Raiders forward Brayden Dube lines up for a faceoff with a Hitmen forward earlier this season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)
Raiders start Alberta road swing

Raiders start three game road swing in Alberta with Calgary matchup

Feb 5, 2025 | 1:15 PM

With a nine-game point streak to their name right now, the Prince Albert Raiders are one of the hottest teams in the WHL with eight wins and a shootout loss in their last nine games. That record will get put to the test this week with three games against some of the best in the WHL, and it starts Wednesday night against the Calgary Hitmen.

This will be the third time the Raiders and Hitmen have faced off this year. The Raiders won the first meeting in December 4-3, but the Hitmen won the second 8-5 going into the Christmas break. Both times, the home team won.

The last two games for the Raiders have been identical scores, 5-2 wins over both the Wenatchee Wild and the Regina Pats at home. Before that, the Raiders had a three games in three nights stretch where they won games against Saskatoon and lost one in a shootout to Regina. The Raiders sit at the top of the East Division with 58 points, ahead of Saskatoon by two.

The Hitmen sit four points back of the Medicine Hat Tigers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Their most recent game on Sunday saw the Hitmen lose 4-3 to Lethbridge at home. That broke up a six game winning streak for the Hitmen.

Taking a closer look at the standings, the Raiders still lead the East Division with a record of 27-15-3-1 (W-L-OTL-SOL) on the year, but they haven’t pulled away from the Saskatoon Blades in second by much since taking that top spot. The Hitmen sit second in the Central Division with a record of 30-13-3-2 on the year. Both the Raiders and the Hitmen are chasing Medicine Hat for that top spot in the Eastern Conference with Calgary holding three games in hand, and Prince Albert with five.

On to goal scoring, the Raiders have managed 182 goals this year and 165 against for a +17 goal differential. That also works out to an average of just below 4.0 (3.95) goals per game, the highest it’s been all season.

The Hitmen have scored just a few more goals than the Raiders at 189 this year, and 141 against gives them a differential of +48. Because of two extra games played however, the Hitmen are averaging 3.93 goals per game, just less than the Raiders.

The Raiders powerplay is back to the second ranked powerplay in the league now at 28.7 per cent, only behind Spokane. The penalty kill has also started to climb after a couple of solid games in a row with a success rate of 72.5 per cent, bringing them to 20th in the league.

As for the Hitmen special teams, they have done their part but haven’t been particularly special. Their powerplay has seen more chances than anyone in the league with 206 opportunities, but they sit 17th in the league at 20.4 per cent. As for the penalty kill, it sits 11th in the league at 76.3 per cent, and just a single shorthanded goal for this season.

Tomas Mrsic has lost his spot at the top of the league in powerplay goals, now sitting second with 14, but he’s taken over the team lead in scoring with 29G-39A-68P on the year. Aiden Oiring sits right behind him with 21G-44A-65P for second. Lukas Dragicevic and Rilen Kovacevic are still tied for third with 10G-41A-51P and 25G-26A-51P respectively.

With two points against Wenatche, Mrsic extended his point streak to eight games with 6G-10A in that time. Brayden Dube also had a goal and an assist to extend his streak to five games with 4G-5A. Captain Justice Christensen has points in his last three games with 3G-1A as does Rilen Kovacevic with 0G-3A. In his last two games, Niall Crocker has 1G-3A, and Aiden Oiring has 2G-2A. After having his 12 game point streak snapped the game before, Daxon Rudolph picked up an assist for 3G-14A in his last 14 games.

The Hitmen are lead by two of the top four scorers in the league. Ben Kindel sits third in league scoring with 29G-52A-81P, and Oliver Tulk is right behind him in fourth with 28G-51A-79P. Sitting third in team scoring is COnnor Hvidston with 14G-31A-45P.

Carter Yakemchuk has been driving the bus as of late from the blueline with 1G-5A in his last four games. In the last three games, Connor Hvidston has 2G-4A and Carson Wetsch has scored in each for 3G-0A in that time.

In goal, Raiders starter Max Hildebrand brought his save percentage up to 0.915 to protect his top spot in the league, and his record of 22-9-3-0 on the year has him third in league wins. Dimitri Fortin will backup once again with a 0.883 save percentage on the year and a record of 5-6-0-1 on the year.

The Hitmen are carrying three goaltenders at the moment with former Wenatchee Wild goaltender Daniel Hauser getting the most starts recently. His save percentage sits at 0.905 on the year and his record is 16-11-2-1, but is at 0.916 and 8-2-0-0 in 10 games since joining the Hitmen. Anders Miller was in net the night the Raiders beat the Hitmen, his numbers sit at 10-2-0-1 with a 0.913 save percentage. Eric Tu was in net the night the Hitmen beat the Raiders, his numbers sit at 7-5-2-1 with a 0.877 save percentage.

The third meeting of the season between the Raiders and the Hitmen kicks off a three game road swing at 8 p.m. on 900 CKBI. The pregame show on 900 CKBI begins at 7:30 p.m.

nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

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