‘You really do hate them’: Blades, Raiders to clash in second-round playoff series

Saskatoon Blades goaltender Evan Gardner has guarded his net in more than 150 games in the Western Hockey League.

Despite playing against every team in the league, there’s one team Gardner refuses to mince words about: Saskatoon’s most bitter rivals, the Prince Albert Raiders.

Read more:

• Saskatoon Blades crown first round upset of Oil Kings in Game 7 OT thriller
• Scheffler, McIlroy, DeChambeau lead star-studded field at Masters
• Saskatoon selected to host World Cup watch party, ‘Canada Celebrates’ event

“I genuinely hate the Raiders,” Gardner said.

“I think everyone in that room feels the same. Every time we play them, we have this fire in us, and it feels real. You really do hate them. You want to beat them so bad.”

One of junior hockey’s most explosive rivalries will enter a new chapter starting on Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert, as the Blades and Raiders meet in WHL playoffs for the second time in three years.

The second round was set up by a wild opening-round series win for the Blades against the Edmonton Oil Kings, which ended with an overtime goal from alternate captain Rowan Calvert in the seventh game. He secured the series for Saskatoon with a deflection off a point shot by David Lewandowski, before diving towards centre ice in celebration with the rest of his teammates on Monday.

“Everyone was laying on top of me,” Calvert said. “I thought about it later. It was not a good idea, because I couldn’t breathe down there. I was like, ‘Let me up! Let me up!’”

After extending his junior career for the duration of at least one more series, the 20-year-old Calvert said it was the type of goal he dreamed of when he was growing up in Moose Jaw.

“It was probably one of the coolest moments of my career,” Calvert said. “To win a series like that the way we did, it’s super special. The bond is tight and everyone is really enjoying coming into the rink right now.”

Saskatoon Blades forward Rowan Calvert (23) is coming off a series-winning overtime goal in the opening round of WHL playoffs. (Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades)

Saskatoon battled back in the final game of the series after a late third-period goal by Gavin Hodnett gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead with less than six minutes remaining.

It took Blades sophomore Cooper Williams just 33 seconds to score the equalizer and force overtime, which Saskatoon won following a successful penalty kill ahead of Calvert’s power-play winner.

Williams said the Blades are more than happy to continue embracing the role of the underdog in the WHL as the second round of playoffs get underway.

“There’s no doubt in us,” Williams said.

“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 this series.”

While the celebration has turned to preparation in recent days for the Blades, head coach Dan DaSilva said his youthful team will carry over the confidence they built during the series against the Oil Kings and the determination it took to keep the season alive.

“You work with these guys day in and day out and see all they put into it,” DaSilva said.

“That was a special moment for sure. Just seeing them be able to go out and enjoy a big win like that is really cool as a coach, so hopefully there’s more of those ahead.”

On the other side of the ice will be a Raiders team which has taken a much different path to the Eastern Conference semifinal.

During an appearance on The Green Zone this week, Prince Albert general manager Curtis Hunt said there’s very little extra motivation needed, with Prince Albert’s biggest rival coming to town on Friday night.

“It’s Saskatoon,” Hunt said. “We don’t have to fire anybody up for them, and they certainly don’t have to do it for us.”

The Raiders are fresh off a five-game series win over the Red Deer Rebels to open their playoffs as the top seed in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

Led by defensive young guns Daxon Rudolph and Brock Cripps, the Raiders overpowered the eighth-seeded Rebels and capped off the series with an overtime winner from Brandon Gorzynski to advance after the fifth game.

Boasting one of the deepest lineups in the WHL this season, Hunt said the Raiders may need to use that to their advantage in the second round.

“If we can roll four lines and trust four lines, hopefully you can just come in wave after wave after wave,” Hunt said. “You know what waves can do when they’re consistent.”

Prince Albert dominated the regular season matchups between the two clubs, going 6-1-1 against Saskatoon over eight games.

But Hunt said it would be foolish to count the Blades out, especially considering how they played against another top-three seed in Edmonton.

“We know what we’re going to face in them,” Hunt said.

“I wouldn’t call it anger, but just the urgency from both teams. I know they play a great, structured game, and it should be a fantastic series.”

Not only will the Blades have to contend with a skilled and physical Raiders team on the other side of the ice, but they’ll also be walking into one of the loudest playoff arenas in the WHL at the Art Hauser Centre.

“Every time we’re in there, it feels like a playoff game,” Calvert said. “Now that it’s the real thing, I’m sure it will ramp up even more.”

Saskatoon will also have to contend with a Prince Albert power play which ranked fifth in the WHL during the regular season, with a 28.3 per cent success rate.

Knowing the emotion which this rivalry often brings out, DaSilva said he’ll be urging his team not to become undisciplined like they did early in the Edmonton series.

“We got up to that line and crossed it too many times, where discipline became an issue,” DaSilva said.

“As that series went on, we took less and less penalties. We learned to be a little bit smarter, a little more under control. I think heading into the second round we’re still going to see that physicality, but we’ll be more disciplined from just learning our lessons.”

The first game of the series between the Blades and Raiders starts at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Highway 11 rivalry good for Blades’ business

Saskatoon’s series win over Edmonton has caught thousands of eyes in the city and beyond, according to Tyler Wawryk, the Blades’ director of business operations.

Streaming on the Victory+ platform, Wawryk said they saw huge numbers for the team’s broadcast of the sixth game on Easter Sunday. He said it’s sometimes hard to compete with the holiday, but that wasn’t the case this time around.

“Just for the home feed alone on Sunday, we were over 24,000 viewers for the game, plus the 5,200 in the arena,” Wawryk said. “People are tuned in to what we’re doing, and they get excited.”

He added the team’s first-round success is also having a tangible impact on merchandise sales heading into the series against Prince Albert.

“Jersey sales are our strongest item that we’re moving,” Wawryk said.

“Typically at this time of year we might start to sell more hats and t-shirts, some spring apparel. Since it’s still fully winter outside, weather-wise, people are still buying the hoodies and warmer apparel, but jerseys are number one.”

He said the Blades are expecting between 7,000 and 8,000 fans in attendance for the third and fourth games of the series on Tuesday and Wednesday, with five upper bowl sections being opened up.

Wawryk said that’s due in part to the extra capacity available at SaskTel Centre and the limited amount of tickets available at the Art Hauser Centre, which can accommodate roughly 3,100 fans.

“There’s going to be fans that live in (Prince Albert) that might not be able to get tickets that will come here,” Wawryk said.

“Having the only two teams remaining in the province that are playing, we’ve seen this multiple times over the last decade how great these series can be. It kind of takes over the talk of the province.”

Saskatoon Blades goaltender Evan Gardner (35) has been nominated for the WHL’s Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy for the third consecutive season. (Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades)

Gardner earns Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy nomination

Playoff hockey brings a few extra wrinkles for Gardner in the Blades crease. He’s a type-one diabetic, alongside Zach Olsen as one of two players on the Blades’ roster who have to monitor their blood-sugar levels.

While games are easier to adjust to compared to practices at this time of year, Gardner said it’s something he watches, especially during lengthy, multi-overtime games like the sixth game against Edmonton.

If his blood sugar drops during a game, he said he tries to drink some extra Gatorade to raise it back up.

“If I notice I might be going a little higher during a period, maybe hold off on the Gatorade in the TV timeouts,” he said.

Gardner’s work advocating for both diabetes and autism awareness this season has been recognized, as he’s one of six nominees for the Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy for the WHL’s humanitarian of the year.

His work this season has included auctioning off a goalie mask for Family Programs – Autism Services of Saskatoon to the tune of $2,700, as well as spending the most hours of any Blades player working in the community in 2025-26.

“It’s something I take pride in,” Gardner said. “Getting to do the auction for the mask is something I really enjoyed getting to do. I got to spend a lot of time in the community this year, a lot of time doing advocacy for type-one diabetes and speaking to schools.”

This is the third consecutive year that Gardner has been nominated for the award, which DaSilva said speaks to the impact he’s made in the Blades’ dressing room and beyond.

“His teammates love him, he’s a popular guy in that room,” DaSilva said.

“Obviously he does a tremendous job in the community in raising diabetes awareness, sharing his story and all the things that he’s had to deal with. Just a resilient person, a great teammate and obviously a really good goalie.”