By Darren Steinke
Stanks On Sports
Maybe the Prince Albert Raiders really did need a new main voice behind the bench.
On March 10, the Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt relieved head coach Jeff Truitt, 59, of his duties. Ryan McDonald, 37, was promoted from assistant coach to interim head coach.
At the time of those moves, the Raiders were sitting first in the WHL’s East Division with a 34-22-5-1 record. They had a one standings point lead over the Brandon Wheat Kings and Saskatoon Blades.
During the final six games where Truitt served as the Raiders head coach, they posted a 1-3-2 record including dropping both ends of a home-and-home series to the archrival Blades in regulation. It seemed like the Raiders were repeating a trend from the previous campaign, where they went 2-9 over their last 11 games including action in the regular season and the WHL Playoffs. It is possible that parallelism was one of the factors that went into Hunt’s decision to make a move.
Hunt told Nathan Reiter of the Daily Herald that he made the decision because he thought a new voice was needed in the dressing room. The Raiders got a preview of what things would look like with a new main voice behind the bench during their first 15 games after coming back from their Christmas break.
Over that time, McDonald served as interim head coach as Truitt was on medical leave for eye surgery. During those 15 games, the Raiders posted a 10-4-0-1 mark and had played really good.
The Raiders also added 20-year-old right-winger Rilen Kovacevic, 19-year-old defenceman Matteo Fabrizi and rearguard Linden Burrett, who turned 19-years-old in early February, via trades during the first seven games of that stretch. During McDonald’s final eight games as interim head coach, the Raiders were moving on with a new tinkered identity with the additions.
When Truitt returned, there would have been another adjustment when he retook the role of head coach. The Raiders kept rolling when Truitt returned until the slide during his final six games behind the bench.
With the experience of that 15 game run right after the Christmas break, Hunt had an actual idea of what things looked like when Truitt wasn’t behind the bench and McDonald was running the show.
Since making the coaching change, the Raiders traveled to Lethbridge on Wednesday, March 12, held leads of 2-0 and 3-2, but fell to the host Hurricanes 5-3. On Friday, the Raiders went to Red Deer, fell behind 3-1 and rallied for a 4-3 overtime victory over the host Rebels. Star centre Aiden Oiring scored a hat trick including the winner in overtime.
On Saturday, the Raiders ventured to Edmonton for their latest WHL regular season clash to play the host Oil Kings before 12,142 spectators at Rogers Place. Riding a 32 save performance from star 20-year-old netminder Max Hildebrand, the Raiders posted a 4-1 victory for their second straight win.
While the sample sizes are small, it is appearing Hunt might be right in that a new main voice was needed behind the bench.
Entering play on Tuesday, the Raiders sported a 36-23-5-1 mark and were sitting one standings point behind the Wheat Kings (36-22-4-3) and Blades (36-22-3-4) for first in the East Division. All three squads have three games remaining on their respective regular season schedules.
If the Raiders get their expected home win over the Moose Jaw Warriors (14-43-6-2) on Tuesday night, they will be in first place for one night. The Wheat Kings and Blades go head-to-head on Wednesday night in Brandon, so the winner of that clash will be sitting alone in first place in the East Division after that night.
If the Raiders win out, the potential is there for them to take top spot in the division.
Still, it is tough to see Truitt go. He is one of the true good guys in hockey with a decorated coaching resume. He joined the Raiders for the start of the 2018-19 campaign as an assistant coach after Dave Manson left to join the professional ranks.
Truitt helped the Raiders win their second WHL title in that special 2018-19 campaign. He was promoted to head coach at the start of the 2022-23 campaign and posted a 93-91-10-4 record as Raiders head coach as the squad went through a reload.
The reality is the business of sports is tough. In sports and especially the hockey world, there are a lot of good guys trying to do the best they can, and that is all anyone can do at the end of the day.
When a sure thing wasn’t in 2005
It was an ultimate example of the cliché, “That is why they play the games.”
On Saturday, March 19, 2005, it was the second last day of the regular season for the WHL’s 2004-05 campaign. The Wheat Kings held a two standings point lead for first place in the Eastern Conference over the Medicine Hat Tigers, and both squads were playing their final regular season contests that day.
Medicine Hat claimed the season series over Brandon collecting three wins and an overtime loss in five head-to-head encounters. If both teams ended up tied for first in the standings, they would both have 45 wins and 96 standings points, but the Tigers would have the tiebreaker due to winning the season series.
The Tigers were hosting the Swift Current Broncos, who had been eliminated from playoff contention and had a record of 22 wins, 40 losses, six ties and three overtime losses going into that contest. The Wheat Kings traveled to Regina to face the Pats, who had a record of 11 wins, 49 losses, four ties and six overtime losses going into that encounter. The Pats were locked into finishing last in the entire WHL.
For their game with the Pats at the rink then known as the Agridome, the Wheat Kings started star rookie netminder Tyler Plante and dressed almost all their stars including Eric Fehr, Ryan Stone, Lance Monych, and Steven Later. Tim Konsorada was the main big name that didn’t play for the Wheat Kings that day.
The Tigers thought the chances the Wheat Kings would lose to the Pats were very slim and elected to healthy scratch a number of their top players against the Broncos to give them an extra day of rest leading to the WHL Playoffs. The scratches included Clarke MacArthur, Cam Barker, Derek Dorsett, Jarret Lukin and Cody Blanshan.
Medicine Hat had two star goalies in Kevin Nastiuk and Matt Keetley. However for this last regular season game, associate player call up Blaine Neufeld, who was in his 17-year-old season, saw his first ever WHL action making his first start net for the Tigers before a sellout crowd of 4,006 spectators at The Arena.
The clash between the Wheat Kings and Pats had an earlier start time. After the Tigers and Broncos completed warm-ups, word spread that the Pats had jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the second period over the Wheat Kings.
All of a sudden, it appeared the clash between the Tigers and Broncos wasn’t going to be a write off. Still, the Tigers at that point in time had to hit the ice with the roster they committed to.
Thankfully for the Tigers, they had good depth. Defenceman Kris Russell, who was playing in his sophomore 17-year-old season, scored his 26th goal of the campaign to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the first.
Utility player Kieran Block pushed the Tigers edge out to 2-0 at the 5:36 mark of the second. Before the second ended, right-winger Josh Aspenlind replied for the Broncos to trim the Tigers edge to 2-1 going into the second intermission.
During the second intermission, word came out the Pats had beaten the visiting Wheat Kings 5-3. First place in the Eastern Conference was officially up for grabs.
The Tigers controlled the third period of their clash with the Broncos holding a 14-1 edge in shots on goal to preserve the 2-1 victory to take first in the Eastern Conference. Neufeld made 16 saves to pick up his first WHL win.
Medicine Hat finished the regular season with 45 wins, 21 losses, four ties and two overtime losses. Brandon posted a mark of 45 wins, 21 losses, five ties and one overtime loss.
If anyone is penciling in for sure victories during the final week of the current WHL regular season, all one has to do is look back at the Tigers and Wheat Kings at the end of the 2004-05 campaign to remember there are no sure things.
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.
