Raiders win silver at Westerns

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

It was a hugely successful season for the Rocky Mountain Raiders as they captured a silver medal at the Western Canadian Bantam AAA Championships in Winnipeg over the Easter weekend.
Despite losing 6-0 in the gold medal game, head coach Mickey Kluner was proud of his team’s performance at the tournament.
“Obviously you want to win, but you want to have a memorable experience too and both of those (things happened),” said Kluner. “Outside the final game – where we struggled to have a good start and it kind of dug us into a deep hole as it went on – the weekend was a phenomenal success.”
The Raiders just could not find any rhythm in the gold medal game.
“We were against a team that was a perennial powerhouse and they had very high-end talent (which) proved to be too much for us on that day,” said Kluner. “They scored two goals in the first and we couldn’t find our mojo early on and the game got out of hand in the second as they scored a couple more.”
The local Strathmore and Wheatland players – Joel Krahenbil, Cole Clayton, Lucas Muenchrath, Tyler Strath and Kelton Travis, along with Langdon’s Brady Skiffington – all took their impactful seasons into the tournament and were difference makers.
“It was no different than the entire year, they were a major contributing portion of our team and they found success,” said Kluner. “They had some great moments for our team, the six of them this past weekend. Our defense played well with the three of them contributing in huge fashion.
“Krahenbil has two goals, two assists in the final round robin game against Winnipeg to secure our spot in the gold medal game, that was huge for us.”
Kluner added that even thought they did not win the tournament, winning the league was really the highlight of the teams’ year.
The Raiders were selected as next year’s western hosts and there will be many spots to fill, as there are only two returnees next season.