DUBNetwork Feature Game of the night: Saskatoon Blades @ Prince Albert Raiders 7 PM MDT
The Prince Albert Raiders will play host to their bitter rivals the Saskatoon Blades to open the second round of WHL Playoffs tonight in the prairies. You can watch the first three games of this series on Sportsnet or on WHL Live.
These teams have a storied playoff past, the most recent meeting coming in 2011 in the first round with Saskatoon winning the series in six games. Historically, their first meeting came all the way back in 1986, in total since then they’ve met five other times.
If the head-to-head regular season meetings give any indication, this should be a lengthy series with arguably two of the top teams in the league doing battle.
Look out for the big name players to play a big role in deciding this series, players like Brett Leason, Kirby Dach, Max Gerlach, and Noah Gregor could ultimately decide who wins the war.
In the full series preview, DUBNetwork’s Adam Ehrmantraut highlighted some storylines to watch.
- An important step for the Blades will be finding a way to win in the Art Hauser Centre, a venue that the Raiders have made into their fortress this season.
- Also highlighted was the way that the Raiders will deal with this potential adversity, obviously they’ve faced some in the regular season but did not face it in their first round sweep against the Red Deer Rebels.
The overall prediction from the contributors at DUBNetwork has the Raiders in seven games.
Other 2nd Round Action:
Victoria Royals @ Vancouver Giants (0-0) 7:30 PM PDT
- The Straight of Georgia series will have another episode in 2019, a rematch from Round 1 a season ago which Victoria won in seven games. This time around, the Vancouver Giants are favoured to win and also boast home ice advantage, something they did not have in their last attempt. It’s hard to tell what to expect in this series. In Round 1, Vancouver took six games to defeat the Thunderbirds something that wasn’t exactly foreseen to happen.
