as a backup to long-time starter Brenden Fiebelkorn. This, as fate
would have it, turned out to be Brown’s year.
“Ryan was patient and when he got his opportunity he made the
best of it in a big, big way,” said Sanders. “He’s a committed Raider
and a true MVP.”
After ending the regular season in sixth place with just 51 points,
the Raiders entered the playoffs as a clear underdog. In the Playoff
Edition of Game On Magazine the Raiders’ leaders, Mathews and
Rybuck, said they were “embarrassed by their regular season play,”
I’d call our team’s
playoff run epic. The players,
our fans, the coaches, they
put it all together, and man
was it exciting
the job done, but that’s exactly what the Raiders did.
Game 1 in the series in Stonewall was an eye opener for the Jets.
Having won the regular season series and being the favoured team,
the Jets fell 2-1. The Raiders took a 2-0 lead on goals from Dawson
Anderson and Devin Manness, but Stonewall’s sensational Chase
Faulkner scored with 5:50 remaining in the third to make it close.
Game 2 was a barn burner. At home at Seven Oaks the Raiders
dominated play out shooting the Jets 43 -33 and yet the game went
into double over- time before the Jets prevailed on Eric Swanson’s
game-winner.
Game 3 was a back breaker for the Jets. Back at home in Stonewall
the game was tied 3-3 and the Jets were holding on looking for their
break. It never came. With 3:26 left in the third, Jordan Kreml scored
on a give- away and the Raiders not only took a 2-1 series lead, but
gained enough confidence to get the job done.
In Game 4, the Raiders took it to the Jets. They outshot Stonewall
31-25, got a shutout from Brown and scored three goals in the third
period -- by Kyle Wabick, Lars Anderson, and Rybuck – to win 4-0
and take a 3-1 lead back to Stonewall.
In Game 5 back in Stonewall, it was all about Jets goalie Hunter
Ploszay. Although the Raiders outshot Stonewall 32-23, the Jets
defense had its best game, Ploszay was unbeatable and the Jets
got two goals from Devin Muir and one each from Adam Blight and
Chase Faulkner en route to a 4-0 victory.
Game 6 was all Raiders. Outshooting the Jets 29-16 and with
that huge crowd on its feet, the Raiders were just too much for the
but it didn’t deter them from making one of the greatest about-fac-
es in MMJHL playoff history.
The Raiders rolled through the playoffs like a hot knife through
butter taking out the fourth-place St James Canadians in four
straight games, upsetting the No. 1-ranked Charleswood Hawks in
five and finally dethroning the defending champion Stonewall Jets
in six.
Mathews summed it up a couple weeks before the playoffs when
he told Game On: “Our team struggled. We had some bad bounces
go against us, but we’ll be back in the thick of things and we plan to
go all the way.”
If that wasn’t enough, Rybuck suggested: “I hope we meet Stone-
wall in the playoffs. They’ve had our number all year and that
doesn’t sit well with our team. We have something to prove.”
Of course, it’s one thing to say it and it’s another to go out and get
2017 CHAMPIONS EDITION
GAME ON 19