Party in the pumpkin patch

Jason Kerr
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Party in the pumpkin patch

It’s appropriate that plans for a fall pumpkin festival began in a vegetable garden.

George Lewko was on a vegetable growers tour in Martensville when he saw the owners building a stage in a small out-of-the-way corner. He was surprised to hear they were going to put on a music festival. He was shocked to hear they expected to cram more than 200 people into such a small area.

“I was going, ‘you’re going to put 200 or 300 people in this little wee area?’” Lewko remembered during an interview on Saturday. “He says, ‘yeah.’ I thought, ‘I’ve got a way bigger area than that.’”

That’s what got George and his wife Kathie thinking about holding a similar festival of their own. The couple already had an annual pumpkin display that drew interested visitors to their paintball field roughly 5 km southwest of Prince Albert. They also had an employee who played in Friends, a local Prince Albert band, and who could put them in touch with other groups as well.

The end result was the inaugural Pumpkin Festival at Paintball Paradise, which officially kicked off on Sept. 29.

“There’s a huge change,” chuckled Lewko, whose organizing experience centres on paintball tournaments, not music festivals. “It’s very different dealing with bands…. I love them. They’re creative, but they’re very hard to track down some times, but I go with the flow pretty good.”

Local musicians weren’t the only ones helping get the first-year festival off the ground. Off the Cuff Improv was also on hand to provide entertainment, as were cast members from the upcoming Spark Theatre performance of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

“It’s good to work with everybody that you can work with,” Lewko explained. “The local bands have been awesome. They’re just easy to work with. They’re so flexible.”

Lewko added that it’s too soon to tell whether the pumpkin festival will become an annual event. However, if the demand is there, they’ll happily consider doing it once again.

“If you don’t have forgiveness in your heart, it’s going to become a stone”

Jason Kerr
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“If you don’t have forgiveness in your heart, it’s going to become a stone”

Howard Walker never attended the residential school in B.C. where an orange shirt was taken away from a six-year-old girl named Phyllis Jack, but he has a similar story.

As a young boy heading off to All Saints Indian Residential School (later known as the Prince Albert Indian Residential School) Walker was given a new pair of shoes and a new ribbon shirt. Just like in British Columbia, both were taken from him when he arrived at school. It was an ominous start to what would be a terrible experience.

“They just took everything away (and) disconnected me from my world and put me in another world where I felt a lot of culture shock,” Walker remembered. “Everything was so different, and I was told here that ‘we will teach you how to pray, how to act, how to speak, what to eat, when to eat and everything.’ I was totally controlled…. I felt very stripped.”

Walker survived the three years he spent at All Saints, and a few more at Gordon’s Residential School in Punnichy, but just barely. Gordon’s would become known as one of the more notorious residential schools in the country after William Starr, a teacher at the school from 1968 to 1984, plead guilty to sexually assaulting 10 students in 1993. The government later settled a lawsuit with 230 former students who said Starr abused them. Many former students say Starr was not the only guilty party.

“That was a time that we dreaded, when the Indian Agent would come with the RCMP to the children, to take us away to a residential school,” Walker remembered.

“I think to myself (on) Orange Day, when the RCMP came with the Indian Agent to take me away, where was he when I was going through all these abuses? Where was he? We had nobody to tell and we were too young to defend ourselves.”

Walker’s path to recovery was a long one. He became an alcoholic, struggled to hold down a steady job and eventually was taken in by a kindly old Ukrainian woman who helped him get back on his feet. Today he is sober, happy and healthy, except for deafness in one ear, a result of being smacked in the head repeatedly with a Bible for failing to properly recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Although Orange Day brings back some bad memories for Walker, it also brings hope.

“Orange Day brings out how to have that reconciliation, of perhaps us trying hard to mend something that has been broken,” he said. “An elder told me, if you don’t have forgiveness in your heart, it’s going to become a stone … and you’re not going to be able to move on in life as you should.”

Walker isn’t the only one who shares that sentiment. On Sunday, residents from across Prince Albert gathered at the Senator Allen Bird Memorial Centre for an Orange Shirt Day ceremony to remember residential school victims.

The day is full of sadness, especially when remembering the untold number of students who died while attending those schools (the federal government stopped tracking student residential school deaths around 1920). However, there is also hope that what was broken can be repaired and restored.

“It is kind of emotional for me,” said George Mirasty, a resolution support worker with health Canada who helped organize Sunday’s event. “Seeing all these young children here with their parents, that’s good to see because when I was (in school) we never had that. When I was here, it’s nothing compared to what I see now. That’s emotional for me, to see the children.”

Like Walker, Mirasty attended residential school in Prince Albert. He feels a heaviness when he thinks and talks about the experience, and said the main goal now is to ensure the next generation doesn’t suffer a similar fate. To be successful, that means making sure the stories of past students get told. It also means inviting ministers and other representatives from churches who helped run residential schools to, in Mirasty’s words, “close the gap” between the churches and survivors.

“It still affects us,” he said. “Some are still lost because of those things that still happened in those residential schools. We’ve even got a minister here to try and close that gap between the churches and residential school (survivors). Some of us have adopted the Christian way, and some of us that were in residential school have gone back to our cultural ways. What I’d like to see happen is no more divisions among our people, for all Canadians to get along.”

Mirasty said that’s going to take a lot of slow, painful work. There will be many tears and overwhelming emotion. But he said the fact that an event like Orange Shirt Day can even take place is a sign that those divisions are starting to heal.

The first Orange Shirt Day was held in 2013 in Williams Lake, B.C. by the Orange Shirt Society. The society is a non-profit whose goal is to support residential school reconciliation and create awareness of the inter-generational impact of the residential school system.

Addictions counsellor says Canadians not ready for legal cannabis

Jason Kerr
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The federal government is entering the home stretch of a long journey to legalize cannabis, but according to one expert, Canadians have little idea of what they’re getting themselves into.

Rand Teed has spent more the two decades working to help adults and teens understand and overcome substance abuse. He’s worried the current plan hasn’t given voters, governments or community groups enough time to educate themselves on how cannabis affects the human body, and that has him worried.

“Not even close,” Teed said when asked if voters and politicians have a good understanding of how legalized marijuana will affect their communities. “We haven’t done a good job of really educating people about this drug. We’ve cautioned them about it and had some superficial discussions about it, but there hasn’t really been a strong education piece of ‘this is what it does and this is what it can do.’”

On Friday, Teed was in Prince Albert doing his part to fill in that knowledge gap. A nationally certified addiction councillor, and internationally certified prevention specialist, Teed was on hand to answer questions at an event called ‘Clearing the Smoke: Everything you wanted to know about Marijuana but were afraid to ask.’

Teed’s audience included a mix of community organizers, concerned citizens and local politicians, and he had the same message for all of them.

“Cannabis is a drug that has significant potential to cause trouble if it’s (used) too much or too often,” he explained. “It also has significant potential to disrupt adolescent brain development.”

Ideally, Teed wants to see more public discussion and awareness around the issue, but he’s worried that’s not going to happen. There’s too much ground to cover in too short a time.

However, he said it’s better to start learning later than never start learning at all.

“They need to get educated because there’s all sorts of misbeliefs out there about what cannabis is (and) what it isn’t. There’s significant confusion, just with the term medical marijuana,” Teed said. “Education about cannabinoids and what ones can be helpful and what ones can be impairing can be important, and then the general ‘how much is too much’ kind of discussion.”

When it comes to youth, Teed’s biggest concern is brain development. Any substance use during adolescents, whether cannabis or something else, impairs the development of brain functions that form social emotional memories or prune thinking patterns that just don’t work.

“Kids that start using substances during that developmental period don’t effectively learn how to manage those situations and don’t effectively learn how to eliminate thinking that isn’t useful,” Teed said. “What happens to them is that their brains are phenomenally more active … which sounds like a good thing, but actually isn’t a good think because there brains are working way harder to solve problems that aren’t constructive.”

Teed added that most development is complete by the time teenagers turn 18, but not all of it. The brain, he explained, is still developing into the mid twenties.

 

Despite his pessimism around the current legalization process, Teed is optimistic that with up-to-date information, governments, residents, schools and community groups will make the right choices.

“Knowledge is power,” he said. “People need to really understand this stuff from credible sources.”

Rand Teed is a board member for the Saskatchewan Addiction Foundation, as well as a member of the National Recovery Advisory Committee for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

Understanding the effects

Jason Kerr
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Allan Kerpan and his wife Melanie have spent the last four years of their life talking about their daughter Danille.

It never gets easy.

In October 2014, Danille was travelling along Hwy 11 near Bladworth when she was hit head on by an SUV. The driver, a 50-year-old man, had a blood-alcohol content level nearly three times the legal limit. Danille died instantly.

Afterwards, Kerpan sought to try and make something good out of a terrible situation.

“The first thing she would have wanted us to do is to make sure that we try to help alleviate the impaired driving problem that we had and still do have in Saskatchewan,” Kerpan remembered during an interview on Friday. “We got involved in basically anything that people wanted to do that was going to make this better.”

That desire is what spurred them to take part in a new research project designed to help governments and aid agencies aid victims’ families. It’s called “Understanding the Effects of Impaired Driving in Saskatchewan: Perspectives of Family Members of Victims Killed by an Impaired Driver,” and it will be officially presented at a conference in Toronto this weekend.

The process was a hard one for Kerpan, he was eager and willing to take part if it helped people going through the same things he and his wife did.

“The questions aren’t always easy,” he said.

Kerpan was one of 13 individuals interviewed by a joint University of Regina, MADD, and Community Safety Knowledge Alliance (CSKA) research team for the project. The end result was nine new recommendations covering everything from victim education to improvements to victim support services.

University of Regina associate professor Nick Jones, one of the report’s two principal investigators said he’s hopeful the report will aid governments and organizations like MADD in their quests to prevent impaired driving deaths. However, he added that the sense of frustration among those interview was obvious right from the start.

“These (deaths) are preventable,” Jones said on the phone from Toronto, where he plans to present his findings at a MADD conference over the weekend. “These things don’t have to happen. There has to be something that can be done and that was one of the themes coming out near the end: the desire for change.”

In their findings, Jones and fellow lead investigator Jody Burnett called for a broader and more inclusive definition of a “victim” based on the Canadian Victim Bill of Rights. They also called for increased supports for first responders and judicial personnel, who may experience trauma while fulfilling their duties, and more educational opportunities so families could better understand how the court system operates.

Jones said many families who have loved ones killed in an impaired driving collision have little prior experience with the justice system. He’s hoping the report will help create change.

“Some people had good experiences with the police, the prosecutors, the courts, and corrections,” he explained. “Other people certainly did not. In listening to what they had to say, there were certainly some gaps in terms of services to the victims that could be addressed. Things like helping victims understand the criminal justice system (and) what the processes are.”

Allan Kerpan and his wife were fortunate to have a strong knowledge of the justice system, and were given regular updates from the crown prosecutor working the case. However, he acknowledges that’s not the same for every family. His biggest concern is the affects these deaths have on first responders, and, like Jones, he’s hopeful the report can lead to improvements and healing for victims who are falling through the cracks.

“They did a lot of work (on this report) and I think that all agencies, not just government agencies, … I would hope that they look at this and realize that some of the needs of victims are not being met to the full extent,” he said.

“In terms of prevention programs and in terms of gaps and services for victims and understanding the criminal justice system, I think there’s some very difficult things to do,” Jones added. “But, there’s also some fairly easy pickings (with) initiatives that could be brought forward to lessen the negative experience on the part of these people.”

CSKA is a non-profit organization founded in 2015 to assist governments and other groups in designing, developing and implementing new and effective models or approaches to community safety.

For a complete copy of the report, visit www.cskacanada.ca/news.

Optimism unchanged among Saskatchewan business owners

Jason Kerr
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Optimism unchanged among Saskatchewan business owners

Small business optimism in Saskatchewan is relatively unchanged according to the latest numbers from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB).

Figures from the organization’s monthly business barometer were released on Thursday. They show the province with an index of 58.5 in September, which is slightly above last month’s index of 57.9 in August but well above the 50.9 registered in Sept. 2017.

CFIB chief economist Ted Mallett said there’s still a lot of uncertainly among business owners on the prairies, who are still cautious following the drop in commodity prices four years ago.

“There’s still a long way to go before we get back to where optimism was back in 2011 through 2014, when readings above 70 were really common,” Mallett explained. “Now we really haven’t been above 60 for, really, only once over the past two years now. Those are the kinds of things that show there’s still a lot of recovery that has to take place in Saskatchewan.”

Nationally, Quebec business owners overtook their Prince Edward Island counterparts as the most optimistic in the country. Confidence in la belle province jumped to 74.5 in September, a 2.7 index increase from August. Ontario saw the biggest overall gain, jumping from 57.6 points in August to 61.2 points in September. Alberta remained the least optimistic province with an index of 54.8, followed by British Columbia (55.9) and Newfoundland and Labrador (56.3).

With a few exceptions, the national optimism index saw little change nation-wide. Mallett said uncertainty surrounding the international markets, particularly the future of NAFTA, may be contributing to that lack of growth.

“We still have NAFTA uncertainty. We still have commodity prices more or less where they were through the summer. No big surprises with the dollar or inflation rates policy, so we’re not really that surprised that there hasn’t been much movement,” he said. “I think most businesses are waiting to see how some of the major policy issues will play out and I think NAFTA is the number one concern right now for businesses.”

Saskatchewan businesses owners listed “insufficient domestic demand” as their main operating challenge (51 per cent). A shortage of skilled labour was the second biggest hurdle, while management skills and time constraints came in third. Roughly 13 per cent of Saskatchewan businesses said they play to increase their number of full-time employees, while 15 per cent said they planned to decrease the number of workers.

Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce CEO Elise Hildebrandt said some local businesses have to travel further afield for work than they would like, but otherwise they’re content with the current climate.

“It’s holding steady,” Hildebrandt wrote in an email. “As a Chamber, we are happy with steady. We always want our businesses to succeed. As to the future, at the moment our comments are ‘let’s see how things go.’”

Rancourt moves back to Social Services Critic as NDP shuffles shadow cabinet

Jason Kerr
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Rancourt moves back to Social Services Critic as NDP shuffles shadow cabinet

Prince Albert Northcote MLA Nicole Rancourt is back in a familiar spot.

NDP leader Ryan Meili shuffled his shadow cabinet on Tuesday, returning Rancourt to her old role as Critic for Social Services. The Prince Albert MLA will also take on critic portfolio positions for Housing, Community-Based Organizations and SGI.

Rancourt said she’s pleased to be back in her old role, especially since it comes with the housing portfolio, which she called a good fit.

She said increasing housing starts and pushing the province to hire more social workers will be her two biggest priorities as she takes on those responsibilities.

“I know those (social) workers really do want to work with these families and ensure that they’re getting all the services that they need, but right now their caseloads are too high and family members and children are falling through the cracks,” Rancourt explained. “We need to make sure recruitment is top notch and that caseload management is reviewed.”

Rancourt said she wants the provincial government to conduct a review of current caseload standards and practices. She’s hopeful there will be some movement on the file sooner rather than later, but added it is difficult to set a hard deadline.

In August, the Ministry of Social Services budget forecast estimated a $20 million increase in expenses largely due to increased caseloads in Child and Family Services. According to Social Services Minister Paul Merriman, in-home services and emergency calls, where a social worker provides care to children in crisis alongside first responders, are responsible for those spending increases.

Prior to that, the government increased spending by more than $12 million for Child and Family Programs in 2018-19. That list includes costs for things like extended family care, foster care arrangements, and assisted adoption and youth services programs, among others. However, it also cut funding to programs like the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement, which stopped taking new applications in July, and work readiness programs designed to move residents from social assistance to the job force.

“You see more and more families struggling and case loads getting higher and higher, with social services employees … not being able to meet the needs of these families,” Rancourt explained.

Rancourt said she also plans on keeping an eye on housing starts and the need for more affordable housing. According to an August report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Saskatchewan had Canada’s second-largest drop-off in year-over-year housing starts. Only Prince Edward Island was lower. In total, year-over-year housing starts dropped by 12 per cent across the country.

The Prince Albert Northcote MLA wasn’t he only critic caught up in the critic portfolio shuffle. Newly elected Regina Northeast MLA Yens Pedersen takes on the Agriculture, Environment and Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation critic portfolios while Danielle Chartier takes on Mental Health and Addictions. Vicki Mowat is the NDP’s new Health Critic while Trent Wotherspoon will serve as the new Finance Critic.

Lawyers present arguments in courtesy flagpole lawsuit

Jason Kerr
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Lawyers present arguments in courtesy flagpole lawsuit

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article contained an inaccurately transcribed quote. JCCF lawyer Marty Moore is incorrectly quoted as saying “the court should find that freedom of expression has been provided in this case without justification.” The correct quote is “the court should find that freedom of expression has been violated in this case without justification.” The Daily Herald apologizes for the error.

Lawyers for a local pro-life advocacy group have argued that the City of Prince Albert gave insufficient reasons for refusing to fly a Celebrate Life Week flag back in May.

Attorneys from Prince Albert Right to Life and the City of Prince Albert gave their arguments as the case over the city’s decision to stop flying the flag at the Memorial Square courtesy flagpole were heard on Tuesday.

Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) lawyer Marty Moore made arguments on behalf of PA Right to Life. Moore argued that there is no doubt the city has the right to restrict certain flags from flying. However, he argued there is doubt as to whether city bylaws were properly applied.

“We believe that the city needs to follow the rule of law when making decisions that affect charter freedoms,” Moore said during a media scrum on the steps of the Court of Queens Bench. “Part of the rule of law is that it provide reasons that are intelligible, transparent and can be reviewed by a court. In this case there were insufficient reasons provided, and the court should find that freedom of expression has been violated in this case without justification.”

Moore’s main argument hinges on a text message sent by Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne to a PA Right to Life member. After calling to notify the group that a there flag would not be flown because it was not a “national” flag, and as such violated the city’s courtesy flagpole policy, the Right to Life member sent a text asking for clarification about what constituted a national flag.

According to documents filed by Moore, Dionne texted back saying the flag should be flown in cities around Canada. When the member asked if this was in city bylaws, Dionne sent a text back saying this was his office trying to work through the issue and find a solution.

Moore argued that PA Right to Life heard nothing further from the Mayor until stories about the decision started appearing in local media. He said quotes attributed to Dionne showed the city was uncomfortable with the content on the flag, and not whether it was a national or local design.

Moore called the city’s handling of the flag application “irresponsible,” and argued that PA Right to Life did not receive any further instruction about their application, or further reasons for why their flag needed to be a national flag.

Moore also pointed out that the Celebrate Life Week flag had flown every year since 2007, and called the design, which features a cartoon fetus named Umberto, an “entirely positive and friendly” message.

“Citizens deserve respect from the government, and when the government makes decisions infringing on the fundamental charter rights and freedoms, all citizens deserve transparent reasons to determine the basis on which those infringements are made,” Moore said. “The court then should be able to review that.”

Acting city solicitor Mitch Holash made arguments on behalf of the City of Prince Albert. Holash argued it was unfair and inaccurate to put the blame on Dionne, since he was acting based on direction from city council and from the Director of Community Services, who is responsible for enforcing the flag policy.

Holash said it’s incorrect to argue the Mayor is “the boss” of the Community Services Department, since he is oversees the city solicitor, city manager and city clerk. The Director of Community Services reports to the city manager.

“The mayor was alerted to that controversy in council chambers and council asked him to try to work out a solution and that solution wasn’t reached, so the flag didn’t fly” Holash said afterwards. “Interestingly, the flag was never submitted, it would appear, to the city and that is a requirement before there’s any entitlement to fly the flag.”

Holash argued that the city had never formally denied that PA Right to Life could fly a flag since the group never provided an alternative design for consideration. He said the burden of continuing the talks fell to them, and not to the city, who had no choice but to not fly the flag once the lines of communication closed. Because they had never been formally denied, Holash argued the court had no jurisdiction to rule on the case. He also argued that any quotes from Dionne that appeared in media reports were not reliable and should be considered hearsay. Moore countered that Holash’s argument about formal denial amounted to a “distinction without a difference.”

Holash also stressed that the city had no official position on abortion, but had a duty to not fly flags that were controversial or offensive. He said members of city council had received enough negative correspondence about the flag to indicate that it was too controversial to fly.

“In this case there were expressions of controversy with respect to the flag,” he said. “While the mayor was charged by city council to try to find a way to resolve that particular issue to allow some type of flag to fly in support of this particular cause, that resolution wasn’t achievable. The city feels that it made reasonable efforts to accommodate this group, as it does all groups.”

The presiding judge reserved ruling on the case until a later date. There is no set timetable for when a decision will come down.

Legionnaires hold off Mintos for 2-1 victory

Jason Kerr
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Legionnaires hold off Mintos for 2-1 victory

The Swift Current Legionnaires got all the offence they needed in the first period to defeat the Prince Albert Mintos.

Goals from Boston Bird and Jaxon Martens propelled the Legionnaires to a 2-1 win over the Mintos on Sunday, while goalie Jacob Herman made 24 saves to earn the victory. Ethan Ironside had the lone goal for the Mintos, while Spencer Welke stopped 25 shots in a losing cause.

Afterwards, Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said his team started too slow and struggled to make up that lost ground.

“It’s kind of a learning thing, as far as getting ready to play the game and be ready to go right from the beginning,” he said. “We came out with a tendency to wait and see what they were like…. Then it’s 2-0 before everybody got going. I thought in the second and third we were pretty good, working hard. I think we had some chances. We just couldn’t score.”

Bird opened the scoring for the visitors with six minutes left in the first period. The Legionnaire forward took a beautiful cross-ice feed from Reed Jacobson and fired it passed a sprawling Welke to make it 1-0.

Swift Current added to their lead two-and-a-half minutes later when Martens fired a low wrist shot that snuck into the Minto goal.

After a scoreless second period, Ironside brought the Mintos within one on a fantastic individual effort on the power play. Morrison and the coaching staff have been urging Ironside to get more aggressive in front of the net, so Saturday’s goal was a welcome sign.

“Before he would come down and try to beat a guy one-on-one, like stickhandle through his legs. He’s learning now,” Morrison explained. “I’m glad to see him score like that because we’ve been telling him to do that. He did it and it was a good goal.”

The third period turned into a special teams battle following a flurry of penalties, including a game misconduct to Ironside for checking from behind. However, Welke and Herman kept shooters from both clubs silent, allowing Swift Current to escape with the victory.

The Mintos are back in action on Friday for a rematch in Moose Jaw with the Generals, who they defeated 6-3 in their home opener. Prince Albert’s next home game comes on Wednesday Oct. 3 against the Saskatoon Blazers. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.

Two boys injured in ATV accident on Muskoday First Nation

Jason Kerr
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Two boys injured in ATV accident on Muskoday First Nation

A 9-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy are in stable condition following an ATV accident on Muskoday First Nation.

Parkland Ambulance paramedics were called to the scene on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 12:30 p.m. after a collision between a car and an ATV. Both boys were taken to Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert with serious injuries.

As of Sunday afternoon, the 13-year-old was still in Prince Albert in good and stable condition. The 9-year-old was eventually transferred to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. His condition is still classified as serious but stable.

Paramedics also tended to a second ATV accident on Saturday, this one in the Christopher Lake area. A 34-year-old man was injured and taken to hospital. His condition is listed as good and stable.

Parkland Ambulance is reminding ATV drivers to wear proper protective gear and avoid driving on public roads.

Raiders sweep home-and-home with Pats

Jason Kerr
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Raiders sweep home-and-home with Pats

For the first time since 2014, the Prince Albert Raiders are undefeated after the WHL’s opening weekend.

Cole Fonstad had two goals and Ian Scott turned aside 27 shots as the Raiders downed the Regina Pats 3-1 to sweep the home-and-home series.

Brett Leason had the other goal for the Raiders, who gave up a first period lead, but overwhelmed the Pats as the game wore on.

“We’re happy with it obviously but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,” Raiders coach Marc Habscheid said afterwards. “We consider ourselves confident, but we’re not arrogant. We’re 2-0. That’s great. But there are no trophies for 2-0.”

The Raiders got some good news before the puck even dropped on Saturday. Parker Kelly’s flight touched down in Regina late in the afternoon, allowing him to get to the rink just as warm-ups were about to start. Kelly had been in training camp with the Ottawa Senators, but twin tornados in the nation’s capital delayed his departure.

With Kelly in the line-up, the Raiders looked to pick up where they left off on Friday, but it was déjà vu for the Pats instead.

Aaron Hyman scored Regina’s first goal of the game for the second straight night, cutting in close and firing a quick shot into the top right corner. The Pats led 1-0 at the first intermission, but the Raiders tied things up halfway through the second period.

Fonstad took a cross-crease feed from Spencer Moe and slid it underneath a sprawling Max Paddock, making it 1-1.

The Pats had a chance to retake the lead after Justin Nachbauer received a five minute major for cross-checking and a game misconduct following a post-whistle scrum. However, the hosts rarely threatened during the power play, while the Raiders surged.

Habscheid said killing the major off was the key that helped turn the momentum in favour of the Raiders, but he remained unimpressed with the call.

“It wasn’t a cross-check,” he said afterwards. “(Nachbauer) hit him in the chest. We feel confident that nothing should happen…. It was a retaliatory penalty, which shouldn’t happen, but at the same time, the kid snapped his head back. It was not a major.”

The Raiders took the lead for good with less than three minutes to go in the second period. Fonstad added his second of the night, finishing off a crisp passing play from Leason and Kody McDonald.

Prince Albert had a chance to add to their lead when Regina’s Nick Henry went off for holding early in the third. Habscheid said the play was an obvious slew foot on Raiders captain Brayden Pachal, who remained in the game despite crashing into the boards feet first.

“That’s a horrible play,” Habscheid said. “Those are the plays you’re trying to get out of the league. Guys going back and slew footing them, that’s where guys can break their legs and end careers. Hopefully the league will look after that.”

The Raiders were unable to score on that power play, but did light the lamp a few minutes later. Leason scored his second of the season, with assists to Fonstad and Sergei Sapego, giving Prince Albert a 3-1 lead.

That was enough for the victory, and an early share of first place in the WHL’s East Division.

“The positive thing was we didn’t have our ‘A’ game, but we found a way to win,” Habscheid said. “But, we can get better. That’s for sure.”

The Prince Albert Raiders are off until Friday, Sept. 28 when they welcome the Medicine Hat Tigers to the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drop is 7 p.m.

Post-Game Notes

Saturday’s road win over the Pats was the first for the Raiders in Regina in seven attempts, as their last triumph came on Sept. 23, 2016.

Goaltender Curtis Meger, defenceman Lane Kirk and forward Nikita Krivokrasov did not dress for the Raiders, while blueliner Konrad Belcourt was a late scratch after Kelly’s arrival in Regina.

Among those not in the Pats lineup were goaltender Kyle Dumba, defencemen Steven Zonneveld, Brady Pouteau and Parker Gavlas, in addition to forwards Carter Massier, Cole Dubinsky and Riley Krane.

Potential Pats overage blueliner Cale Fleury was reassigned by the Montreal Canadiens to their American Hockey League affiliate in Laval, Que. earlier in the day.

After attending the Senators rookie camp earlier this month, former Raiders forward Jordy Stallard is among those trying out for a spot with Ottawa’s AHL affiliate in Belleville, Ont.

Saturday Scores

  • Brandon 4 Moose Jaw 2 (Jiri Patera – 28 Saves)
  • Saskatoon 8 Swift Current 0 (Kirby Dach – Three Goals and Two Assists)
  • Edmonton 4 Red Deer 1 (Dylan Myskiw – 28 Saves in Oil Kings Debut)
  • Kootenay 5 Calgary 3 (Connor McClennon – First Two WHL Goals)
  • Seattle 5 Portland 3 (Zack Andrusiak – One Goal and Two Assists)
  • Lethbridge 4 Medicine Hat 2 (Reece Klassen – 27 Saves)
  • Kamloops 3 Kelowna 1 (Dylan Ferguson – 39 Saves)
  • Victoria 5 Prince George 1 (Ralph Jarratt – One Goal and One Assist)
  • Vancouver 3 Everett 1 (Dylan Plouffe – Two Assists)
  • Tri-City 6 Spokane 1 (Nolan Yaremko – Two Goals and Two Assists)

Sunday’s Schedule

  • Portland vs. Everett – 5:05 p.m.

— With files from Lucas Punkari

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