Duane "Puff" Bartley poses with the championship trophy. (Trevor Redden/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Road to the Memorial Cup

Long-time Raider reflects on championship win

May 14, 2019 | 4:47 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders are off to compete for the Memorial Cup.

The Raiders punched their ticket Monday night with a 3-2 overtime win over the Vancouver Giants in front of a sold out crowd at the Art Hauser Centre.

Clinching the Western Hockey League Championship was a long time coming for the Raiders who haven’t lifted the championship trophy since 1985. Duane “Puff” Bartley, the athletic therapist and equipment manager for the team since 2001, said Monday night’s game was a landmark one for him.

“It is probably near the top. I’ve never been in probably a more electric building in my career,” he said.

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Bartley said the atmosphere at the Hauser Monday night was also noticed by members of the staff for the visiting team, some of whom have experience at the highest levels of hockey.

“I was talking to the Vancouver guys this morning … their one guy had worked in the NHL for a number of years and he said he’d been to a lot of big games, a lot of game sevens and he’s never been in an atmosphere like that,” he said.

The environment the Hauser provides is unique according to Bartley as only Swift Current has a rink similar in size and he is not aware of any other rink where people stand on milk crates to watch the game. He added it is difficult for him to fully describe the atmosphere and what it felt like.

When Dante Hannoun scored the game winning goal in overtime, Bartley had a perfect sight line to see the shot.

“It was kind of relief that it was over, but just ecstatic that it was over at the same time. To win it in that fashion in front of Prince Albert fans was quite amazing,” he said.

Looking at this year’s team, Bartley said besides the talent, the current roster also has another important dynamic which he said helps them compete at a high level.

“They are a team, they’ll do anything for each other. The comradery they have is second to none,” he said.

Heading toward the Memorial Cup, which will be Bartley’s first, the team’s support staff is working to get everything ready for the trip to Halifax. Now that things have slowed down, what the team’s championship win means is really starting to come full circle.

“Now it’s sinking in that, wow, we actually really did something here last night,” Bartley said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn