March 6 vs Saskatoon
IT’S TIME…RAIDER REVIEW: The Prince Albert Raiders will be playing their 69th contest of the season tonight as they take on their rival Saskatoon Blades in their first game since January 3rd…The Raiders will take on the Blades in 3 of their final 4 games of the regular season…The Raiders are coming off a huge 2-1 shootout win over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday night as they snapped a 13 game winless streak against the Wheaties…The Raiders outshot Brandon 46-31 in the contest as they put a season high 25 shots on net in the second period…Justin Bernhardt opened the scoring for the Raiders at the 16:36 mark of the second period while on the PP for his 33rd goal of the season with Nathan Deck and Jordan Rowley picking up assists…The Raiders would hold onto that 1-0 lead until the 10:12 mark of the third period as Brandon put one past Steven Stanford while on a two minute, 5 on 3…Andrew Hayes was brilliant in net for the Wheat Kings as both teams exchanged great scoring chances in the third and through the extra frame…Stanford shut the door on the Wheat Kings in the shootout as he stopped Calvert, Schenn and Clark while rookie, Ryan Harrison scored the lone goal for the Raiders as they moved up in an 8th place tie with the Edmonton Oil Kings for that final playoff spot…The Raiders improved to 29-34-4-1 on the season and the win stopped a 4 game losing streak on home ice which was needed as 3 of the next 4 contests are at the Art Hauser Centre…The Raiders are 4-5-1-0 in their past ten contests and will be looking for a big two points tonight.
SPECIAL TEAMS: The Raiders powerplay executed well on Wednesday night as they went 1 for 5…The Raiders are 67/304 (22.0%) with six shorthanded markers against which ranks them 6th in the league…The penalty kill has had its ups and downs and was 2 for 3 against Brandon…They are 250/321 (77.9%) with four shorthanded goals which ranks them 16th in the WHL while down a man.
UPCOMING GAMES: The Raiders will play host to the Regina Pats on Wednesday night before concluding the regular season in a home-and-home with the Saskatoon Blades…The Raiders will host the Blades a week from tonight and then the Raiders will take to the road next Saturday as they face-off at the Credit Union Centre…With the playoffs on the line, expect this heated rival to hit new levels over the next week.
VS. THE BLADES: This is the sixth of eight meetings between the Raiders and Blades this season…The two teams met in a season opening home-and-home series where the Raiders beat the Blades 8-2 in the first game of the campaign…The Blades would come back the following night and take a 1-0 goaltender showdown as Steven Stanford let in the lone goal on 37 shots against…The Raiders skated to a 3-1 loss to the Blades on November 28th in Saskatoon…Prince Albert played strong on December 27th with a 5-3 victory…Cameron had two goals against his former team including the game winner…On January 3rd the Raiders would take the season series lead by beating the Blades at the CUC in a wild 5-4 shootout win…The Raiders erased two goal deficits in the second and third to force the shootout where Cameron would score the lone goal in four rounds for the winner…Cameron leads the Raiders against his former team with 3 goals and 2 assists while Bernhardt and McDonald have each chipped in with 4 points…The Raiders have the edge with a 25-22-2-1 record versus the Blades over the last five seasons…The Raiders have been successful at home against the Blades with a 15-8-1-1 record.
INJURY REPORT: Dustin Cameron – Ankle (week to week)
RAIDER REPORT: Ryan Harrison has been clutch in his rookie season as he has one game winner in regulation, two overtime winners and Wednesday night’s shootout winner…He has been productive since returning from injury as he has 8 points in 8 games…James Dobrowolski skated on the top line against Brandon as he has 5 points in his last 4 games after recording his first WHL hat-trick last week in Kootenay…Bernhardt continues to lead the Raiders as he now has 85 points this season, smashing his previous season high of 57 points…He sits 5th in league scoring as he is on pace for the highest points total in the past 12 seasons as Seth Leonard had 90 in 2003-04…He is also on pace to be the 2nd Raider in the top ten of league scoring since Jeff Neilson was 6th with 113 points in 1991-92…Revenko has been a scoring machine in the season’s second half as he has 9 goals since Christmas compared to his 2 goals prior to the break…Jordan Rowley is one assist shy of 50 in his career while Stanford is one win away from 25 in his career…Cameron(33), Bernhardt(33) and McDonald(33) are 15th, 16th and 17th in WHL goal scoring, the first time since 1998-99 the Raiders have had 3 players with over 30 goals in a season…Zemlak is 1-1 against the Blades this season with a 2.52 GAA and a .933 save percentage while Stanford is 2-1 with a 2.61 GAA and a .931 save percentage…The Raiders have outscored their opponents 67-61 in the 1st period and 74-73 in the 2nd period but have been outscored 112-63 in the final frame…Prince Albert is 22-4-2-1 when leading after two periods and are 23-9-2-1 when scoring first…The green and gold are 21-5-2-0 when scoring 4 goals or more and 5-21-3-1 when allowing 4 goals or more…The Raiders are 15-17-2-0 against East Division teams this season.
