Brayden Dube carries the puck in front of Oil Kings goaltender Alex Worthington as the Raiders win earlier this season. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By Nick Nielsen

Playoffs Round 1

Raiders and Oil Kings meet in playoffs for first time since 2019

Mar 28, 2025 | 10:00 AM

The playoffs are here, and the Prince Albert Raiders are getting set for what promises to be a spirited tilt between the second in the Eastern Conference Raiders and the seventh ranked Edmonton Oil Kings.

The Raiders finished the regular season with an electric end to the schedule winning five straight games. That includes the final two games of the season over the Saskatoon Blades in dramatic fashion to take home the East Division title.

As for the Oil Kings, they limped into the playoffs having won their last game 4-1 against Red Deer, but then losing the previous four games in regulation including a 4-1 loss to the Raiders.

Historically, the Raiders and Oil Kings have played each other just twice in the playoffs, and both times the winning team would go on to win a WHL Championship. The most recent time the two teams met in the playoffs was the Eastern Conference Final in 2019. The Raiders won the series 4-2 on their way to their second WHL Championship in franchise history.

Before that in 2014, the Oil Kings swept the Raiders 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs, and the Oil Kings would go on to both a WHL Championship and their only Memorial Cup to date.

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Overall during the season series, the Raiders and Oil Kings faced each other five times throughout the year. In the three games the Raiders won, they were dominant with scores of 4-1 on Nov. 16 in Prince Albert, 5-2 on Dec. 17 in Edmonton, and the last matchup of the season was earlier this month, where the Raiders won 4-1 in Edmonton on Mar. 15.

The two losses the Raiders suffered to the Oil Kings were identical 5-4 games on Jan.10 in Edmonton and Feb. 28 in Prince Albert. In both of those games, the Raiders scored the first goal, the Oil Kings would go up 2-1, the Raiders would come back and make it 3-2, but the Oil Kings would go ahead 5-3. In both games, the Raiders would score in the final two minutes of the game to make it 5-4.

The special teams battle is going to be an interesting one. The Raiders finished the season with the third ranked powerplay in the league at 28.2 per cent, while the Oil Kings finished with the second ranked penalty kill at 81.9 per cent. During the season series between the two teams, the Raiders powerplay went 6/17 for 35.3 per cent, while the penalty kill went 19/25 for 76 per cent.

Conversely, the Oil Kings powerplay went 6/25 and their penalty kill went 11/17, or 24 per cent and 64.7 per cent respectively.

In the shot department, the Raiders were outshot in every game during the regular season between the Raiders and Oil Kings. In total the Oil Kings outshot the Raiders 175-132 throughout the season. The Raiders only won the battle in shots in four periods of the five games.

In the five games between the Raiders and Oil Kings this year, Tomas Mrsic lead the season series in scoring with 4G-8A-12P, followed by Niall Crocker with 4G-3A-7P and Aiden Oiring with 2G-5A-7P. Multiple Raiders had five points in the series.

Leading the Oil Kings in the season series was Gracyn Sawchyn with 3G-2A-5P. Behind him were Cole Miller with 3G-1A-4P and Miroslav Holinka with 2G-2A-4P. Multiple Oil Kings had three points in the series.

In goal, Max Hildebrand won all three games he played in the series, posting a save percentage of 0.961, while Dimitri Fortin was in net for the two Raider losses posting a 0.873.

As for the Oil Kings goaltenders, Alex Worthington posted a 0.847 save percentage in the three games he started against the Raiders this year, losing all three. Meanwhile Ethan Simcoe posted two wins and a 0.862 save percentage in the two games he played.

The only player in the series who has experience with both teams is Raiders 20-year-old forward Rilen Kovacevic, who was traded to Edmonton in the second half of the 2022-23 season. Kovacevic played 54 games with the Oil Kings before being traded to the Moose Jaw Warriors early last year as part of Moose Jaw’s WHL Championship run. In his time with the Oil Kings, Kovacevic posted 20G-13A-33P in those 54 games.

The Raiders and Oil Kings will do battle in game one of the playoffs Friday, March 28 at the Art Hauser Centre at 7:00 p.m. Game two goes on Saturday, and the Raiders travel to Edmonton for games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com