The Raiders fell 3-2 Friday to the Saskatoon Blades. File photo/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

One more before the playoffs

Streaks snapped in Saskatoon; Raiders to play RD in playoffs

Mar 15, 2019 | 10:15 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders saw four of their streaks snap at the SaskTel Centre as they fell 3-2 to the Saskatoon Blades.

Ian Scott shutout record was stopped at 185:44, when Blades’ Brandon Schuldhaus scored in the first period. For Scott, that’s a Raiders’ record for minutes played without surrendering a goal, and is almost a full game longer than the previous record of 128:32 set by Craig Hordal in 1995.

The Raiders penalty killing streak was halted at 28 straight kills. You’d have to go back almost a full month to find when the Raiders last surrendered a goal shorthanded, that’s back on Feb. 18.

The Raiders’ winning streak was stopped at three and their head-to-head win streak against the Blades was also stopped at three.

Budget woes

Golf and curling centre faces grim season without financial boost

A few minutes ago

Raiders AGM

Raiders impact on Prince Albert local economy continues to go up: AGM report

18h ago

Court proceedings

'The impact of this trauma will echo for generations': court case surrounding La Ronge woman's death reaches conclusion

Dec 11, 2024

On the other side, the Blades won their eighth straight game. That will set up a rematch between both teams as they wrap up their regular seasons on Saturday, 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

Friday’s game didn’t mean much in terms of the standings, as the Raiders are locked into first place in the Western Hockey League, and the Blades will head into the postseason as the second seeds in the WHL East Division.

But finishing the season against the best opposition the division has to offer is a good precursor for the Raiders’ postseason.

“When you get to this position going into the playoffs, no matter who you’re going to match up with in the playoffs, it’s going to be hard,” Raiders assistant coach Jeff Truitt said. “It’s going to be a highly competitive game. It’s going to be hard shifts, every game. We can’t take a shift off.

“There were some times when we got shots and weren’t in front of the net. There were times where we bumped into each other at our net-front and freed them up a little bit. We’ve got to clean these things up. We’ve got a good group in there and I’m sure they well.”

Rebel yelling in the first round

Shortly after Truitt conducted his postgame interview with Trevor Redden of paNOW.com, the Raiders found out who they would be playing, Truitt’s old squad of the Red Deer Rebels.

Here’s how that happened on Friday night.

The Medicine Hat Tigers won 5-2 win over the Kootenay ICE, meaning the Rebels couldn’t catch them for the first wildcard spot after they lost 4-3 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes. And the Brandon Wheat Kings were eliminated from contention after they fell 5-4 to the Regina Pats.

As a result from all of that, the Rebels have the second wildcard spot and will face the Raiders in the opening round.

The only loss the Raiders suffered in their first 27 games came at the hands of the Rebels, 4-3 on Oct. 6 in Red Deer. The Raiders defeated the Rebels in the three remaining matchups, but all were one-goal games: 2-1 on Oct. 13, 4-3 on Nov. 27 and 2-1 in a shootout on March 1.

No Hannoun

Raiders forward Dante Hannoun sat out Friday’s game, and will miss Saturday’s game as well after suffering a hit from Swift Current Broncos’ Tanner Nagel on Sunday. Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid expects Hannoun to return in time for the postseason. Cole Fonstad suffered injury as well in Swift Current, but made his return on Friday.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Parker Kelly from Spencer Moe, 1:21

1-1, Blades, Brandon Schuldhaus from Max Gerlach and Gary Haden, 5:44

Second Period

2-1, Blades, Ryan Hughes from Dawson Davidson and Kirby Dach (power play), 0:37

Third Period

2-2, Raiders, Noah Gregor from Sergei Sapego and Parker Kelly (power play), 4:49

3-2, Blades, Max Gerlach from Kirby Dach and Ryan Hughes (power play), 7:17

Raids-Blades to wrap up the regular season

Both teams will meet again on Saturday, 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre to conclude the regular season. Regardless of what happens, the Raiders will finish first in the league and the East Division, while the Blades will finish behind them, second in the division.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW