Niall Crocker shields the puck from a Rebels attacker during a game last season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Also inside article: Howe heading to World Jr Camp

Raiders record does full 180 turn heading into matchup with Red Deer

Dec 3, 2024 | 12:50 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders are one of the hottest teams in the WHL right now with seven wins and a loss in overtime in their last eight games. The Raiders are set to welcome the Red Deer Rebels to town for the first time since February 28 last season on Tuesday night. The game will host the annual food drive for people attending.

To start the season, the Raiders came out of the gate with a record of 2-7-2-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) through the first 11 games, at one point sitting at the bottom of the league. Now with 22 games under their belt, the Raiders have flipped that record to 9-1-1-0 in the second half of the games played so far.

The Raiders sit ninth in the Eastern Conference, just one point behind Edmonton in the final playoff spot, and the Raiders have at least two games in hand over every team in the league with only 22 games played.

As for the Rebels, they sit sixth in the Eastern Conference as they come to Prince Albert for their first stop on a four games in five days stretch through Saskatchewan. The Rebels have won their last two at home, 4-2 over the Brandon Wheat Kings and 3-2 over the Prince George Cougars, and the weekend before the Rebels were shutout 5-0 by the Edmonton Oil Kings, but also earned a big 7-3 win over the Victoria Royals. In their last 10 games, the Rebels are 3-5-0-2.

Looking at scoring, the Raiders have only been held to three goals or less twice in the last 11 games, on Saturday’s 3-2 win over Lethbridge and a 3-2 overtime loss to Medicine Hat Tigers four games ago. With 81 goals for and 85 goals against, good for a -4 differential in that time and an average of 3.7 goals per game.

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As for the Rebels scoring, they’ve scored the second least amount of goals in the league at 69, with only Regina behind them, and they’ve given up 87 goals against on the season for a -18 differential. In 25 games this year, the Rebels are averaging just over 2.7 goals per game.

For the first time in 11 games, the Raiders powerplay was held off the scoresheet in their last action against Lethbridge. The Raiders powerplay has been bouncing around the 30 per cent mark, now dropped down to 29.5 per cent but still sit #1 in the league by almost 2 per cent. The penalty kill had been excellent for the Raiders as well with 15 straight successful penalty kills before the weekend, but they still sit near the bottom of the league in 19th at 73.2 per cent.

The Rebels powerplay sits last in the league at 13.1 per cent with one powerplay goal in eight attempts during their last three games. As for the penalty kill, the Rebels are 17th in the league at 73.6 per cent on the year.

Aiden Oiring put up six points in two games on the weekend to take the team lead in scoring for the Raiders, now sitting with 11G-22A-33P on the season. Tomas Mrsic sits second and continues to lead the league in powerplay goals with 10, he has 16G-15A-31P on the year. Lukas Dragicevic also leads the league in powerplay assists with 16, he sits third in Raiders scoring with 1G-25A-26P.

Oiring’s been huge for the Raiders in the last stretch with 5G-11A in the last seven games. His linemates also come in on streaks with Tomas Mrsic earning 3G-3A in the last three games and Brayden Dube with 2G-2A in those three games as well. Captain Justice Christensen also has 1G-2A in his last two games.

The Rebels have two players sitting at the top of the scoring leaderboard, both Mattew Gard and Ollie Josephson have 7G-10A-17P on the season. Hunter Mayo and Carson Birnie are tied for third in team scoring with 14 points, Hunter having 8G-6A and Carson Birnie 7G-7A.

With the shutout loss in Edmonton three games ago, no one on the Rebels has more than a two game point streak going. In the last two games, Matthew Gard earned 2G-1A, Jaxon Fuder has 2G-1A, and Talon Brigley has 1G-4A.

Max Hildebrand’s save percentage of 0.906 sits sixth in the WHL, but he won’t be available for the Raiders as he picked up a minor lower body injury. That leaves the net for Dimitri Fortin to make his second straight start for the Raiders after earning he win against Lethbridge on Saturday. In six games this season, Fortin has a save percentage of 0.874, but in his Raiders debut he stopped 26 of 28 shots for a 0.929.

The backup for the Raiders Tuesday will be 16-year-old Steele Bass who spent the preseason with the Raiders. Playing with the Okotoks Oilers in the Alberta Elite Hockey League, he is 7-4 with a 0.921 save percentage through 11 starts this year.

As for the Rebels goaltending, they’ve run with Chase Wutzke for most of their games this year. The 18-year-old Debden, Sask. native and Minnesota Wild fifth round draft pick has a record of 9-8-0-1 on the season with a 0.901 save percentage through 20 games. The Rebels other goaltender is 16-year-old Peyton Shore, who has made one start where he stopped 38 of 40 shots faced for a 0.950 save percentage and a 3-2 win over Prince George.

The Raiders welcome the Rebels at 7 p.m. with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. on 900 CKBI. If you plan to attend the game, the Raiders are hosting a food drive during the game, so bring your non-perishable food items.

Other WHL News: Howe goes to World Junior Camp

Prince Albert’s own Tanner Howe was named to the camp roster of Team Canada at the 2024-25 World Junior Hockey Championships set to take place in Ottawa starting on December 26. With 18 forwards invited, Howe has a chance to play in his first World Junior tournament if he can make it through the cuts starting on December 10.

Formerly the captain of the Regina Pats, Howe was recently traded to the Calgary Hitmen who are starting to build towards making a run at a championship this year. Since joining the Hitmen, Howe has a point in each of his four games with a hat trick in his most recent, earning 3G-5A.

No Prince Albert Raiders were named to any of the World Junior’s camp rosters.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com