It wasn’t exactly the way the Prince Albert Raiders would have drawn it up, but a 4-3 shootout win over the Regina Pats at the Art Hauser Centre on Tuesday night punched their ticket to the 2025 WHL Playoffs .
Prince Albert held a 3-0 lead through forty minutes, but the Pats were able to erase the deficit in the third period.
Raider head coach Jeff Truitt says the Raiders need to do more when it comes to closing games out.
“They dug in more than we did. They got some opportunities that I’d like to see us tighten up. It’s a situation where we have to be able to lock things down. They came back on us. In overtime, we really didn’t have much about possession. The shootout, Hilty stood big for us. Different parts of the game, different guys responded. We’re not satisfied, we’ve got one goal over with and there’s another one coming that we need to get.”
Justice Christensen’s 22nd goal of the season at the 10:05 mark of the first period would get the Raiders on the board first. Niall Crocker had the lone assist on the play.
Shots after the first period favoured Regina 13-6.
Until Tuesday night, it was statistically more likely to be struck by lightning than for Vojtech Vochvest to score a WHL goal. That all changed just 0:26 into the middle frame as the Czech defenceman threw a puck on net from the left point that found a way through Kelton Pyne for his first WHL goal. The goal was of the unassisted variety.
Vochvest had not scored in 120 career WHL games prior to Tuesday night split between the last two seasons with the Kamloops Blazers, Prince George Cougars and Prince Albert Raiders.
Truitt says the entire bench was thrilled to see him score the goal.
“I think he was surprised when he got it, but the bench was absolutely thrilled for him. We all were congratulating him after the game. It’s tremendous for a defensive defenseman that doesn’t get a lot of points and doesn’t get a lot of notoriety. He’s underrated, I think in this league he plays so well consistently every night. It’s great to see him get one.”
Vochvest says it felt great to get the monkey off his back.
“It felt amazing, it’s 120 games without a goal or something. It felt really amazing in front of the fans, so it was a really great moment.”
Niall Crocker would extend the Raider lead to three at the 5:38 mark. After a Justice Christensen shot went off the back glass, the rebound would come towards Crocker who batted the puck out of mid-air and off the back of Pyne and in for his 25th goal of the season.
Zach Moore would get the Pats on the board at the 4:37 mark with his 11th goal of the season coming off a redirect in front. Ephram McNutt and Jace Egland assisted on the play.
Matt Paranych would cut the Raider lead to one with his sixth goal of the season at the 10:31 mark. Kristian Lacelle and McNutt assisted on the play.
Julien Maze would knot the score up at 3-3 with his 11th goal of the season with just 40 seconds to go.
After overtime would solve nothing, the two teams would head into a shootout. Max Hildebrand would stand tall stopping all three Regina shooters while Tomas Mrsic had the winner for the Raiders.
With the win, the Raiders have officially clinched their spot in the 2025 WHL Playoffs. Truitt says Prince Albert is happy to reach that milestone, but still has work to do down the stretch.
“We’re real proud of the group. This middle part of the season (from) end of October, November, December, January, this team worked hard. We’ve got the points that we needed in order to qualify. This is short-lived. We’ve got work to do, and we know it.”
The Raiders return to action on Friday night when they welcome the Saskatoon Blades to the Art Hauser Centre. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
