The Raiders and Blades will play a mini playoff series of four games against each other before the end of the season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Battle for East Division Title Begins

Raiders set for two of four games against Saskatoon before end of season

Mar 7, 2025 | 12:32 PM

The weight of making the playoffs is officially off the shoulders of the Prince Albert Raiders with eight games left, but that doesn’t mean the pressure is completely gone in the last stretch of the season. With four games left against the Saskatoon Blades left this season, the Raiders start the mini playoff series Friday night at home and then again on Saturday in Saskatoon.

The Raiders and Blades have not faced off since the weekend of January 24-26 as part of a three games in three nights stretch. The Raiders got five of a possible six points that weekend with the Raiders winning both games against the Blades 6-3 in Prince Albert on the Friday, and then 4-3 in overtime on the Sunday. Overall the Raiders are 3-1 against the Blades with the Raiders winning 6-3 in Saskatoon on January 1, but the Blades opened the season series with a win 4-2 in Prince Albert on December 30.

As of late, the Raiders have won their last game in a 4-3 effort over the Regina Pats that snapped a three game losing skid. On that losing skid however, the Raiders picked up points in overtime losing 4-3 to Swift Current and 2-1 to Lethbridge, and the game in the middle ended 5-4 in regulation against Edmonton.

The Blades recently have only won one of their last four games. Most recently they lost 6-3 to Swift Current on Wednesday, then a 5-3 loss Sunday to Edmonton, a surprise 6-2 loss in Moose Jaw, and a 2-0 loss to Lethbridge.

The Raiders currently hold the top spot in the East Division with both Brandon and the Blades in chase. Because they sit top in the Division, the Raiders also sit second in the Eastern Conference with a record of 34-20-5-1 on the year, good for 74 points. The Blades are sitting third in the Division and seventh in the Conference with a record of 31-21-3-4 on the year, good for 69 points.

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Looking at goal scoring, the Raiders have potted 229 goals this year, good for an average of just over 3.8 goals per game, and 206 goals against for a differential of +23.

The Blades have scored 205 goals this season with 199 goals against, good for a +6 differential. They’re averaging just barely under 3.5 goals per game.

On special teams, the Raiders powerplay is still sitting second in the league after going 0/2 on the man advantage against Regina, but they still sit at 28.4 per cent. The penalty kill also went 2/2 against Regina to stay ranked 19th in the league 73.5 per cent.

Saskatoon on the other hand is sitting ninth in the league’s powerplay rankings at 25 per cent. Their penalty kill is on the lower half of the league sitting 13th at 75.4 per cent.

For scoring, all three top scorers for the Raiders were held off the scoresheet in their last game. Tomas Mrsic stll sits tenth in the league with 32G-51A-83P. Aiden Oiring sits second on the Raiders with 23G-51A-74P and is now tied 20th in league scoring, and Lukas Dragicevic is third in Raider scoring and is till tied for second amongst all league defencemen with 16G-50A-66P.

Niall Crocker has the longest scoring streak going right now for the Raiders with 1G-3A across his last three games. Ethan Bibeau also has 1G-1A in his last two games. Justice Christensen was pointless two games ago, but he has 2G-1A in his last three games.

As for the Blades, Tyler Parr leads the team with 18G-37A-55P. Sitting second is Rowan Calvert with 22G-26A-48P with 16 of those goals on the powerplay this year, and Cooper Williams sits third with 16G-28A-44P.

The only two active point streaks belong to Brayden Klimpke with one assist in each of his last three games and Hayden Harsanyi with 1G-2A in his last two.

Finally on to goaltending, the Raiders still have the top goaltender in the league when it comes to save percentage with Max Hildebrand sitting at 0.917. His record of 29-13-5-0 has him sitting third in wins this season. Then there’s Dimitri Fortin who is sitting at 0.886 and 6-7-0-1 on the year.

For the blades goaltending, they have been riding Ethan McCallum as of late who is sitting at 10-10-0-3 on the season with a save percentage of 0.892. Evan Gardner has played in all four games against the Raiders this year, but has only had one start since the end of January and into the action on Wednesday in relief of McCallum. Gardner’s record sits at 18-12-3-1 with a league fifth best 0.906 save percentage.

The Raiders first welcome the Blades on Friday to the Art Hauser Centre, and then the Raiders head on the road to Saskatoon Saturday. You can listen to both games on 900 CKBI with the pregame show beginning both nights at 6:30.