The Prince Albert Raiders celebrate Brett Leason's first period goal against the Blades in Game 1 of the WHL second round series. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Monty Cristo

Snipin’ Sean Montgomery nets first hat trick as Raiders take 1st game over Blades

Apr 5, 2019 | 10:55 PM

On Friday night in front of a sold out Art Hauser Centre crowd, Prince Albert Raiders forward Sean Montgomery did something that hadn’t been done in the past 18 years.

He scored a playoff hat trick in a Raiders uniform to lift his side over the Saskatoon Blades 6-1.

With the victory, the Raiders take a 1-0 lead in the second round WHL playoff series. Game 2 is on 6 p.m., Sunday at the Art Hauser Centre.

The last Raider to score a hat trick was Milan Kraft on March 30, 2000 against the Swift Current Broncos.

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And for Montgomery, who is the longest serving Raider with 345 regular season games played and 17 postseason games, that’s his first hat trick in his career. He had eight previous two goal games in his career, including four this season, but didn’t send the hat flying until Friday night.

“After I had two, the boys were giving it to me in the room,” Montgomery said. “It took a while, so it’s nice to finally get one.”

Although they may have been teasing him to get that third goal, the rest of the Raiders were very excited to see Montgomery finally do it.

“He’s a heart and soul guy. Everyone loves him and I think we’re all super excited when he got it,” said Raiders forward Parker Kelly, who had two goals himself on Friday. “He’s been here for what seems like 100 years, but that’s good to see. Hat tricks are pretty special in this league, they don’t come too often. Good for him. He’ll be a big part of this series.”

Raiders forward Brett Leason had a hat trick of helpers, as well as the Raiders’ game winning goal. Two of his three assists came on Montgomery’s goals.

Just seconds before the game started, Leason had an on-ice interview with Sportsnet’s Rob Faulds to start the nationally broadcasted game. There was also a camera crew in Raiders goaltender Ian Scott’s crease moments before puck drop, just to highlight how much more attention was being put on this game and this series.

“It’s definitely nerve-wracking,” Leason said. “[The Blades] have been our rivals and we’ve been battling with them all year. It’s good to finally go hard and get Game 1 under our belts.”

Coach’s corner

There’s been a war of words among the coaching staffs heading into the first game, but both coaches were more focused on their own team’s performances after Game 1. Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid was happy with all aspects of the Raiders’ performance.

“I just think we played a pretty complete game, really,” Habscheid said. “I thought we were good defensively, good offensively and I thought our power play was real good. We could have had a few more, but special teams were good. All around, we played a good game. We’re not going to celebrate too much, it’s one game.”

From the Blades perspective, the turning point was when Montgomery scored his second goal midway through the second period to make it 3-1 for the Raiders. Blades head coach Mitch Love said that’s when he saw his team start to unravel.

“I thought once they got that third goal on a miscue on a breakout by us, our game un-winded on us and emotions got the best of us late—that’s something we talked about all week,” Love said. “We played about 29 minutes of hockey. I’m curious on our response on Sunday and curious what it looks like when we actually want to play 60 minutes.”

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Sean Montgomery from Brayden Pachal and Brett Leason, 3:47

1-1, Blades, Chase Wouters from Brandon Schuldhaus and Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen, 5:24

2-1, Raiders, Brett Leason from Jeremy Masella, 12:07

Second Period

3-1, Raiders, Sean Montgomery from Brett Leason, 11:39

4-1, Raiders, Parker Kelly from Sergei Sapego, 17:42

Third Period

5-1, Raiders, Sean Montgomery from Ozzy Wiesblatt and Sergei Sapego, 5:51

6-1, Raiders, Parker Kelly from Brett Leason and Noah Gregor (power play), 13:40

See you again on Sunday

Game 2 is back at the Art Hauser Centre on Sunday, 6 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

After that, Games 3 and 4 will be at the SaskTel Centre on Tuesday and Wednesday, with 7 p.m. starts.

If necessary, Game 5 is slated for Friday at the Art Hauser Centre at 7, Game 6 will be at the SaskTel Centre at 4 p.m. If the series is tied at 3-3 at that point, the rubbermatch will be on April 16, 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW