Prince Albert successfully navigates first down stretch
Darren Steinke
Stanks On Sports
All hockey teams during a course of a season will hit rough waters no matter what league they play in.
That includes teams having great, good, middle of the road or rebuilding seasons. Even for teams that are having great seasons, it is inevitable they will hit the wall at some point in time. All teams don’t want to hit the wall, but eventually a club will just come out flat no matter what anyone on that squad tries to do to prevent that from happening.
The Prince Albert Raiders, who lead the WHL’s East Division with a 19-4-4 mark, just hit one of those down stretches. They also ensured the down stretch didn’t last long. Actually, it has to be taken as a great accomplishment that the Raiders played into late November before hitting a wall.
The down stretch started seemingly out of the blue on November 29, when the Raiders were hosting the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Art Hauser Centre. With the teams locked in a 2-2 tie and 1:37 remaining on the clock, Raiders defenceman Linden Burrett went to clear the puck out of his own zone, and the puck deflected off the skate of Tigers centre Kadon McCann, flipped high in the air and deflected off the shoulder of Raiders star import netminder Michal Orsulak into the Prince Albert net.
That crazy bounce goal allowed the Tigers to pull out a 3-2 victory. That contest was evenly played, and anybody with the Raiders had to come away dumbfounded with the way the winning goal was scored. Basically, fate decided that the Raiders just weren’t going to win that game.
Both those teams would go at it again on December 3 at Co-op Place in Medicine Hat. In the contest, the Raiders for the first time all season really did hit the wall.
The Tigers built a 4-0 lead after the first period and were up 6-0 before Max Heise scored for the Raiders. Medicine Hat ultimately romped to a 7-1 victory.
The Tigers were great in that contest, but the Raiders were flat. The players on the Prince Albert side looked like they were running into a head wind, and the wind was so strong they weren’t able to get anywhere. Frustrations took over resulting in a number skirmishes that occurred when the game was out of hand.
That contest was the first of the Raiders playing four games in five nights on the road. After that drubbing in Medicine Hat, one watched to see how the Raiders would respond.
Two days later this past Friday in Calgary, the Raiders jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the host Hitmen. Calgary battled back over the next 40 minutes to rally for a 3-2 victory.
Overall, that game was well played by both sides where the Raiders held a 31-23 edge in shots on goal. Hitmen netminder Eric Tu proved to be the difference making some big saves.
However, the Raiders showed they moved past what happened in Medicine Hat, and they were back to playing like they had for most of the season. Now, one wondered when the Raiders would buck their losing streak that had now grown to three games.
They did that in impressive fashion going to Red Deer and downing the host Rebels on their “Teddy Bear Toss” night 7-3 holding a 43-18 edge in shots on goal. The Rebels got out of the first period holding a 2-1 lead, but the Raiders proceeded to roll off five straight goals to go up 6-2 and roll from there.
The Raiders closed the four games in five nights run last Sunday with a major test going into Edmonton to face the Eastern Conference leading Oil Kings. The Oil Kings were hosting their “Teddy Bear Toss” night and drew 16,887 spectators to Rogers Place.
The two sides proceeded to play a great game. In overtime, Raiders star defenceman Daxon Rudolph scored the winner on the power play giving the Raiders a 4-3 victory. That was the classic gutty road win for the Raiders, where it would have been easy to mail that one in with how much game action the team had played at that point in time.
One of the bonus bright spots over the last three games for Prince Albert has been the play of recently acquired 19-year-old left-winger Maddix McCagherty. On December 3, the Raiders sent a fourth round selection in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft and a sixth round pick in the 2027 Prospects Draft to the Wenatchee Wild for McCagherty. He has scored once in each of the past three games for the Raiders.
Over their past five games, the Raiders hit the wall for the first time this season and proceeded to break the wall down in relatively short order. Their losing skid was halted at three games.
Going forward, the Raiders still have to play the bulk of their schedule as they have 41 games still on their regular season schedule. Somewhere, they will likely hit the wall again.
When that happens, it would be wise to remember the big picture of the season and let the Raiders work themselves out of the rut and break the wall down again.
Rockets might be alright as Memorial Cup hosts
The Kelowna Rockets might have gotten a big assist from the NCAA, when it came to being hosts of the CHL Championship Tournament – the Memorial Cup.
The Rockets will host the upcoming CHL title tourney from May 22 to 31, 2026. When the Rockets were awarded the right to host the Memorial Cup back on November 27, 2024, it appeared the storied Kelowna side would face a major uphill battle to build a sound team to be the host club. In the 2024-25 campaign, the Rockets finished last in the WHL’s Western Conference and 20th among 22 clubs in the overall WHL standings with an 18-44-4-2 record.
The Medicine Hat Tigers also bid on the Memorial Cup and looked like they would be a better fit to be the host team. They had a roster that included stars Gavin McKenna, Cayden Lindstrom and Ryder Ritchie. They helped the Tigers finish second overall in the WHL in 2024-25 with a 47-17-3-1 mark and advanced on to win the WHL title.
When the Memorial Cup hosting rights were awarded, no one knew exactly how much the deck would be shuffled with players jumping to the NCAA Division I ranks for name, image and likeness money once the NCAA changed its rules to allow players from the CHL. I believe the jumps wouldn’t have happened in the numbers they did if it wasn’t for the promise of NIL money.
That saw McKenna jump to the Penn State University Nittany Lions, Lindstrom to the Michigan State University Spartans and Ritchie to the Boston University Terriers. Along with the other stars from the WHL that made the jump, it created an environment where the Rockets could bolster their roster and make strides forward.
Entering play on Tuesday, the Rockets sat seventh overall in the Western Conference with a 13-9-3-1 mark, and they have games in hand on nine teams in their conference. Their shining star is 19-year-old centre Tij Iginla, who has posted 13 goals, 14 assists and a plus-11 rating in the plus-minus department in 17 regular season outings.
Iginla is on the comeback trail after having surgery on both his hips. He has earned an invite as one of 27 players trying to make the final roster for Canada’s world junior team.
Since the end of last season, the Rockets have added standout veteran forwards Carson Wetsch and Shane Smith along with star defenceman Mazden Leslie via the trade route. They are also hoping rearguard Peyton Kettles will be a big add in a deal on October 30 with the Swift Current Broncos.
The Rockets were also able to bring in netminder Harrison Boettiger from Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and he has been sensational. In 12 games with the Rockets, Boettiger, who will turn 18-years-old on Thursday, has recorded a 6-3-1-1 record, a 2.39 goals against average and a . 923 save percentage. Boettiger was once a WHL U.S. Draft selection of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
On June 27, the Rockets hired WHL coaching icon Don Hay as an associate coach on a staff led by Derrick Martin as head coach. Hay, who holds the WHL record for career regular season head coaching wins at 752, has pretty much seen it all and still has lots of tread on the tires at age 71. His experience is invaluable to the Rockets.
It should be noted the Tigers still sit solidly in the top four of the WHL with a 19-6-3-2 mark. Still, the Rockets are proving to be better than most envisioned they would be about a year ago at this time.
Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer with more than 20 years of experience covering the WHL. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com.
