The final round of dress rehearsals for the Prince Albert Raiders has come to a close after a 4-3 overtime loss against the Saskatoon Blades in Warman on Saturday night to conclude the WHL preseason.
The Raiders finished the preseason with a 3-1-1 record, with their only two losses coming on the road away from the Art Hauser Centre.
Head coach Jeff Truitt says he was pleased by the overall results, but there were some things the Raiders will need to take with them into the regular season.
“Although you’re happy in some aspects, you know the work that’s got to be done leading into the regular season. Lessons to learn on structure and discipline. When we’re a disciplined team, good things happen. When we take ourselves out of the plays and teams are scoring on their power plays, that’s the difference. We had three or four power plays here in the first period. We don’t capitalize. They score on one, and then they score on the last one.”
The Raiders currently have five players away at NHL camps that will all play major roles for the team this season. Tomas Mrsic (St. Louis) and Lukas Dragicevic (Seattle) were both major offseason trade acquisitions. Norwin Panocha (Buffalo) was the team’s top import draft selection from the summer. Krzysztof Macias (Florida) and Niall Crocker (Ottawa) are expected to lead the Raider forward core this season as 20-year-olds.
With several positions on the team open for the taking during training camp, Truitt says he was pleased with the effort each player showed but difficult decisions will have to be made when the players at NHL camps return.
“You look in the room and you see 21 guys in there and then you have five guys away in camps and rosters aren’t that big. It’s a matter of are you ready types of situations. All good guys. It’s going to shake out. We’re in no hurry to do anything at this point in time. We’d have to wait for guys to come back from NHL camps, but that’ll be handled by Curtis (Hunt).”
Saturday was the second consecutive preseason game between the Raiders and Blades to require overtime. Prince Albert defeated Saskatoon 5-4 on Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre.
Although neither game means anything in the final regular season standings, Truitt says they were great for the Raiders to show what is needed to play in the WHL.
“I think it was huge because they saw the speed, they saw the battle, they saw the intensity that these two teams bring. That brings out the best in you, especially in a situation where you’re playing exhibition games. Do they mean anything in the standings? No, but do they mean anything to the front of our crest? Absolutely it does, and I think these guys saw that.”
The 2024-25 season opens for the Raiders on Friday night when they welcome the Regina Pats to the Art Hauser Centre.
Truitt says he is looking forward to getting the season underway.
“Everybody wants to get game one going, especially in our own building with our crowd. (You) usually start with divisional rivals and that’s what it’s going to be with Regina. They’re a good team that plays hard for 60 minutes and every team is going to be like this. There’s a lot of great teams in this league and there’s no easy nights.”
Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
