Dave Leaderhouse
Herald Staff
A two-week layoff might have put some rust on the Prince Albert NAPA Raiders’ skates, but they shook it off in time for their Saskatchewan Hockey Association northern final with a pair of games on the weekend.
The Raiders will play Warman in the northern final and while that series has taken some time to get scheduled, Prince Albert hosted league-leading West Central in a pair of Centre-Four Hockey League Pee Wee Division contests. Friday’s game ended in a 4-4 draw while West Central prevailed 6-3 on Saturday, despite being outshot 45-22 by the Raiders.
NAPA, which will travel to Warman on Thursday for the first game of the two-game, total-goal match before hosting the finale on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Kinsmen Arena, is now 7-5-5 in league play following the weekend action against West Central.
Tanner Hendricks, Brayden Schneider, Dillon Saworski and Owen Ozar scored for the Raiders in the Friday game while Ethan Regnier, Ben Zultok and Hendricks tallied for NAPA in Saturday’s loss.
Prince Albert now embarks on a busy stretch as they host the Battlefords on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. at the Steuart Arena before travelling to Melfort on Sunday with the SHA playoff series against Warman bookending both of those league games.
Liteway Electric Raiders
It was a quiet week for the Liteway Electric Raiders with no Centre-Four Hockey League Midget Division games scheduled, but they get back to work this week with a pair of games on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Kinsmen Arena.
Liteway Electric, which has a 12-8-3 record and sits in third place in the league standings, will host Humboldt on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. and the North East Midgets on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The Raiders will then complete their regular schedule on Feb. 23 when they travel to Warman.
League playoffs will begin right after the regular schedule has been completed and Prince Albert will likely face Beardy’s or Watson in the opening two-game, total-goal series.
Venice House Raiders
The tailspin continues for the Venice House Raiders as they suffered a 10-2 setback to the North East Wolf Pack in Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League action last week.
The loss, Prince Albert’s eighth in the last nine games, drops their overall record to 12-12-0, good for fifth place in the North Division standings.
Reid Manson and Jake Hobson scored for Prince Albert in the loss to the Wolf Pack and the Raiders will have one final series of games to turn things around as they complete their regular schedule this weekend with games in the Battlefords on Friday and Saturday and Dodsland against West Central on Sunday.
League playoffs, which are combined with the SHA playoffs, will begin next week.
Prince Albert Icehawks
The last time the Prince Albert Icehawks won a game was back on Dec. 19 against the Delisle Chiefs.
Since then the Icehawks have lost 16 straight and are in the basement of the Prairie Junior Hockey League’s North Division standings with a 5-28-4 ledger.
The losing streak was extended on the weekend when Prince Albert lost 5-3 in Saskatoon on Friday to the Westleys and 7-1 in Zenon Park against the Tri-Town Thunder on Saturday.
Brett Boyer scored all of the goals on the weekend for the Icehawks giving the 18-year-old rookie 23 goals and 14 assists in 31 games. Lyndon Arcand assisted on three of the four goals and Tyler Gordon stopped 82 of 94 shots to raise those numbers to 1,014 saves on 1163 shots this year.
Those are three of the bright spots for the Icehawks, who this year has had to deal with injuries, absentia, departures and an assortment of other calamities.
The Icehawks have just three games remaining on the schedule including their final home game on Friday when they host Delisle. In an attempt to put the brakes on the losing skid, and to show the fans that they have a strong nucleus of rookie players eligible to come back next year, the Icehawks are hoping for a large crowd when the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at the Kinsmen Arena.
Several minor hockey teams will be guests of the Icehawks for that game with others welcome. Notification of their attendance should be done beforehand so that volunteers working the door will be prepared. If interested, contact Al Pasloski at 960-3117.
Following Friday’s game, the Icehawks will take to the road for games in Saskatoon against the Westley’s on Saturday and a make-up game in Fort Qu’Appelle on Sunday against Fort Knox.
