Dave Leaderhouse
Herald Staff
The road, unfortunately, has come to an end for the Liteway Electric Raiders.
A 3-2 setback in Humboldt on Sunday eliminated the Raiders from the Saskatchewan Hockey Association midget division playoffs as the Broncos captured the two-game, total-goal series by a 7-4 margin.
Josh Elliot and Travis Filteau scored for the Raiders, but they needed to win by three goals to advance to the northern final against the North East Midgets. Prince Albert dropped the opening game against Humboldt 4-2 last week.
While the road for a provincial title has come to an end, the Raiders are still alive in the Centre-Four Hockey League as they improved their record to 10-8-3 with a 5-1 triumph over the Battlefords Barons on Friday.
Elliot led the attack in that game with two goals and two assists while Riley Dupre, Zach Hurd and Jack Green also scored. Green also collected a pair of helpers for a three-point outing.
Liteway Electric returns to action on Friday when they travel to Watson with their next home game scheduled for Sunday at 4:15 p.m. at the Steuart Arena when they will host Meadow Lake.
NAPA Raiders
The NAPA Raiders are on a break from Centre-Four Hockey League pee wee division action, but while they wait for their northern final against Warman in the SHA playoffs to begin, they travelled to Regina on the weekend for some tournament action to sharpen their skills.
The Raiders opened the tournament with a 2-1 win over Calgary, but were handed a 7-2 setback to Yorkton in their next outing. A 7-1 win over Regina put them into the playoff round, but a 6-5 overtime loss to Lumsden ended their run at a gold medal.
NAPA has no games scheduled for this week, but a previously postponed match against North Battleford could be made up if an appropriate date can be worked out.
Venice House Raiders
Braden Isbister had three goals to lead the Venice House Raiders to a 6-5 win over the Melville Millionaires and give Prince Albert a split in weekend Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League action.
Drew Warkentine also had a big game recording a goal and three assists with Chris Woods and Riley Sawchuk also scoring for Prince Albert. The Raiders dropped a 7-0 decision to Yorkton in their other outing on the weekend and a game against the North East Wolf Pack was postponed due to Thursday’s winter storm.
Prince Albert, which is 12-10-0 on the season, will be in Martensville on Saturday to face the Sask. Valley Vipers.
Prince Albert Icehawks
Its official! There will be no playoffs for the Prince Albert Icehawks this season.
A 4-2 loss to the West Central Rage on Friday officially eliminated Prince Albert from getting into the post-season for the first time in five years.
The loss, Prince Albert’s 10th in a row, leaves them 18 points behind the fifth-place Rage and with just nine games remaining on the schedule, the best the Icehawks can do is gain a tie. A 1-4 record in head-to-head tilts, however, ends even that slim possibility.
Like many games this year, the young Icehawks jumped into an early lead, but could not sustain the effort for 60 minutes. Parker Turner and Ryley Lajeunesse scored for Prince Albert by the 12-minute mark of the second period, but four unanswered goals over the remainder of the game gave West Central the victory.
Jayden Rieben made 44 saves in the Prince Albert net.
The Icehawks begin their final stretch of games for pride and possible positions on next year’s team on Wednesday when they host the Tri-Town Thunder at 7:30 p.m. at the Kinsmen Arena.
