Raiders survive the Blades pushes and advance to the conference finals

“He’s been unreal,” Raiders assistant captain Sean Montgomery said. “I think that’s why we got him here, for the playoffs. He’s proving that he was a good addition.”

Although Hannoun was able to score a hat trick in the biggest game of his career so far, Hannoun said the Blades pushed the Raiders to the brink.

“It’s obviously pretty special, but you’ve got to give it to them,” Hannoun said. “They battled hard and it was a great series. They battled hard, they pushed every game and we pushed back. But you have to give them credit.”

The Blades certainly tested the Raiders in many regards, especially in Games 3 and 4. The Raiders scored just one goal combined in those 120 minutes of play, and saw their 2-0 series lead vanish. But the Raiders were able to find their scoring touch again, beating the Blades 6-1 in Game 5 on Friday before finishing off the series on Sunday.

But Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid rallied his group by not telling his team to battle through the adversity—but to embrace it.

“I just told them, ‘you know what? We want this. This is good for us,” Habscheid said. “We’re not going to win 6-1 all the time. We need to go through this. We need to feel an upset stomach. We need to have sleepless nights. We need to feel that anxiety. That’s what you got to do to win. We went through that.”

That approach helped lead the Raiders to do something no team had done since Feb. 2, beat the Saskatoon Blades on their home ice. The Blades won their last 10 home regular season games and their first four playoff matches at the SaskTel Centre before Sunday’s game.

“I didn’t like our last two hockey games, and we came up short to a very good hockey team over there,” Blades head coach Mitch Love said. “The initial reaction is disappointment, but at the end of the day, that’s a good hockey team over there. They were built that way. We’re going to have to lick our wounds a little bit, but also I’m extremely proud of our guys and the season they had.”

Raiders vs the Oil Kings

The Raiders will host Games 1 and 2 at the Art Hauser Centre on April 19 and 20. The Oil Kings will have their home games at Rogers Place April 23 and 24. If necessary Game 5 will be back at the Hauser on April 26. The Oil Kings will host Game 6 on April 28. If the series still isn’t decided after all that, a rubber match will be on April 30 at the Art Hauser Centre. All games will start at 7 p.m., with the exception on Game 6 on April 28, which is slated to start at 2 p.m.

Around the league

The Raiders and Blades was the last second round series to wrap up around the league. The Edmonton Oil Kings have been waiting since Wednesday to see who they would face in the WHL Eastern Conference Finals, after sweeping the Calgary Hitmen.

Out west, the Spokane Chiefs surprised the Everett Silvertips in five games. They’ll face the Vancouver Giants in the WHL Western Conference Finals, who swept the Victoria Royals.

Scoring Summary

First Period

1-0, Raiders, Parker Kelly (unassisted), 10:28

1-1, Blades, Ryan Hughes from Max Gerlach (power play), 16:45

Second Period

2-1, Raiders, Dante Hannoun from Noah Gregor, 5:08

3-1, Raiders, Aliaksei Protas from Brett Leason and Kaiden Guhle (power play), 8:18

3-2, Blades, Ryan Hughes from Dawson Davidson and Kirby Dach (power play), 15:24

Third Period

4-2, Raiders, Dante Hannoun from Noah Gregor and Sergei Sapego, 3:33

5-2, Raiders, Sean Montgomery from Brett Leason and Max Martin (power play), 5:27

5-3, Blades, Tristen Robins from Nolan Kneen, 5:56

6-3, Raiders, Dante Hannoun (empty net, unassisted), 19:58

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW

by Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders survive the Blades pushes and advance to the conference finals

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