so far this year. Portland is scoring just over 4.0 goals per game on the season with 163 goals for and 158 goals against, good for a +5 goal differential. In their last fives games, the Winterhawks have been scoring an average of 5.4 goals per game.

On specials teams, the matchup will see two of the best powerplays in the league go head to head. The Raiders currently sit second in the league at 29.0 per cent while the Winterhawks sit third at 27.3 per cent. Both teams 45 powerplay goals this year, but the Raiders have scored them with 10 less chances and two less games.

The penalty kill of Portland is just as dangerous with a league leading 12 shorthanded goals for, and they sit eighth in the league at 78.8 per cent. The Raiders sit 21st in the league at 71.0 per cent and are still looking for their first shorthanded goal of the season, but Rilen Kovacevic has four on the season already before being traded to Prince Albert.

Aiden Oiring just scored his 50th goal of his WHL career in his last action, he leads the Raiders in scoring with 17G-36A-53P on the year. Tomas Mrsic’s 13 powerplay goals continues to lead the league, he sits second on the Raiders with 23G-29A-52P. Lukas Dragicevic is third in team scoring with 8G-36A-44P, just one point ahead of the newly acquired Rilen Kovacevic at 22G-21A-43P.

Thee blue line has been providing a ton of offence for the Raiders in the last few games, lead mainly by the pairing of captain Justice Christensen and rookie Daxon Rudolph. Rudolph has the longest point streak going for the Raiders with 1G-7A in his last six games including four assists in his last two games. Christensen is right behind Rudolph with 4G-1A in his last four games. Kovacevic has a point in each of his three games since joining the Raiders at 1G-2A in that time, and Niall Crocker has 1G-1A in his last two games.

Twenty-year-old Kyle Chyzowski leads the Winterhawks in scoring with 29G-37A-66P so far this year and sits second in the league. Seattle Kraken drafted defenceman Tyson Jugnauth sits second with 9G-45A-54P, and 18-year-old Diego Buttazzoni sits third with 22G-27A-49P.

With high scoring affairs as of late, the Winterhawks have a ton of players with active point streaks. Tyler Jugnauth has 3G-5A in his last four games while Kyle McDonough has 1G-2A in his last three. In their last two games, Kyle Chyzowski has 2G-2A, Jordan Duguay has 1G-3A, Carter Sotheran has 1G-2A, Alex Weierman has 2G-1A, Carsyn Dyck has 0G-3A, and Ryder Thompson has 1G-1A.

In goal, Max Hildebrand sits fourth in the league in save percentage with a 0.909 rating on the season, and he’s coming off his second shutout of the season. In the year, he sits 16-9-3-0. Backup goaltender Dimitri Fortin is sitting at 0.879 on the year, 0.886 since joining the Raiders with a 4-4-0-0 record since joining the team.

The Winterhawks have given the most starts to Czech born Ondrej Štěbeták this year with a 14-9-1-1 record through 27 games played. Backup goaltender Marek Schlenker has a 9-5-1-0 and a 0.894 save percentage.

The Raiders and the Winterhawks are getting set to battle for the first and only time of the season at 7 p.m. with the broadcast starting on 900 CKBI with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m.