Daxon Rudolph tries to clear a puck from the front of the net while Aiden Oiring battles with one of the Blades during a preseason game this season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

First meeting between Blades and Raiders

Finally: Raiders and Blades set to meet for first time this season

Dec 30, 2024 | 1:05 PM

It’s been eight months and 25 days since the Saskatoon Blades took a 6-2 win over the Prince Albert Raiders in game five of the first round of playoffs last season. The Raiders and Blades will meet for the first time since, a total of 296 days, on Monday at the Art Hauser Centre.

The two teams did meet during the preseason three times with the Raiders picking up 4-1 and 5-4 wins at the Art Hauser Centre, and the Blades winning the final game 4-3 in Warman.

With the two wins on the weekend over Swift Current, the Raiders jumped four spots in the Eastern Conference standings and now sit tied with Brandon for fifth. The Blades sit tied for first in the East, but are only five points ahead of the Raiders in fifth and nine points in front of Red Deer in ninth. In comparison, the Western Division leading Everett Silvertips are eight points ahead of the Prince George Cougars in second, and 28 points ahead of the Kamloops Blazers tied in ninth place spot.

Last season, the Raiders and Blades met 10 times in the regular season starting with the opening weekend, and the Blades won the first four meetings. The Raiders won games five and six of the year in shootouts, but the Blades won the final four games for a 8-2 season series win, plus the 4-1 series win in the playoffs. In total, the Blades outscored the Raiders 65-31 in the 15 games they faced off in last season, 44-20 in the regular season and 21-11 in the playoffs.

This year, the two teams seem to be heading in opposite directions. The Raiders first 11 games saw them go 2-7-2-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL), or a 0.227 points percentage. In the 20 games since that trip through B.C., the Raiders have gone 15-4-1-0, good for a 0.825 points percentage since then.

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In total, the Raiders are 17-11-3-0 on the season. Recently, the Raiders picked up two wins over the weekend over the Swift Current Broncos, 2-1 at home and 7-5 on the road. The Raiders have won five of their last six games.

The Blades on the other hand started hot with a record of 10-2-1-0 through their first 13 games, good for a 0.808 points percentage, but their trip through B.C. was where things turned for the worse. In the next 23 games, the Blades record turned to a 9-8-1-2 record, or a 0.456 points percentage.

At 19-10-2-2 on the season, the Blades dropped six games in a row before the Christmas break before picking up 5-2 wins at home over Moose Jaw and on the road against Regina on the weekend. The Blades will be without star defenceman Tanner Molendyk, who is busy with Team Canada at the World Juniors in Ottawa.

The Raiders goal differential is back to even for the first time this season with 120 goals for and against this year, and they’re averaging just under 3.9 goals per game. The Blades have 122 goals for this year and only 102 against, good for a +20 differential and an average of just under 3.7 goals per game.

On specials teams, a returning Tomas Mrsic boosted the powerplay on Saturday to help the Raiders score, keeping them tied at the top of the league at 29.5 per cent with Spokane. The penalty kill suffered on the weekend however, dropping down to second last in the league at 70.6 per cent.

The Raiders and the Blades are the only two teams in the league yet to score a shorthanded goal.

The Blades also have one of the top powerplays in the league, sitting fourth in the league at 27.5 per cent, and their penalty kill is right in the middle of the league tied for 11th with Medicine Hat 75.8 per cent.

Aiden Oiring continues to lead the Raiders in scoring with 13G-31A-44P. Tomas Mrsic’s 12 powerplay goals continues to lead the league, he sits second on the Raiders with 20G-22A-42P. In third is Lukas Dragicevic, who leads the league in powerplay assists with 20 and sits second amongst all defencemen in league scoring at 6G-32A-38P.

The Raiders had eight different goal scorers on nine goals this past weekend. Brayden Dube extended his point streak to seven games on the weekend with 4G-4A in that time. Despite missing Friday’s game, Tomas Mrsic has 3G-6A in his last four games.

Leading the Blades is Ben Riche with 20G-25A-45P in his first year with the Blades after being acquired from Victoria in the offseason. Following him is Toronto Maple Leafs seventh round pick Brandon Lisowsky with 21G-18A-39P, and the undrafted 19-year-old Tyler Parr is third with 12G-20A-32P.

Brandon Lisowsky has goals in each of his last three games and is riding an 11 game point streak with 11G-8A. On four game point streaks are Ben Riche (3G-1A) with Grayden Siepmann (0G-6A), Ben Saunderson has an assist in each of his last two games, Tyler Parr has three assists in his last two, and Hudson Kibblewhite had 1G-2A in his last game.

Finally on to goaltending, Max Hildebrand’s 0.911 save percentage leads the league sits second in the league with a record of 14-6-3-0 on the year, including one shutout. Dimitri Fortin backing up is at 0.870 on the season with a record of 4-5-0-0, 0.874 and 3-3 in his six games as a Raider.

The Blades have solid goaltending as well with Evan Gardner tied for fourth in the league in save percentages at 0.910, and a record of 14-7-2-0 that includes one shutout. Backing up is Ethan McCallum who was acquired earlier this year from Medicine Hat, he’s sitting at 0.875 with a record of 2-4-0-2 on the year, but 0.894 and 1-3-0-2 since joining the Blades.

The Raiders drop the puck against the Blades for the first time this season at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre on Monday, and then they take a day off before a matinee rematch on New Years Day in Saskatoon at 4:00 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on 900 CKBI.