There aren’t many rivalries that can compare to the one between the Saskatoon Blades and the Prince Albert Raiders. It may look like a mismatch right now; the Raiders opened their second-round series with a 6-1 victory over the Blades, who only managed to get seven shots on net over the first two periods – but don’t let one lopsided game fool you. “When two rivals get together, and especially the Blades and the Raiders, there are no underdogs,” said analyst Darren Dupont to CBC, and he’s right. No matter where these two teams finish in the standings, they always bring their best when they face each other.
With the second round of the WHL playoffs underway, the Blades and Raiders are ready to add another chapter to their storied history against each other, and no matter what happens, the series promises to be one of the most hotly contested of the entire playoffs.
2025-26 Season Added Fuel to the Fire
The Blades and Raiders faced each other eight times across the regular season, including in both of their home openers and season finales. Overall, the Raiders came out on top, winning six games to the Blades’ two, but the box score doesn’t tell the full story.
Things kicked off for both teams in Prince Albert on Sep. 19, 2025. The Blades’ Dominik Petr opened the scoring midway through the first period, which held until Prince Albert’s Aiden Oiring finally tied it up, leading to two unanswered goals to take the lead. Zach Olsen got the game back within one for Saskatoon, but Oli Chenier’s late empty-net goal secured the 4-2 win. While the two teams didn’t break out into any fisticuffs, 13 penalties were handed out, including seven roughing calls.
The following evening, the Raiders travelled to Saskatoon for their home opener, and this time, the Blades didn’t waste any time getting things going. Rowan Calvert scored 30 seconds into the game and got his second early in the second period. Chenier fought Blades’ rookie Tristan Mitchell-McElhone in his first career fight, and the 17-year-old held his own against the Raiders veteran, but the Raiders rallied behind Chenier, with Brayden Dube scoring two quick goals to tie the game. However, this time, the Blades scored a late goal to secure the win, with defenceman Brayden Klimpke tapping home the rebound.
The next two games went very similarly. On Dec. 14, captains Tyler Parr and Justice Christiansen opened the game with a fight, and the Blades scored two goals to start, but the Raiders fired back, taking it 5-4. Then, on Jan. 31, Hunter Laing and Jonah Sivertson took to centre ice to duke it out before anyone scored, leading to four unanswered goals from Saskatoon and goalie Evan Gardner’s 10th career shutout.
The back half of the season all went the Raiders’ way, leading to flared tempers across the ice. Over the next four games, there were 56 penalties, including 16 roughing calls, five unsportsmanlike conduct calls, four fights, and four players ejected with 10-minute misconducts. Most of that was in the final two games of the season.
“These are two teams that know each other well and really look forward to competing against one another,” said Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald, who has been with the team since 2021. He knows how passionate the players and fans can get.
“I genuinely hate the Raiders, I think everyone in that room feels the same,” said Blades goalie Evan Gardner ahead of the series. “Every time we play them, we have this fire in us. It feels real, like, you really do hate them. You know, you want to beat them so bad. It’s something that’s definitely pretty cool.”
The Journey to the Second Round
The Raiders’ second-round berth was practically guaranteed when the playoffs opened. After leading the Eastern Conference with 110 points, they faced the eighth-place Red Deer Rebels, who barely snuck by the Moose Jaw Warriors to secure the final playoff spot. The Rebels put up a good fight, including a surprising win in game four, but it wasn’t enough. The Raiders outscored them 21-10, and Brandon Gorzynski finished off Red Deer on home ice in game five in overtime, securing their spot in the second round.
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An up-and-down season left the Blades stuck in sixth place behind the Brandon Wheat Kings and up against the Edmonton Oil Kings in the first round, who sent several players to the 2026 World Junior Championship and were scoring the lights out of their competition. But a surprising 3-2 victory on the road gave Saskatoon the hope they needed to stay alive in the series, and although the Oil Kings pushed back, the Blades were never down and out. The matchup went the distance, with 20-year-old Rowan Calvert tipping in the overtime game-winner in Edmonton to send them to the second round.
“There’s no doubt in us,” said Cooper Williams after the win. “Maybe around the league there was doubt that we weren’t going to win, but in (the dressing room) there was no doubt. We all believed in each other, and that’s the same thing we’re going to do in this series.”
“We’re a proud group,” echoed Blades head coach Dan DaSilva, “I think we learned that, we’ve been saying it all year, we can play with anyone in this league when we’re at our best, and so the focus is on us. It’s us versus us and how well we can play our game.”
Blades and Raiders Playoff History
The last meeting of the Highway 11 rivalry came in the first round of the 2024 Playoffs. The Blades had an incredible run to the top of the Eastern Conference, but the lower-ceded Raiders took game one 4-3. That lit a fire in the Blades, who took the next four games, with the final matchup ending 6-2. Saskatoon went on to sweep the Rebels in the second round before running into the Warriors, where their run finally ended in a heartbreaking game seven.
It was a similar situation in the 2019 Playoffs, but this time the Raiders finished first, while the Blades finished fourth. Both teams quickly dispatched their first-round opponents before running into each other in round two and splitting the series two games apiece. That’s when the Blades ran out of steam, and the Raiders finished off Saskatoon in the next two games, then took that victory all the way to the WHL Final against the Vancouver Giants, where they won their second WHL title in franchise history.
For two teams that love to butt heads, there have been a surprising number of sweeps and blowouts when the Blades and Raiders meet in the playoffs. In 2011, the first-place Blades twice scored eight goals in a single game on the Raiders en route to a 4-2 series victory, and in 2005, the lower-ranked Raiders swept the Blades in the opening round, although all but one game was decided by a single goal. 10 years earlier, the Raiders swept the Blades in the second round, three seasons after the Blades upset the East-leading Raiders in the semi-final.
Maybe it all goes back to the first time they met in the playoffs in 1986, when the upstart Raiders defeated the established Blades three games to none, a favour Saskatoon was more than happy to return in 1987, when they swept Prince Albert in four games in the second round before nearly claiming their first title in franchise history. Alas, they fell just short against the Kamloops Blazers and are still looking for that first championship banner.
No Matter the Result, Fans are in For a Treat
Although it can get heated, there’s nothing better than rivalries in hockey. Saskatoon radio DJ Clayton Kroeker put it very well when he said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s in Saskatoon or PA, preseason, regular season, or playoffs, every game has that big-game feeling when the Blades and Raiders face off against each other…The hatred between these two teams is very real. There’s a lot of history between the two. That’s why it makes such a great rivalry. That’s why the games are so much fun to go to. That’s why the atmosphere is second to none at a Blades/Raiders game. It doesn’t matter where each team is in the standings; it always means something when these two teams play each other.”
So, although the Blades are significant underdogs in this series, especially after a 6-1 blowout loss, there’s nothing better than watching them take on the Raiders. The next game is scheduled for Apr. 11 in Prince Albert, then they return to Saskatoon to play games three and four on Apr. 13 and 14.
