'What's next?' Riders' Armstead focused on showdown with Ottawa
Sep 26, 2024
"I have a 'What's next?' mentality," said Ryquell Armstead, who faces his former team on Saturday.
By Jeff D’Andrea
Prince Albert Raider fans allege they had beer and macaroni thrown at them at the SaskTel Centre during the team’s Game 4 meeting with the Saskatoon Blades.
Section N was mostly flooded by Raider fans, who travelled to the game by bus and sat together. They claim that macaroni, which was given to fans as a promotion, was hurled at them from the upper bowl with three minutes left in the third period. That was quickly followed by beer.
“I could feel something on the back of my neck, something really hard. We discovered it was macaroni later, but they were just pelting it down on us,” said Matt Herbert, a Raider fan who was in that section. “Next thing you know, I could feel some beer coming down my back. The guy beside me was soaked.
“I went up and told an usher and they’re like ‘well, why didn’t you report it?’ I said ‘it’s happening right now. You better get some security.’”
According to the allegations, that’s as far as the complaints went.
“They didn’t really do a dang thing,” said Brett, a Raider fan in Section N who didn’t want to publicly disclose his last name. “My buddy who I was sitting next to went up and told them and they didn’t do anything. I was kind of shocked that nothing happened.”
Brett was one of the fans that was doused the most in beer, in large part because he shielded a mother of one of the Raiders’ players from the splash.
“I didn’t want her to have a bad experience, coming all the way over to watch her boy play hockey,” Brett said.
The Raider fans in Section N certainly let their presence be known in the rink. They all donned Raiders’ green, brought signs that spelled ‘Go Raiders Go’ across a whole row and could be heard from across the rink. But that’s all they had in mind on Wednesday.
“The majority of our section I can attest, we were cheering loud but we weren’t there to cause any trouble,” Herbert said.
Another Raider fan, who wanted to remain anonymous, gave his account of another incident that allegedly happened in the upper bowl.
He said he and his daughter, who suffers from a stress disorder, were seated in the upper bowl together. They believed the fans around them were intoxicated and loud, so they moved from their seats to go higher into the stands in an effort to find a nice, quiet pocket to enjoy the game from.
That’s when one fan noticed them switch seats, and swore and berated him and his daughter throughout the game. He said they tried moving three times in three different sections to avoid the man, but each time he followed. At two different points, the man allegedly bumped up against the Raider fan, who felt threatened but said he did not say anything back or retaliate in any way. The follower didn’t leave until late in the third period when the Blades scored twice to make it a 4-1 game.
“It was horrible. It feels like a violation,” he said. “It feels like I was robbed or punched down. I restrained myself for the sake of my daughter. I understand a game is a game. Your team scores, and you do high fives and you yell and you jump. You might even want to say ‘we’re kicking your ass’ or whatever. It’s fun, but other than that, it’s just a game. You don’t treat people like that.”
It wasn’t necessarily just Raider fans that were on the receiving end of incidents. paNOW.com also heard two reports of a man in a Raiders jersey taking a stick thrown into the crowd during the three stars ceremony from a young Blades fan.
The Blades did not wish to comment on the record. SaskTel Centre did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Raiders issued a response to paNOW.com. In it, they confirm that they’ve been told the occurrence is being examined by SaskTel Centre, and they hope nothing like this repeats itself for Game 5 Friday at the Art Hauser Centre.
“It is important to our league and our club that the fan experience is positive. We were advised that SaskTel Centre is looking into the described incidents. We encourage our fans to have fun, cheer, and enjoy the experience of playoff hockey. Please be respectful of everyone in the building,” the Raiders said.
Herbert also doesn’t want to see any retaliation of any kind to Blades fans when both teams meet back on Friday.
“Whatever happens on Friday, win or lose, we don’t want our fans to stoop to that level of stuff that happened last night,” Herbert said. “We don’t want any beer or objects thrown at any Blades fans. We want to treat them with a lot more respect than what we got.”