The Prince Albert Raiders have successfully climbed the mountain.
After starting the regular season 2-7-2-0 in their first 11 games, the Raiders captured the East Division title with a 4-3 win over the Saskatoon Blades in front of a boisterous crowd of 3,264 at the Art Hauser Centre on Saturday night.
A late power play goal by Lukas Dragicevic would be the difference for the Raiders. In a postgame interview, the Seattle Kraken prospect says Prince Albert had to dig in all season long and were able to take home the division banner.
“It’s unbelievable. Just the group that we have in there, you guys know what we’ve been through. We were almost last place in the CHL for a bit there and then we climbed back and now we’re division champions. Just the work we put in this year shows what kind of group we have and how much time and effort we put in every single day to claim that banner and nobody’s taking that away from us. We’re division champions in the Western Hockey League.”
Raider interim head coach Ryan McDonald says Prince Albert has been resilient all season long, a quality they needed against Saskatoon.
“(I’m) extremely proud of the group, just the way we continue to battle. We start off, we have a really good start, we bend a little bit in the first period there and I think we just continue to take the game over as it went on and really simplified and got pucks in behind and used our speed to create our chances.”
Saskatoon fired the opening salvo at the 11:56 mark as 16-year-old rookie Cooper Williams struck for the 21st time this season. David Lewandowski had the lone assist.
Harrison Lodewyk would get the Raiders on the board at the 18:56 mark of the opening frame as the 19-year-old centreman would take a drop pass from Oli Chenier and skate to the left circle before beating Evan Gardner with a wrist shot. Daxon Rudolph had the other assist.
Aiden Oiring would give Prince Albert their first lead of the contest at the 1:02 mark of the second period. After Brayden Dube would get the puck pokechecked off his stick, it would come to Oiring who wired home his 29th goal of the season. Tomas Mrsic had the lone helper.
Ty Meunier’s 14th goal of the season would double the Raider lead at the 11:18 mark. After he was stopped by Saskatoon Jack Kachkowski on a breakaway, Meunier would circle back and fire a shot through the legs of Kachkowski that beat Gardner. Ethan Bibeau had the assist.
Saskatoon would pull within one at the 16:19 mark of the middle frame as Hunter Laing would strike on the power play off a bouncing puck that fooled Hildebrand. Rowan Calvert and Tyler Parr assisted on the play.
Just seconds after a power play expired, Hayden Harsanyi would pull the Blades even at the 9:11 mark of the third period with his 12th goal of the season. Grayden Siepmann and Zach Olsen provided the helpers.
After a hooking call against Saskatoon’s Cooper Williams, the Raider power play would come up clutch. Lukas Dragicevic would blow the roof off the Art Hauser Centre wiring his 18th goal of the season past Gardner thanks to a screen from Niall Crocker and Saskatoon’s Rowan Calvert. Rudolph and Oiring provided the helpers.
Raider goaltender Max Hildebrand says the crowd reaction to the Dragicevic goal was something he will remember for a long time.
“When Drago scored, I’ve never seen this building that loud since I’ve been here. I’m sure it got that loud in 2019. But since I’ve been here, it’s never been that loud. I just can’t thank the fans enough for the support. The last couple years I’ve been here, they mean everything.”
The standing room only crowd was boisterous all night long and came to roar as the final seconds ticked off the clock. McDonald says the atmosphere was top notch all the way from puck drop.
“They’re absolutely tremendous. Our fans, they’re second to none. They’re the atmosphere here that can keep our guys going. Their passion is exactly how we play on the ice. As a Prince Albert born and raised young man, I’ve been coming to games for a lot of years and it never ceases to amaze me the support that we have.”
The Raiders kick off the WHL playoffs against the Edmonton Oil Kings next weekend. Games 1 and 2 will be hosted at the Art Hauser Centre on Friday and Saturday night. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
