Raiders Claim Conference First Seed by Blanking Blades Who Are Set in Sixth

Two things were made certain with the Prince Albert Raiders’ 4-0 victory over the visiting Saskatoon Blades Friday night.

P-A clinched first place in the W-H-L’s Eastern Conference with the win and home-ice advantage for the first three rounds of the playoffs. The Bridge City Bunch, meanwhile, will finish in sixth spot and will take on the Oil Kings in the opening round of the post-season, starting next Friday in Edmonton. The game was a chippy affair with two fights and nine of 11 minor penalties called for roughing. Braeden Cootes scored the only goal the 51-10-6 Raiders would need, opening the scoring on a power play. Prince Albert captain Justice Christensen tallied twice and assisted on the other Raiders’ goal by Riley Boychuk. P-A out-shot the Blue and Gold 35-16. It was the first regulation loss in six games in March for Saskatoon. The same teams meet Saturday in the final game of the regular-season for both clubs. It’s “Legends Night” and “Fan Appreciation Night” with more than 10,000 fans expected in attendance at SaskTel Centre. The Blades will unveil their Hall of Fame wall on the concourse, including new inductees Kelly Chase, Mark Wotton – both popular former players of the Blue and Gold – plus current Bridge City Bunch Associate General Manager Steve Hildebrand. Game time is 7 o’clock with CJWW’s broadcast starting at 6:45. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interview with head coach Dan Da Silva plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) PRINCE ALBERT PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2

PRINCE ALBERT Goals PRINCE ALBERT PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 7:57 PP  34-10 1st 14:16  23-17-7 7 10 17 21 23 4 20 41 77 88 2nd 13:36  7-23-10 7 10 17 21 23 4 9 11 26 37 3rd 5:22  7-34-24 7 10 24 28 34 17 20 41 47 77