Before Saturday's game, the Raiders were presented with the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy for finishing first in the Western Hockey League regular season by league commissioner Ron Robison. The Raiders captains in Parker Kelly, Brayden Pachal, Zack Hayes and Sean Montgomery accepted the award.

By Jeff D'Andrea

Scotty comes to the Art Hauser

Raiders ring in Scotty Munro winning season by beating the Blades

Mar 16, 2019 | 10:43 PM

Before the Prince Albert Raiders beat the Saskatoon Blades 3-1 to end the regular season on Saturday, Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison came bearing gifts.

His last one he gave was the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy, given out each year to the WHL team that finishes first in the regular season. The Raiders finished off with a 54-10-2-2 record. They started off the year in the top spot and never looked back.

The one Raider that’s worked the longest to be a part of a season like this for the Raiders is Sean Montgomery, who played his last career regular season game with the Raiders in his 20-year-old season.

Montgomery has now played a Raiders record of 345 games dating back to the 2014-15 season. The Raiders have had their long years in that span with two first round exits from the playoffs, and two years without making it—including finishing third last in the 2016-17 season.

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But that journey to get to being on the team that finished first in the regular season, as long as tiring as it may have felt like at times, made Saturday even sweeter.

“It was cool. We’ve had some tough years here, so it’s nice to finally have a year when we finish first,” Montgomery said. “It’s a big honour, but now we gotta get ready for playoffs.”

It’s not like Montgomery is just along for the ride either. He scored his 29^th goal of the year on Saturday to open the scoring and finished with 58 points in 66 games. Montgomery’s previous career high was 13 goals in a season—in fact, he almost scored half of his 72 career goals this year.

Montgomery spent the much of the season playing with breakout star Brett Leason, who’s received attention from NHL scouts and Hockey Canada with his stunning year with 36 goals and 89 points.

“It’s been obviously good to put some more pucks in the net,” Montgomery said. “Definitely playing with Brett helps a lot. I’m definitely not going to complain about that.”

After falling 3-2 to the Blades on Friday at the SaskTel Centre, the Raiders got a big boost from their hometown crowd. It was the Raiders’ first sellout since March 14, 2014 and they were as rowdy as ever.

“That was pretty amazing. You get the chills when they’re coming on the ice when they’re that loud,” Raiders captain Brayden Pachal said. “Every hit, every goal, every penalty, just everything—they were crazy loud. We’re looking forward to that. It’s a hard building to play in when it’s that loud. We’re looking forward to that crowd, even more come playoffs.”

The Raiders were without overage forward Dante Hannoun, who missed both games this weekend with an upper body injury. And Justin Nachbaur suffered an upper body injury on Friday in Saskatoon and is day-to-day.

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said both could return in time for the playoffs.

“They’re close. We’ll see how it goes,” Habscheid said. “When they’re ready, they’re ready.”

Pregame ceremonies

In addition to the Scotty Munro, the Raiders received two other pieces of hardware from the league.

Volunteer and scorekeeper Gerry Bergen received the distinguished service award from the WHL for his years of tireless work for the team. Bergen’s been volunteering for the team for the past 38 years.

The league also celebrated Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid and reaching 500 wins this season.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Sean Montgomery from Cole Fonstad, 8:05

2-0, Raiders, Noah Gregor from Ozzy Wiesblatt and Sergei Sapego (power play), 10:23

Second Period

3-0, Raiders, Noah Gregor from Parker Kelly (shorthanded), 17:12

Third Period

3-1, Blades, Max Gerlach from Dawson Davidson, 16:04

Bring on the Rebels

The Raiders and Rebels will take on each other in the first round of the WHL playoffs. The Raiders released the series’ schedule.

Game 1: March 22, Friday, 7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre

Game 2: March 23, Saturday, 7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre

Game 3: March 26, Tuesday, 7 p.m., ENMAX Centrium

Game 4: March 27, Wednesday, 7 p.m., ENMAX Centrium

Game 5: March 29, Friday, 7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre

Game 6: March 31, Sunday, 2 p.m., ENMAX Centrium

Game 7: April 2, Tuesday, 7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW