DUBNetwork Feature Game of the Night: Prince Albert Raiders vs Saskatoon Blades (1-0) 6:00pm MDT
With a day off between games one and two in the Eastern Conference semi-final between the Scotty Munro trophy winning Prince Albert Raiders and the Sasktoon Blades, the Blades will be hoping to bounce back from their 6-1 loss in Game 1.
The five-goal loss was the most lopsided defeat all season for the Blades.
Despite that, they have to feel like if they shore up defensively in front of goalie Nolan Maier, they have the ability to win the game and steal home-ice advantage.
Brett Leason was all over the Blades, netting three points and looking more like the early season version that torched the Blades for seven points in four games against them than the later season version that failed to find the score sheet in three games.
While Leason was expected to have an impact, Prince Albert getting the first career hat trick from overage forward Sean Montgomery was not. The strong two-way forward was overlooked and made Saskatoon’s defense pay dearly.
Ian Scott continues to be on point for the Raiders. In his five games played in the playoffs, he has allowed one or fewer goals three times. It has been a nice bounce back effort in the 2019 playoffs as he struggled at times in 2018 against Moose Jaw and put up a 3.25 GAA. His so far this time around is 1.60.
Max Gerlach, Kirby Dach and the other big guns for Saskatoon were held in check by Scott and the experienced Raiders blue line. They will need to start finding the net for the Blades to avoid going into a 0-2 hole.
Other games to watch:
Calgary Hitmen @ Edmonton Oil Kings (0-1) 4:00pm MDT
-Blowing a two-goal, third period lead will not be sitting right with the Hitmen. Look for them to come out strong to start Game 2.
Spokane Chiefs @ Everett Silvertips (1-0) 4:05pm PDT
-The perfect road record in the playoffs continued last night for Spokane. Everett’s fans can be calmed though in remembering that in the second round in 2018 they were overwhelmed by Portland before coming back and winning four straight.
