‘Get Greedy’: Oak Park eyes second hockey title of the season

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/03/2026 (202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A double dip is within reach for the Oak Park Raiders.

The Raiders, who won the Winnipeg School Hockey League championship earlier this month, earned a convincing 6-2 victory over the Steinbach Sabres in a spirited tilt at Seven Oaks Arena on Saturday to punch their ticket to the high school boys’ hockey provincial championship final for the second time in three years.

The Raiders will face the Vincent Massey Trojans in a rematch of the WHSHL championship for the title back at Seven Oaks on Monday at 6:15 p.m.

“It brings back a lot of memories to provincials, being here,” said Raiders captain David Sudoski, one of 13 seniors who are looking for a second title in three years. “Just got to come out strong one more and hopefully repeat that.”

Karsten Ross scored twice for the Raiders, while Noah Madison, Lucas Einarson and Tyler Thouas also bulged the twine. Daniel Zuev on a penalty shot, and Jager Bueckert had the replies for the Sabres.

Oak Park goaltender Mitch Fiebelkorn turned aside 17 of 19 shots, while Steinbach’s Kash Amor made 30 saves.

“Our special teams were great today,” said Raiders head coach Ian MacDonald. “It started with a huge five-on-three kill today, and after that, it flipped momentum in our favour, and we just started rolling after that. It was one of our better games from the past couple of weeks.”

The contest shifted on a sequence late in the first period that began with the Raiders fending off five shots on goal and surviving the Sabres’ five-on-three advantage. Following an ensuing offensive zone face-off, Madison deflected a Cooper Pistawka shot past Amor to open the scoring with 1:33 left.

“Completely flips momentum in our favour,” said MacDonald. “It was tight. We knew it was going to be a tight game all around. It was a tight start. But once we survived that for a full two minutes, and getting that goal right after, just flips momentum in our favour, and it seemed like after that we were skating downhill.”

The Raiders flexed their muscles on special teams again in the second period with Thouas serving a double-minor, as Ross picked the pocket of a Sabres skater and made no mistake on the breakaway, shooting five-hole for the short-handed goal.

Oak Park scored twice more on the power play in the contest.

“We know we’ve got to stick to our game and play to our strengths. We have a really good kill, and we rely on our goalie a lot, too. He’s been unreal this post-season,” said Sudoski. “And then Karsten’s got unreal finish, so as soon as we knew he was going for the breakaway, we knew it was going in.”

Oak Park earned its trip to the semis after waltzing through the Morden Thunder 5-1 and Sturgeon Heights 6-0 in the round robin. MacDonald said the Raiders know their final hurdle of the season won’t be easy to clear as they attempt to dethrone Vincent Massey as provincial champs.

“Stay hungry. Get greedy,” was MacDonald’s message to his team. “We got city champs, a lot of them have that provincial title from a couple of years ago. But just always want more. We know we can do it, we just have to go out and execute.”

In the second semifinals the Trojans built an early lead and held on in a 4-0 triumph over the Sturgeon Heights Huskies.

Will Bader scored a hat-trick, including a pair of goals in the opening frame and the last goal in the third period.

“Obviously, it was a great experience. Huge game for the fellas today. We persevered through a lot of hard roughing, but it means a lot,” said Bader. “After losing city finals and working our way back to provincial finals, we’re not coming anything short of a win.”

The Trojans, who knocked off Steinbach and Jeanne-Sauvé in the round-robin, have pieced together a run in the provincial tournament that has yet to include a goal against. Massey has outscored its opponents 11-0, and goaltender Noah Barnes has stopped 62 shots.

“Just the emphasis on defensive zone first,” said head coach Ben Kirton. “I think that’s where we’ve found a lot of our success. From line one to line three, it’s (defence) first, and the goals will come. We know we have the scoring power, we have more than enough forwards and defencemen that can put the puck in the back of the net, but it’s unsustainable to score seven goals a game and then not play defensively sound.”

The Trojans got the championship matchup they wanted in the Raiders, who won the best-of-three WHSHL finals series in three games. They will only get one go at it for provincial glory.

“They’re a great team, but I think we got them,” said Bader. “We’re not losing again to them. We’re going to do everything we can to win.”

winnipegfreepress.com/joshuafreysam