Aiden Oiring scores during the shootout during the last meeting in Prince Albert between the Raiders and Royals on January 12, 2024. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

4 games in 5 nights

Raiders start busy week at home against visiting Royals

Jan 20, 2026 | 10:51 AM

Coming off of one of the biggest wins of the year, the Prince Albert Raiders are right back into it with a busy four games in a five-night stretch. The Raiders are on home ice Tuesday night to start that stretch as they host the Victoria Royals.

This is the first and only time the Raiders and Royals will meet this season. During last year’s B.C. road trip in October, the Raiders had a three goal lead after the first period before they fell 6-4 in the end. Last time the two teams met in the Art Hauser Centre, Aiden Oiring and Sloan Stanick scored in a shootout to help the Raiders win 4-3.

The Raiders come into the busy week with a record of 31-6-4 (Wins-Losses-Overtime Losses), good for first in the Eastern Division and just one point behind Medicine Hat for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Raiders have won their last three games in a row, that big 8-5 win on Saturday over Medicine Hat, then 3-1 the night before in Lethbridge, and back home 5-2 over Brandon.

Later this week, the Raiders will have Wednesday off before travelling to Moose Jaw Thursday, Swift Current on Friday, then back home on Saturday in a rematch with Medicine Hat.

As for the Royals, they have a record of 18-15-8 which has them ninth in the Western Conference, tied with Portland for the final playoff spot but the Royals have four games in hand. This will be the third of six games through the East Division for Victoria, and so far they have won 5-2 over Regina on Saturday and lost 6-1 in Brandon.

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Looking at special teams, the Raiders powerplay has gone 1/10 across their last four games, but still sits third in the league at 30.5 per cent. The Raiders penalty kill though is 9/10 in that same four game stretch, but still sits 11th in the league at 78.2 per cent.

The Royals powerplay sits just below the middle of the league at 13th, operating at 22.6 per cent. Their penalty kill is the seventh best in the league at 79.5 per cent.

Daxon Rudolph has now taken over the lead in the Raiders scoring race with 20G-28A-48P on the year. Aiden Oiring sits second with 17G-30A-47P, Riley Boychuk takes the third spot with 9G-36A-45P, and Brandon Gorzynski 18G-26A-44P.

Scoring streaks:

• Maddix McCagherty has 2G-7A in his last five games, and is coming off of a 2G-2A performance
• Daxon Rudolph has 2G-4A in his last three games. Rudolph has been held pointless once since December 3rd, putting up 13G-19A-32P in his last 17 games.
• Jonah Sivertson has 1G-2A in his last three games
• Max Heise has 3G-3A in his last two games, and is coming off of his second hat trick of the season
• Alisher Sarkenov has 2G-0A in his last two games

As for the Royals, Nipawin product Roan Woodward leads the charge with 23G-17A-40P. After that sits Hayden Moore with 14G-25A-39P, and then there’s a tie for third between Nolan Stewart with 11G-21A-32P and Timofei Runtso with 7G-25A-32P.

Scoring streaks:

• Caleb Matthews has 1G-5A in the last five games
• Heath Nelson has 2G-0A in the last two games
• Cosmo Williams has 0G-2A in the last two games

On to the goaltending battle, Michal Orsulak had the start on Saturday and boasts a record of 12-4-3 on the year, along with a 0.899 save percentage, a 2.56 goals against average, and two shutouts on the year. Steele Bass earned the win on Friday with a perfect 6-0-0 record, 0.921 save percentage, a 1.50 goals against average, and one shutout this year.

As for the Royals, Ethan Eskit has lead the way with a 14-10-8 on the year, a 0.902 save percentage, a 2.97 goals against average, and one shutout this year. Jake Pilon has been their backup with a 3-5-0 record, a 0.875 save percentage, and a 3.63 goals against average.

The Raiders take on the Royals for the first and only time this season Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre. You can listen in starting with the pregame show on 900 CKBI starting at 6:30 p.m.

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Nick.Nielsen@pattisonmedia.com