Captain Christensen earns Gordie Howe Hat trick to lead Raiders to Eastern Conference Championship
Then at 14:16, Justice Christensen earned the assist portion of the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Christensen escaped his own zone out the right side and then found Maddix McCagherty streaking in down the left wall. McCagherty entered the zone down the left wall and stopped on the hashmarks, then curled back towards the blueline to let the rest of the play catch up. McCagherty then fired a shot towards the goal, and Riley Boychuck cutting across the goal tipped it in for his 15th of the season.
After 1: Raiders 2 – 0 Blades, shots 11-5 Raiders
At the 13:36 mark, Christensen completed the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Daxon Rudolph took the puck down the right wall, then dropped it back to Riley Boychuk at the right point. Boychuk put the puck across the line right on the tape for Justice Christensen, and he fired that patented onetimer along the ice and through the fivehole for his 17th of the season.
Then at 14:33, it was time for Daxon Rudolph’s first WHL career fight. After Rudolph earned a roughing call behind the play, he and Cooper Williams started jawing back and forth at each other until finally they decided to drop the gloves. Rudolph threw most of the punches while Williams got one good shot away, but soon they tied each other up along the wall and the refs quickly seperated them. The Raiders would kill off the penalty.
After 2: Raiders 3 – 0 Blades, shots 13-8 Raiders, 24-13 Raiders overall
To add an exclamation point on the night, the captain would score one more. After a shot from Daxon Rudolph at the point would cause a rebound in front, Braeden Cootes and Alisher Sarkenov both got whacks at the puck that eventually came out of the pile to Justice Christensen, and he found the wide open net for his second of the night and 18th of the year at 5:22.
A couple sets of offsetting penalties opened up the ice at times, and the Raiders were doing their best to set up either Christensen for the hat trick, or Rudolph for the defencemen goal scoring title in a single season, but they couldn’t find that final goal. Still, the over 3,000 people in the Art Hauser Centre slowly grew louder and louder until the final buzzer crowned the Raiders as Eastern Conference Champions.
FINAL: Raiders 4 – 0 Blades, shots 11-3 Raiders, 35-16 Raiders overall
With 16 stops on the night, Michal Orsulak wasn’t tested too often, but still earned his fourth shutout of the season. In his last four games, Orsulak has allowed five goals on 73 shots, good for a 0.931 save percentage and two shutouts in that time.
The Raiders will play one final game against the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday on the road.
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