Raiders’ grad Kosior leads P.A. connections that power Huskies

Landon Kosior in action for the Huskies in February of 2024.

Landon Kosior and a number of other Prince Albert connections have put the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Hockey Team on quest to capture Canada West Conference and U Sports national titles.

Last Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place on the University of Saskatchewan campus, the Huskies concluded their regular season downing the University of Manitoba Bisons 4-2. That win allowed the Huskies to improve to 23-5 and lock up first place in Canada West and home ice advantage through the conference playoffs. The last time the Huskies pulled that feat off was back in the 2018-19 campaign under now retired legendary head coach Dave Adolph.

U of S is also rated second in the U Sports Top 10 rankings.

The Huskies roster includes Kosior and Keaton Sorensen, who are grads of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders. U of S’s roster includes Rhett Rhinehart, who started his WHL career with the Raiders, and Ty Prefontaine, who played the first three games of his WHL career with the Raiders before playing most of his major junior career with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Josh Pillar and Ashton Ferster are grads from the Prince Albert Mintos under-18 AAA team who are skating with the Raiders. Prince Albert product Ethan Regnier came up through Prince Albert’s minor hockey system and found his way to the Huskies after playing in the WHL with Swift Current Broncos and Everett Silvertips.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

Unfortunately, sports and politics do collide

Expect trend to increase with Trump as US President

Has anybody in Canada seen much of Steven Guilbeault in recent weeks?

From 2021 to 2024, it seemed like the famed former member of Greenpeace was a regular on Canadian news networks serving as Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, which is a position he still holds. Guilbeault seemingly spoke as Prime Minister of Canada 1A creating policies to force Canada to move towards a green economy. He was the star shown all over the place as it seemed to be Canada was positioned to be the hero that was going to save the world from climate change under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Guilbeault was seen regularly in early January 2025 until January 20 rolled around and Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States of America for a second term taking over from Democrat Joe Biden, who beat Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election. Since becoming the President of the United States again, Trump signed off on an avalanche of executive orders changing numerous aspects of life in that country and using the threats of tariffs to declare economic war on first Canada and Mexico along with seemingly the rest of the world.

Of course, he keeps repeating that line about making Canada the “51^st state.”

All of that has thrown Canada’s political scene in a crisis mode with the country’s economy being very dependent on what has traditionally been a good relationship with the United States. Under the specter of this current political climate, it seems like there is a fear that Canada could turn into a third world country overnight, if Trump makes good on his plans.

All of a sudden, you don’t hear much about Guilbeault and talk about Canada’s environmental policies has become muted. If they are talked about, they seem out of place in dealing with the economic challenges Canada now faces.

Shifting to the sporting world, Trump appeared at Super Bowl LIX on February 9 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received big cheers, but left early as the Philadelphia Eagles stormed to a 34-0 lead and hammered the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22. The Chiefs scored two touchdowns in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter to make the final score look better cosmetically.

On Sunday, Trump appeared at the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Air Force 1 took a flyby of the track and Trump road in his armoured Cadillac limousine nicknamed “The Beast” and lapped the track with his presidential motorcade leading the field of cars.

In Canada, the national anthem of the United States has been booed before NHL and NBA games hosted in Canadian cities and the two 4 Nations Face-Off games the United States team played at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The booing is done to show displeasure with Trump’s tariff threats.

On Monday, Bill Guerin, who is the Team USA general manager for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, said on Fox News he would be very happy to see Trump in the crowd for Thursday’s championship game. The USA will face Canada in the final to be played at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts (7 p.m. Saskatchewan time, Sportsnet). At the moment, it does not look like Trump will be attending this contest.

Trudeau was in attendance for the preliminary round game between Canada and the USA taken 3-1 including an empty-net goal by the Americans last Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal. That game started with three fights in the first nine seconds of the opening frame.

If the United States wins the 4 Nations Face-Off title game, you can be sure you will see messaging on social media that Canada was put in its place and that the USA owns Canada. You will likely hear messages from the folks in the United States that Canada has become an embarrassment in the game it loves and that Canada really isn’t a real country and should become a state.

When it comes to sport on the international scene, sport has become the place where a sizable number of countries use that space as the spot that proves their country and culture is superior that of another country and its culture.

When the Soviet Union existed, it often used both Summer and Winter Olympic Games along would world championships to declare being the world’s most superior nation state. Russia would do that under the rule of Vladimir Putin before their sports bodies were banned at Olympic and various other international sporting events following their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

When Canada’s NHL players face the Soviet Union in the famed eight-game Summit Series of 1972, it became a tribalistic battle between cultures and peoples out on a hockey rink. Canada claimed that series with four wins, three losses and one tie on Paul Henderson’s famed Game 8 winner that broke a 5-5 tie and gave Canada a 6-5 victory with 34 seconds remaining in the third period.

Unfortunately, I believe the politics of the current day has devolved into a clown show and that has happened over the last 15 years.

To me, the extreme left that is seen as the woke left follows Trudeau. To me, it seems like that group of people believes concerns about the environment and climate change surpass all other issues, people are not born with a gender and can chose their gender, the Christian religion is evil, religion has no place in government, diversity, equity and inclusion is important, people are citizens of the world and should work toward a good of the globe view, the media should be controlled, the right wing voices should be silenced and the education system should conform to the leftist view that were listed.

 To me, the extreme right follows Trump and the idea of Trumpism. To me, it seems like that group of people believes the economy is the issue of greatest concern, being hired on merit is more important than diversity, equity and inclusion, the Christian religion is good, religion has a place in government, there are only two sexes in male and female, women’s sports are for biological women, concerns about the environment and climate change have gone too far, those on the left wing are crazy, being combative with the media and those that don’t share your views is an acceptable behaviour and the education system should conform to the rightist view that were listed.

For both the extreme left and extreme right, I feel like if you don’t follow the dogmas I listed for each side those on each side believe you are an evil person that should be destroyed or at minimal cancelled.

Both sides have had their surprises.

In Canada especially Western Canada, the Liberals climate agenda when fully implemented would see only electric vehicles being used in Canada and all structures would be warmed by electric heat pumps. If you lived in Saskatchewan the last 10 days and experienced the extended extreme cold weather, those policies would mean no one would go anywhere and people would be freezing to death as electric heat pumps quit when it is colder than -25 C. In already following a green economic policy that has partially been put into action, tent cities and homeless has become the norm in Canadian centres of all sizes due to job losses and increased poverty.

In the United States, President Trump’s second term so far has been more than anyone expected on the surprise front with all the executive orders he has signed. He is trying to change how government there operates, clear out senior executives in the FBI, send buyout offers to the entire CIA workforce, threaten economic war with Canada and Mexico and seemingly most other parts of the world and has sided with Russia in its war with Ukraine falsely saying that Ukraine started that war.

To me, both those on the far left and far right are trying to work things on the financial front to profit themselves and their buddies. If they do actually want to help the people they govern, they don’t truly know how to do that.

I said this before, but I personally have no use for Trudeau and Trump. I also believe there is value in trying to understand why people vote for either side, especially if their views are moderate or centralist. I believe it helps to figure out why we got to where we are in the world.

I believe the strong centralist voice has been lost. I believe good democracy comes from doing the art of the compromise well.

I also believe there are too many lies told in this world being both “white” lies and straight out lies. Those lies make trust hard to achieve and gives conspiracy theories traction.

I believe I don’t fit with either the far left or the far right, which means those on both spectrums will hate me. I understand that is an “it is what it is” thing, and I am fine with it.

Things will play out however they play out, and I will adjust to those factors when the effect me the best I can using the cards that are dealt my way. I feel like I have constantly said that since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic started in March of 2020.

For myself, I personally wish sports and politics did not mix. Unfortunately, the reality is sports and politics do mix, and they have mixed pretty much for all time. The intensity of how sports and politics mix constantly changes as the years go on and can rage for a small to no mix up to a big mix.

With the way the world is currently especially in North America, the sports and politics mix appears set to happen on a more regular and intense basis going forward. Buckle up.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Tkachuk brothers flush politics with fisticuffs at 4 Nations

Early fights allowed Canada/USA game to be enjoyed

Brothers Matthew and Brady Tkachuk were the MVPs of Saturday night.

Their antics allowed the 4 Nations Face-Off clash between Canada and the United States at the Bell Centre in Montreal to be enjoyed. They both got involved in fights after the respective first two faceoffs of the game.

From that point, the sellout pro-Canadian crowd of 21,105 spectators at the Bell Centre and I dare say those watching the contest on TV networks in both countries felt free to enjoy the game. The USA prevailed by a 3-1 score that included an empty-net goal.

Heading into that contest in that best-versus-best tournament that includes Finland and Sweden, most watching the game on the Canadian front were likely watching for the political story. That story was crowds at Canadian hosted NHL and NBA games were booing the national anthem of the United States due to the tariff and trade war policies enacted against Canada via executive orders by United States President Donald Trump.

The United States national anthem was booed before Thursday’s contest at the Bell Centre that saw the USA down Finland 6-1.

On Saturday in the clash between Canada and the United States, the crowd did boo the entire singing of the United States national anthem.

The crowd proceeded to sing O Canada in traditional bilingual form singing the Canadian national anthem in French before switching to English at the line, “God keep our land.”

At that point, the Tkachuk brothers ensured politics were forgotten for the next three hours. Off the opening faceoff, Matthew, who is a United States forward, engaged Canadian forward Brandon Hagel in a crowd-pleasing staged fight.

On the ensuing faceoff, younger brother Brady set to take the draw against Sam Bennett of Canada. After one second ticked off the clock, Brady and Bennett went at it in a second crowd-pleasing staged fight. When Brady was escorted off to the penalty box, he exchanged “fives” with brother Matthew before getting in the box.

As a bonus in the bout department, a six-second shift ensued that ended in a scrum around the Team Canada net. United States forward J.T. Miller and Canadian defenceman Colton Parayko came out of that scrum engaged in a big fight. After officials broke up that bout, the Bell Centre was rocking like the old Montreal Forum in NHL rivalry clashes that involved the Montreal Canadiens and the Quebec Nordiques in the 1980s.

At that point in time, it is safe to say no one was thinking about politics unless they were a “political animal” that only thinks about politics. Anyone watching that game was glued to looking at the action to see what happens next. All of a sudden, it felt like those who were watching the game were allowed to have the freedom to watch the game and even enjoy it.

During post-game interviews that were shown on television, the word “politics” wasn’t brought up when the Tkachuk brothers were interviewed. They said they were just trying to do something that would get everybody focused on the game and the idea of the staged fights was dreamed up earlier that day.

Of course, Brady is the captain of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and Matthew played for the NHL’s Calgary Flames before being traded to the Florida Panthers and winning a Stanley Cup with the Panthers last season. Their father, Keith Tkachuk, was a popular power forward with the first version of the Winnipeg Jets. The Tkachuk family knows how passionate Canadian fans are when it comes to the game of hockey.

During their hockey careers, Matthew and Brady have relished playing the role of villain. While they love their home fans, you get the feeling they extra energized when they go into an opposition rink and they know they are going to be booed and heckled.

It can be argued that the last player to relish being a villain even more than the Tkachuk brothers was all-time agitator and top tier scorer Theo Fleury.

It was only fitting that if there were going to be any staged fights to start Saturday’s battled between Canada and the United States, the Tkachuk brothers would be involved. All that fans that boo and heckle the Tkachuk brothers have to admit they would love it if they played on their favourite hockey team.

To see an example of a villain getting love, all one has to do was look at Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand playing for Canada on Saturday. While Montreal hockey fans despise the Bruins, they cheered Marchand every time he got near the puck.

Also, big time credit has to be given to Hagel and Bennett for stepping up on the staged fight dance card along with Miller and Parayko for taking part in the third fight in the game’s first nine seconds.

In the current day, hockey is pretty tame and not a lot of old school happenings occur in the fight department at any level of the sport. Even for myself, I am 15 years removed from seeing antics similar to the Canada versus United States clash on Saturday in the fight department happening at any level - especially at the start of a hockey game.

Following those three bouts, Canada and the United States played a typical intense and tight checking style of NHL post-season game.

Canada scored first at the 5:31 mark of the opening frame when defenceman Drew Doughty sprung all-world forward Connor McDavid into the United States zone on a stretch pass. McDavid lifted a backhand shot over the glove of United States netminder Connor Hellebuyck for a 1-0 lead.

At the 10:15 mark of the first, United States forward Jake Guentzel put a shot between the legs of Canadian netminder Jordan Binnington to even the score at 1-1.

The United States took a 2-1 lead at the 13:33 mark of the second when Canadian legend Sidney Crosby uncharacteristically gave the puck away with an ill-advised cross ice pass just inside the blue-line of the United States zone. The USA broke up ice the other way on a two-on-one break that ended with forward Dylan Larkin firing home the winning goal blocker side on Binnington.

Guentzel rounded out the game’s scoring with an empty-net tally with 1:19 remaining in the third to complete a two-goal night.

Binnington turned away 20-of-22 shots for Canada. Hellebuyck stopped 25 shots for the United States.

Matthew didn’t play the final 12:36 of the contest due to an apparent injury and stayed on the United States bench. He told reporters after the game that he would be fine.

The win allows the United States to improve to 2-0 and earn a spot in the tournament final set for Thursday at the TD Garden in Boston. Canada has an overtime win and regulation loss and sits tied with two points in the tournament standings with Finland, who has an extra time win and a regulation loss, and Sweden, who has two extra time losses.

Canada plays Finland on Monday, while the United States faces Sweden. Both those contests will be at the TD Garden.

Overall, the specter of politics will still hang over this tournament.

Still, it was fantastic that the Tkachuk brothers made sure Saturday night was alright, even if it was just for a few hours.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Defence, goaltending come up big for Blades

Saskatoon downs powerhouse Hitmen 6-3

Ethan McCallum, right, begins to celebrate Friday’s win.

The Saskatoon Blades lived out the cliché that defence and goaltending wins hockey games.

On Friday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades young blue-line came up big on offence. Four different players on the backend had single goals to help Saskatoon down the powerhouse Calgary Hitmen 6-3 before a supportive crowd of 4,071 spectators that braved fictional planet Hoth like temperatures to attend the WHL regular season contest.

Out of the Blades defenders, sturdy standout 20-year-old veteran Grayden Siepmann had the biggest night recording one goal, two assists and a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department. Sophomore defenceman Jack Kachkowski, who turned 18-years-old in January, 17-year-old rookie blue-liner Isaac Poll and fellow rookie rearguard Jordan Martin, who turned 18-years-old in January, all picked up singles for Saskatoon.

Grayden Siepmann had one goal and two assists for the Blades.

Veteran netminder Ethan McCallum had a spectacular outing stopping 39 shots to pick up the victory in goal for the host side.

The win allowed the Blades to improve to 28-17-3-3 to keep pace in the race for first place in the WHL’s East Division. Their 62 standings points equals the total of their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders (29-18-3-1), but the Raiders hold the standings tiebreaker due to having more wins. The Brandon Wheat Kings (27-16-4-3) sit one point back of both the Raiders and Blades with one game in hand.

The Hitmen came out of the gates on fire outshooting the Blades 7-1, and they broke through on the scoreboard just 3:33 into the opening frame. Hitmen 20-year-old star centre Connor Hvidston got the puck in front of the Saskatoon net off a positive bounce and roofed his 16^th tally of the season to the top left corner of the net to put the visitors up 1-0.

Kalem Parker had a goal for the Hitmen.

The Blades got their wheels going and evened score 1-1 on the power play at the 8:36 mark of the first on a goal from Siepmann. Siepmann fired home a point shot for the equalizer with the man advantage.

Saskatoon took a 2-1 lead at the 7:34 mark of the second, when breakout 16-year-old rookie centre Cooper Williams wired home his 16^th marker of the campaign.

The Hitmen proceeded to even the score at 2-2 at the 10:40 mark of the second. Working in the Saskatoon zone, Hitmen 20-year-old offensive-defenceman Kalem Parker had the puck on the icing line to the right side of the Saskatoon net. He banked home the puck off McCallum’s stick into the Saskatoon net to force a tie game.

Jack Kachkowski had a goal for the Blades on Friday.

Just 11 seconds later, Hitmen standout 18-year-old right-winger Carson Wetsch thought he scored from the front of the Saskatoon net to put his side ahead, but the play continued. The officials from the timekeeper’s booth blew the play down seconds later for a video review.

The review showed Wetsch’s shot just crossed the goal line of that Saskatoon net, and the officials ruled a goal for Wetsch to officially put the Hitmen ahead 3-2.

As quickly as the momentum swung to the Hitmen, it swung back just as quickly to the Blades.

With 3:23 remaining in the second, Kachkowski wired home a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle to the top right corner of the Calgary goal to even the score at 3-3. 

Isaac Poll had the Blades fourth goal on Friday.

The tally was Kachkowski’s first goal as a member of the Blades having been acquired in a trade on January 6.

The Blades proceeded to go ahead 4-3 with 1:32 remaining in the second when rookie 17-year-old defenceman Isaac Poll slipped home a shot from the point through a screen for his second marker of the season.

Just past the midway point of the third, Martin jetted down the right wing into the Calgary zone and ripped a shot from the right faceoff dot to the top left corner of the Calgary net to push the Blades lead out to 5-3.

Blades 19-year-old left-winger Rowan Calvert sealed the victory scoring on the power play during a net scramble with 4:25 remaining in the third. 

Jordan Martin scored for the Blades on Friday.

Calvert’s tally was his 21^st goal on the season and 16^th marker on the power play.

Both Williams and Calvert each finished recording one goal and one assist for the Blades. Hvidston finished with one goal and one assist for Calgary. Daniel Hauser turned away 24 shots to take the setback in net for the Hitmen.

With the setback, the Hitmen fell to 33-14-3-2 to remain three points back of the idle Medicine Hat Tigers (35-16-3-1) for first place in the Eastern Conference. The Hitmen have three games in hand on the Tigers.

Due to the Lethbridge Hurricanes downing the visiting Regina Pats 6-5 in overtime, the Hurricanes improve to 34-16-2-1 and equal the Hitmen with 71 standings points. 

The Blades celebrate their victory on Friday night.

The Hurricanes hold second in the Eastern Conference due to having more wins than the Hitmen, but Calgary has one game in hand on Lethbridge.

The Blades head on the road on Saturday to Swift Current to take on the 27-22-1-1 Broncos (7 p.m., InnovationPlex).

The Hitmen also get back at it on Saturday traveling to Prince Albert to take the Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Going forward, the Blades are hoping their young back end and McCallum can keep delivering big games. If that happens, Saskatoon can likely deliver a few more surprises as the WHL campaign continues.

Raiders surge past Broncos 6-1, other notes

Lukas Dragicevic had one goal and two assists for the Raiders.

A four-goal knockout shot in the third period allowed the Prince Albert Raiders to put away the Swift Current Broncos.

On Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre, the host Raiders took a 2-1 lead into the third period and piled up four goals in the third to surge past the visiting Broncos 6-1 to the delight of the 2,555 spectators in attendance. The win allowed the Raiders to improve to 29-18-3-1 and hold a slim edge for first place in the WHL’s East Division.

The Raiders have the same amount of standings points as the Saskatoon Blades (28-17-3-3) at 62, but Prince Albert holds the standings tiebreaker due to having more wins. The Brandon Wheat Kings (27-16-4-3) sit one point back of both the Raiders and Blades with a game in hand on both clubs.

Star defenceman Lukas Dragicevic opened the game’s scoring netting his 13^th of the season at the 4:01 mark of the opening frame ripping home a midrange shot from the left faceoff circle.

Tomas Mrsic had one goal and two assists for the Raiders.

With 5.8 seconds remaining in the first, Raiders 20-year-old left-winger Niall Crocker potted a power-play goal from the front of the Swift Current net to put the host side up 2-0.

In the second, Broncos 20-year-old centre Carlin Dezainde wired home a shot to the top right corner of the Prince Albert net from the front of the goal to cut the Raiders lead to 2-1. Dezainde converted a beauty setup pass from 19-year-old left-winger Rylan Gould from the left corner of the Prince Albert zone.

The Raiders opened the flood gates in the third. Tomas Mrsic, who is the team’s star 18-year-old left-winger, netted his 31^st goal of the campaign to push the Raiders edge out to 3-1. Brayden Dube picked up his 24^th goal of the season with his club working on the power play to give the Prince Albert side a 4-1 advantage.

Raiders captain Justice Christensen scored once at even strength and once on the power play to round out the 6-1 final score in Prince Albert’s favour. Christensen now had 18 goals on the campaign.

Justice Christensen scored twice for the Raiders.

Dragicevic and Mrsic each finished with one goal and two assists for Prince Albert.

Max Hildebrand stopped 31 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Joey Rocha turned away 33 shots to take the setback in net for the Broncos (27-22-1-1).

The Broncos return home on Saturday to host the Saskatoon Blades (7 p.m., InnovationPlex).

The Raiders also get back at it on Saturday as they host the Calgary Hitmen (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

• On Friday in Lethbridge, veteran centre Shane Smith scored at the 1:19 mark of overtime to deliver the host Hurricanes to a 6-5 victory over the Regina Pats. Hurricanes 19-year-old import right-winger Leo Braillard scored with 6.9 seconds remaining in the third period to force a 5-5 tie and overtime.
• On Friday in Kamloops, netminder Logan Edmonstone made 35 saves to backstop the host Blazers to a 3-1 victory over the Kelowna Rockets. Conner Radke, who is an 18-year-old right-winger, scored the winning goal for the Blazers in the second period. The win allowed Blazers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston to pick up his 583^rd career WHL regular season head coach victory. He moves one win ahead of Marc Habscheid, who is best known for guiding the Rockets and Prince Albert Raiders as head coach, for fifth all-time on the WHL’s career head coaching wins list.
• On Friday in Victoria, the host Royals won their sixth in a row downing the visiting Vancouver Giants 5-2. Royals 19-year-old star left-winger Teydon Trembecky had two goals and two assists in the win. Victoria improved its B.C. Division leading record to 32-14-3-5.
• Also on Friday in the WHL, the Brandon Wheat Kings doubled up the Moose Jaw Warriors 6-3; the Everett Silvertips slipped past the Prince George Cougars 3-1; the Red Deer Rebels downed the Edmonton Oil Kings 3-1; the Tri-City Americans edged the Spokane Chiefs 5-4 after a tiebreaking shootout; and the Portland Winterhawks edged the Wenatchee Wild 6-5 in overtime.
• On Tuesday, Cami Kepke, who is the WHL’s manager of communications and content, put together a great story on Manny Viveiros rediscovering his love for hockey after battling two cancer diagnosis and depression. Viveiros was a legendary defenceman on the Prince Albert Raiders squad that won the WHL title and the Memorial Cup as CHL champions in 1985. He guided the Swift Current Broncos to a WHL championship as head coach in 2017-18, and he currently serves as the head coach of the Vancouver Giants. Kepke’s story on Viveiros can be found right here.
• On Sunday, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature on softball power hitter Olivia Prokopchuk. The 17-year-old first base infielder has signed on with the University of South Carolina-Union Bantams Women’s Softball team located in Union, South Carolina. She is also coming back from tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. That piece can be found by clicking right here. I also put together a photo roundup that is anchored by pictures from the Saskatoon Valkyries Winter Camp. It also includes photos from baseball, football, rugby, softball and speed skating. That post can be found by clicking right here.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Tigers’ McKenna sinks Blades with three-point night

Former Saskatoon players combine on Medicine Hat winner

Gavin McKenna had one goal and two assists for the Tigers.

Gavin McKenna ensured a mini slump experienced by his Medicine Hat Tigers didn’t last long.

On Tuesday night, the Tigers went into their WHL regular season clash with the host Saskatoon Blades having posted one regulation loss, one overtime setback and one shootout defeat in their last three games. Against the Blades, McKenna came through with one goal and two assists in helping his Tigers come away with a 5-3 victory before a mostly disappointed gathering of 3,754 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

The win allowed the Tigers to improve to 34-16-3-1 and continue to hold a slim lead for first overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. They hold a one point edge over the Calgary Hitmen (33-13-3-2), but the Hitmen have three games in hand on the Medicine Hat side.

Gavin McKenna is tied for the WHL scoring lead with 95 points.

While McKenna, who is the Tigers superstar left-winger, had the night’s biggest performance, former Blades members in star defenceman Tanner Molendyk and defensive centre Misha Volotovskii came through with a highlight moment for the Tigers playing their first game against their former club. Molendyk and Volotovskii were dealt by the Blades to the Tigers in a blockbuster trade on January 6.

Just 24 seconds after the Blades scored to force a 3-3 tie in the contest in the third period, Volotovskii tipped home a point shot from Molendyk to put the Tigers up 4-3 with 6:54 remaining in the frame. Volotovskii’s tally held up to win the game.

Gavin McKenna had a key third period goal for the Tigers.

Also having a big night was Blades netminder and former Tigers member Ethan McCallum. McCallum made 38 saves to keep the Blades in the game. Had he not made a number of big saves in net for the Blades, the score of Tuesday’s contest could have been a lot worse with Medicine Hat holding a 43-18 edge in shots on goal.

McCallum was being backed up by associate player call up in 16-year-old Ryley Budd, who is playing regularly for the Edge School Under-18 Prep team in Calgary. Blades star netminder Evan Gardner is out day to day with a lower body injury.

While McCallum was doing his best to keep the Blades in the game, McKenna came through with offence in timely moments to give the Tigers a boost. Just 4:35 into the opening frame, McKenna fired a backhander on net that rebounded to the left side of the Saskatoon goal to Tigers star right-winger Ryder Ritchie. Ritchie quickly popped the rebound into the Saskatoon net to put the Tigers up 1-0.

Ryder Ritchie had the Tigers first goal on Tuesday.

Following that tally, the Tigers proceeded to fire all sorts of shots at the Saskatoon net, but McCallum stood tall to prevent the visitors from pulling away with the game early. That allowed the Blades to get some traction.

With 4:04 remaining in the first, the Blades broke into the Medicine Hat zone on a two-on-one break. Blades breakout 16-year-old rookie centre Cooper Williams broke down the left wing with the puck and slipped a pass across of the face of the Medicine Hat net to right-winger Hunter Laing. Laing potted a backhanded backdoor tap to even the score at 1-1. Import 17-year-old rookie left-winger David Lewandowski started the breakout with a backhanded pass between his legs.

Ethan McCallum stopped 38 shots in goal for the Blades.

Just 41 seconds in the second, Blades sophomore centre Hayden Harsanyi, who came to Saskatoon in the trade for Molendyk and Volotovskii, broke down the right wing into the Medicine Hat zone on a three-on-one rush. Harsanyi, who was playing his former Tigers team for the first time since being traded, got in close and sniped a shot low into the left side of the Medicine Hat net to give the Blades a 2-1 lead.

Just 2:18 later, Tigers 16-year-old left-winger Markus Ruck broke into the Saskatoon zone down the left wing, fired a shot on goal that was stopped, gathered the rebound behind the icing line and deflected the puck in off McCallum to even the score at 2-2.

Hunter Laing, right, taps home the Blades first goal.

That set the state for McKenna come through again for the Tigers as they went ahead 3-2 with 4:37 remaining in the second. With a faceoff in the offensive zone to the left of the Blades net, McKenna was positioned on the top of the faceoff circle to get off a quick shot on a clean draw win on a set play the Tigers have used for at least two decades.

Tigers 20-year-old captain Oasiz Wiesblatt won the draw back to McKenna at the top of the faceoff circle only for Blades solid 20-year-old defenceman and captain Ben Saunderson to get up on McKenna to cut off the shooting lane. McKenna stayed calm and put a smart pass out to Wiesblatt, who was left all alone at the right side of the Saskatoon net. Wiesblatt put home a backhand shot between McCallum’s legs to give the Tigers their one-goal edge.

Hayden Harsanyi had the Blades second goal on Tuesday.

Medicine Hat proceeded to keep the pressure up on the host side, but the Blades again found a traction moment working on a power play in the third period. With 7:18 remaining in the third period, Blades 20-year-old left-winger Tanner Scott had the puck at the left side of the Medicine Hat net.

Scott made a pass across the front of the Medicine Hat goal to 19-year-old left-winger Rowan Calvert at the right side of the net. Calvert one-timed home his 20^th goal of the season and 15^th on the power play to even the score at 3-3.

That set the stage for Volotovskii to score the winner for the Tigers just 24 seconds later deflecting in Molendyk’s point shot.

The Tigers celebrate a goal from Markus Ruck (#26).

McKenna proceeded to come through with a dagger goal with 4:38 remaining in the third that sealed the victory. The 17-year-old collected the rebound at the left side of the Blades net off a rebound from a shot taken by Wiesblatt.

From a bad angle, McKenna put home an elite level shot to the top right corner of the Saskatoon net for his 29^th goal of the season that rounded out the 5-3 score in favour of the visitors.

Harrison Meneghin stopped 15 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Tigers.

The Blades fell to 27-17-3-3 to remain second in the WHL’s East Division. They have the same amount of standings points as the first place Prince Albert Raiders (28-17-3-1) at 60, but the Raiders hold the standings tiebreaker due to having more wins. Prince Albert also has a game in hand on Saskatoon.

The Brandon Wheat Kings (26-16-4-3) sit one standing point back of both the Raiders and Blades.

The Tigers return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Prince Albert to take on the Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Tigers celebrate their win on Tuesday.

The Blades get back at it on Friday when they host the 33-13-3-2 Calgary Hitmen (7 p.m., Sasktel Centre).

With his three-point night, McKenna now has 95 points on the season coming off 29 goals and 66 assists. He is tied for the lead in the WHL’s scoring race with Spokane Chiefs right-winger Andrew Cristall, who recently turned 20-years-old. Cristall has his 95 points coming from 35 goals and 60 assists.

Still, McKenna could have had an even bigger night on Tuesday as he had nine shots on goal that included at least three golden scoring chances he was robbed on. Even at his young age, McKenna showed once again that he is truly one of the WHL’s elite players and a total treat to watch.

Blades salute Molendyk, Volotovskii and Desjardins

Tigers D Tanner Molendyk, left, with Blades GM Colin Priestner.

Tanner Molendyk and Misha Volotovskii were part of a number of big moments over the last four years for the Saskatoon Blades, and it was fitting they got a homecoming.

On Tuesday, Molendyk, who recently turned 20-years-old, and Volotovskii, who is 19-years-old, returned to the SaskTel Centre for the first time as members of the Medicine Hat Tigers. The two were dealt by the Blades to the Tigers in a blockbuster trade on January 6.

During a pre-game ceremony, the Blades made a presentation to Molendyk, who is a star defenceman and signed NHL entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators. Blades general manager Colin Priestner gave Molendyk a set of golf clubs, and the Blades announced their team award for the club’s top defenceman will be named after Molendyk. The presentation also included a tribute video.

At the game’s first media timeout in the first period, the Blades paid tribute to Volotovskii, who is a sound defensive centre. They showed a tribute video for Volotovskii that drew big cheers from the 3,754 spectators in attendance. Volotovskii was on the Tigers bench at that time and make sure to get up and give a wave to the crowd.

Tanner Molendyk played 210 regular season games for the Blades.

Molendyk played in 210 career regular season games for the Blades starting in the 2020-21 campaign collecting 26 goals and 108 assists. Volotovskii suited up in 195 career regular season contests for the Blades starting in the 2021-22 campaign recording 19 goals and 16 assists.

The Blades also gave a salute to Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins for picking up his 500^th career regular season win as a WHL head coach back on January 10, when the Tigers downed the Red Deer Rebels 8-1 at Co-op Place in Medicine Hat. Desjardins served as the Blades head coach as a mid-season replacement in the 1997-98 campaign.

As a player, he was a University of Saskatchewan Men’s Hockey Team legend and was captain of the 1982-83 Huskies squad that won the Canada West Conference and U Sports national championships. Desjardins, who was a forward, was the MVP of the 1983 U Sports National Championship Tournament. In the event’s championship game, the Huskies downed the Concordia University Stingers 6-2 to capture what is now known as the David Johnston University Cup.

Misha Volotovskii played 195 regular season games with the Blades.

The Blades also passed on a birthday greeting as Desjardins turned 68-years-old on Tuesday. The Tigers came away with a 5-3 victory over the Blades, which was the 510^th career regular season victory for Desjardins as a WHL head coach and his 500^th career regular season win as the head coach of the Tigers.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Eagles crush Chiefs, leave no doubt in Super Bowl win

Trump shades Swift to create tabloid fodder

“Donald Trump likes to win.”

Fortunately, that didn’t come into play in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Philadelphia Eagles roared out to leads of 34-0 and 40-6 and hammered the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 before 65,719 spectators. The Chiefs scored two touchdowns in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter in “garbage time” to cosmetically make the final score look better.

The contest also made news as Trump became the first sitting President of the United States of America to watch the Super Bowl live in person. In a pre-game interview with Fox, Trump predicted a Chiefs victory after praising the team’s quarterback in Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany. Trump was pictured getting on Air Force One more than an hour before the contest concluded.

On the flight to the Super Bowl, Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports including from Canada and Mexico. That got the mainstream news outlets fired up in Canada.

At the Super Bowl, Trump fed the tabloids content. During the Fox broadcast of the game, he was shown during the national anthem to big cheers from the stadium.

On social media channels specifically Platform-X, which is owned by close Trump associate Elon Musk, video was shown during the game of the fans booing music superstar Taylor Swift when she was shown on the facility’s big screen.

For the presidential election held this past November in 2024, Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, who was the Democratic candidate. Swift is also dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Trump responded on Truth Social to Swift’s endorsement of Harris that he hated Swift and was not a fan of her.

As the Eagles route in the Super Bowl continued, posts circulated on social media of the crowd cheering Trump and booing Swift. Trump shared one of the posts of the duel video of him getting cheered and Swift being booed on Truth Social.

He also put out a post on Truth Social that said, “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!”

Both social media actions come off as being childish and petty. Trump does like to throw dirt on his perceived enemies.

Trump supporters on Platform-X on the other hand reveled over the Truth Social post and the fact he shared the post of him getting cheered and Swift being booed.

A year ago in the Chiefs 25-22 overtime Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ERS in Las Vegas, Nevada, Swift was the big celebrity star with her relationship with Kelce drawing tonnes of attention. Now, all of that feels like it happened in some other universe.

All of a sudden, there were no conspiracy theories that the NFL officials were making calls to favour the Chiefs in order to make Swift happy.

Actually, there was no way to save the Chiefs on Sunday with favourable calls, if you believe that conspiracy theory. The Eagles were that good.

Philadelphia had the NFL’s top defence during the 2024 regular season giving up just 278.4 total yards per game, and that defensive unit was as good as advertised on Sunday.

In an NFL where it has become increasingly harder to be a physical team due to rule changes, the Eagles defence hammered the Chiefs. Philadelphia’s defensive pressure resulted in six quarterback sacks.

Linebacker Josh Sweat had 2.5 sacks to lead the Eagles, while defensive tackle Milton Williams had a pair of sacks, fellow defensive tackle Jordan Davis had a single sack and linebacker Jalyx Hurt had a half sack.

Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean returned an interception 38 yards for a touchdown that put the Eagles up 17-0 with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter. That play was a huge turning point in the contest. The body language of the Chiefs players and coaches just dropped right down after that play and never recovered for the rest of the game.

Linebacker Zack Baun had a diving interception that set the Eagles up on the Chiefs 14 yard line with 1:45 remaining in the second quarter. Two plays later, Eagles star quarterback Jalen Hurts connected with receiver A.J. Brown on a 12-yard touchdown toss that put the Eagles up 24-0 going into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Eagles pushed their edge out to 27-0 on a 29-yard field goal from kicker Jake Elliott. After forcing a turnover on downs with just under three minutes to play in the frame, Hurts connected with receiver DeVonta Smith on a 46 yard touchdown bomb to increase the Eagles advantage to 34-0.

At that point if the game was a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the fight.

It seemed like the Eagles were channeling the 1985 Chicago Bears, when they hammered the New England Patriots before the era of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. Actually, one was wondering if the Eagles were going to post the first shutout in the history of the Super Bowl and one up the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

The 2000 Ravens only gave up a kickoff return touchdown in thumping the New York Giants 34-7 in Super Bowl XXXV.

On Sunday, Hurts had his finest hour in the NFL being named the game MVP of his team’s Super Bowl win. He completed 17-of-22 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing one interception. Hurts, who won an NCAA championship with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football Team in 2017, ran the ball 11 times for 72 yards and scored the Eagles first major on the “tush push” play.

Eagles superstar running back Saquon Barkley turned heads in 2024 leading the NFL in rushing during regular season running the ball 345 times for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns. The Chiefs were focused on stopping Barkley, who ran the ball 25 times for 57 yards. Barkley did come up with six big catches for 40 yards and was overjoyed to get a Super Bowl win on his 28^th birthday.

Elliott made all four of his field goal attempts with a long from 50 yards out. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looked like a genius with how well his team played.

Overall, the Eagles were full marks for their impressive win, and they were the night’s biggest story. The Trump shading Swift tabloid moves on social media was a secondary story that is attracting a lot of looks.

Welcome to the new reality where sports and politics mixes with Trump serving a second term as President of the United States. Don’t expect these types of occurrence to go away any time soon.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Central Division takes charge of Eastern Conference

Gavin McKenna and his Tigers have been on a roll.

When it comes to the WHL’s Eastern Conference, the Central Division has the power.

Leading up to the WHL’s trade deadline on January 9, the Medicine Hat Tigers, Calgary Hitmen and Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Central Division basically got involved with an arms race. Now almost four weeks has passed since the trade deadline elapsed, and the Tigers, Hitmen and Hurricanes have asserted themselves as the class of the conference.

The Tigers lead the conference with a 33-15-2-1 mark sitting four points clear of the Hitmen (30-13-3-2) and seven points up on the Hurricanes (30-16-1-1). Medicine Hat had been riding a 12-game winning streak that came to an end on Saturday with a 4-3 loss after an 11-round tiebreaking shootout to the Thunderbirds in Seattle. That wrapped up a six game road trip through the U.S. Division for the Tigers.

During the road trip through the U.S. Division, the Tigers came away with some impressive victories. On January 24, they slipped past the Chiefs in Spokane 3-2. On January 29, they thumped the Silvertips in Everett 7-3, and last Friday, they hammered the Winterhawks in Portland 7-2.

On Tuesday, Tigers superstar left-winger Gavin McKenna was named the WHL’s player of the month for January recording 26 points on seven goals and 19 assists in 11 games since returning from world juniors. That marked the second time this season McKenna was named a player of the month.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.