Dave Leaderhouse
Herald Staff
The Prince Albert NAPA Raiders have moved one step closer to a return trip to the Saskatchewan Hockey Association Pee Wee Division provincial final after sweeping Warman in playoff action last week.
The Raiders, who beat Warman 3-1 and 2-1, are now waiting to face the Saskatoon Red Wings in the north final with dates for the matches in that two-game, total-goal series to be announced shortly.
Braeden Dirks, Owen Ozar and Tanner Hendricks scored for Prince Albert in the series-opening win over Warman while Ethan Regnier and Cody Lehner had the goals in the clinching victory.
The Raiders have also finished play in the Centre-Four Hockey League regular season and a pair of victories over Humboldt and North Battleford on the final weekend lifted their season record to 10-5-5.
The fourth-place Raiders will now face Humboldt in the opening round of the league playoffs, but dates have not been finalized for that series.
Venice House Raiders
The Prince Albert Venice House Raiders can salvage a somewhat disappointing season tonight when they face the Battlefords in the third and deciding game of their best-of-three opening round Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League playoff series.
Venice House, which lost 13 of its last 20 regular-season games to finish with a 13-14-0 record, blew a 4-0 lead in the opening game to fall 10-6, but they rebounded with a convincing 7-4 decision in the second contest.
Braden Isbister, with two goals, Josh McDougall, Riley Sawchuk, Mikhail Tait and Brendl Daniels scored for Prince Albert in the opening loss while Drew Warkentine, Connor Bear, Kyle Schneider, Jake Hobson, McDougall, Sawchuk and Isbister tallied in the series-evening victory.
The game tonight is in the Battlefords and should Prince Albert win they will get at least one more home game, likely next week with West Central being the opponent.
Liteway Electric Raiders
Liteway Electric has drawn Humboldt as their first-round opponent in the Centre-Four Hockey League Midget Division playoffs with the two-game, total-goal affair opening on Thursday in Humboldt and the finale scheduled for Saturday at 8:15 p.m. at the Kinsmen Arena.
The Raiders split their final two games – 5-2 victory over Humboldt and 7-2 loss to the North East Midgets – to finish in fourth place with a 10-13-3 record.
Travis Filteau led the Raiders’ attack with two goal in the win over Humboldt while Donovan Merasty, Logan Usselman and Josh Hopkins added singles. Josh Elliot and Blair MacFarlane were the lone goal scorers in the setback to North East.
