'What's next?' Riders' Armstead focused on showdown with Ottawa
19h ago
"I have a 'What's next?' mentality," said Ryquell Armstead, who faces his former team on Saturday.
The Saskatoon Blades had an eight-game winning streak snapped by the Prince Albert Raiders after a 3-1 defeat at the hands of its fiercest rival on Saturday.
A day after beating Prince Albert 3-2 in front of a season-high crowd of 9,188, the Blades traveled to Prince Albert to close out the 2018-19 regular season.
The Raiders were guided to the win with strong play in all situations. They built a 3-0 lead after getting a goal at even strength, one more on the power play and another while short-handed.
The short-handed goal was Prince Albert’s 23rd of the season. The next closest team this year had 13 short handed goals.
Overagers Sean Montgomery and Noah Gregor powered the Raiders lead, with Montgomery’s 29th goal of the season opening scoring before Gregor’s pair of goals secured a 3-0 lead heading into the third period.
Max Gerlach scored the lone goal for the Blades.
The Blades finish with a record of 45-15-8-0 and 98 points on the season. That’s good enough for fourth-best in the Western Hockey League (WHL) and the best overall record for the club since the 2010-11 season. It is also the seventh-best point total in the franchise’s 55-year history.
The Blades will open the 2019 WHL playoffs on home ice Friday at SaskTel Centre. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.