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| Logan Flodell makes one of his 34 stops to power the Blades past Portland. |
Logan Flodell has become the man of the hour during the
early part of the WHL season for the Saskatoon Blades.
Last season with the Thunderbirds, Flodell had a strong
campaign appearing in 42 regular season games posting a 22-13-4 record, a 2.68
goals against average, a .904 save percentage and three shutouts. He was
Seattle’s starter until the Thunderbirds acquired overage netminder Landon Bow
in a deal shortly before the WHL’s trade deadline.
“I am honoured to be here. It is a great organization. I am
proud to play for the Saskatoon Blades.
Over the first 40 minutes, Flodell kept making key saves to
give the Blades a chance to pull ahead. Portland held a 21-14 edge in shots
after two periods.
Centre Josh Paterson sealed the win for the Blades with an
empty-net tally with 64 seconds remaining in the contest.
The 19-year-old Regina product continued his hot start
making 34 stops to help his Blades slip past a high flying Portland Winterhawks
3-1 before 3,016 spectators Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre.
In his four
starts with the Blades since coming over in a trade with the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sept. 17, Flodell has posted a 3-1 record, a 1.75 goals against
average, a .947 save percentage and one shutout.
Flodell’s latest win came on the heels of making a 31-save
shutout performance on Thursday, when the Blades blanked their archrivals the
Prince Albert Raiders 2-0.
“It is good to get the win for the boys,” said Flodell, who
team has won three straight to improve to 4-2. “Definitely, they played really
well in front of me.
“They kept the shots to outside like they did last game
against P.A., and it is always good to get another win.”
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| Blades goaltender Logan Flodell keeps the Winterhawks at bay. |
Bow played every minute of the post-season for the
Thunderbirds as they marched all the way to the WHL championship series, where
they fell to the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Flodell was expecting to be with the Thunderbirds this
season, so being traded didn’t cross his mind.
“Definitely, it was a bit of a shock,” said Flodell, who
stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 166 pounds. “I wasn’t aware of it until I got told
of course.
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| Blades goalie Logan Flodell tracks a shot into his chest. |
“Seattle was an amazing city to play in, and I thank them
for everything. It is awesome to be here.”
He did admit it was difficult to leave the only WHL team
that he had known, which contained a roster of core guys he has grown with.
“We had a great group of guys last year, and they have a
good group of guys this year,” said Flodell. “It was tough leaving a bunch of
good friends.
“It is hockey. You get traded all the time. They have a
great group of guys here, and we are going to make the experiences last.”
The Blades jumped ahead 1-0 in Saturday’s game, when high
energy right-winger Mason McCarty potted his third of the season on a turnaround
shot. Before the first period ended, Jake Gricius potted a goal for the
Winterhawks to tie the score at 1-1.
With 2:44 to play in the second, left-winger Braylon Shmyr
scored an absolute highlight reel goal for the hosts to put the Blades ahead
2-1. Shmyr came flying down the left win on a one-on-one rush, undressed Winterhawks
defenceman Henri Jokiharju on a deke move and roofed a shot top corner on
goaltender Kole Kehler.
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| Braylon Shmyr scores a highlight reel goal to put the Blades up 2-1. |
In the third, he made a couple of game-saving stops that
could have gotten the visitors rolling. First, Flodell robbed Winterhawks
centre Alex Overhardt with a kick save after the visitors put together a pretty
passing play on a three-on-one rush to create a golden scoring chance for the
Cherry Hills, Colorado, product. A short time later, Flodell stoned Portland
right-winger Evan Weinger on a breakaway.
Last season, the Blades didn’t receive enough of these type
of key saves, when they gave up the second most goals in the league at 318.
Blades head coach Dean Brockman said Flodell’s play has been key to helping his
club get some traction heading into games.
“He (Flodell) had been huge,” said Brockman. “We’ve got a
pretty young group.
“When you’ve got young players and if they are going to make
mistakes, he has been there to kind of solve the little mistakes that we are
making. For us, that is huge. When you get a guy that is playing as well as he
is, probably the puck looks like a beach ball right now for him.”
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| The Blades celebrate their 3-1 victory over the Winterhawks. |
Kehler turned away 20-of-22 shots taking the loss in goal
for the Winterhawks, who fell to 5-3.
Flodell was also pleased he didn’t feel any fatigue playing
in two games over three nights. He noted that is part of life in the WHL.
“I felt pretty good in there,” said Flodell. “It is what you
have to do, especially if you want to be a starting goaltender.
“You have to be able to play back to back. I thought I did
pretty well tonight.”
The Blades return to action Sunday when they host the
Edmonton Oil Kings at 2 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
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