Fourth time is a charm – Blades finally get initial home win

Nolan Kneen, left, celebrates his winning goal for the Blades with Kyle Crnkovic.

    Nolan Kneen admitted it felt like his Saskatoon Blades finally got a monkey off their collective backs.

    After dropping their first three home dates at the SaskTel Centre including a 5-4 setback last Sunday after a tiebreaking shootout to the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Blades finally got their first win at home of the current WHL campaign.

    On Wednesday before 2,715 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades slipped past the Vancouver Giants 2-1 in a competitively contested regular season game.

Nolan Kneen scored the third period winner for the Blades.

    “It was kind of funny to hear the win song for the first time at home, which was nice,” said Kneen, who is an overage offensive-defenceman with the team. “It is obviously nice to get the first win under the belt.”

    The Blades went into the clash with the Giants with the heartbreaking setback to the Wheat Kings on their mind. In the loss to Brandon, Saskatoon held a 4-2 lead before the Wheat Kings scored twice in the final 65 seconds of the third period to force a 4-4 tie and overtime.

    That set the stage for Brandon to prevail after a tiebreaking shootout.

    On Wednesday night, the Blades entered the third period holding a 1-0 lead over the Giants. The Giants evened things up at 1-1 at the nine-minute mark of the frame, when overage defenceman Dylan Plouffe blew home a mid-range drive.

    The Blades answered back working on the power play with 6:34 remaining in the third, when Kneen pinched down the right wing with the puck and fired home a close in shot to put the host side up 2-1.

Dylan Plouffe scored the third period equalizer for the Giants.

    Blades star netminder Nolan Maier made 30 saves on the night to ensure Kneen’s marker stood up as the winner.

    “I think we just played a full 60 tonight,” said Kneen, whose team improved to 4-3-0-1. “There were kind of times where we slowed down and let them play their game, but I think overall we had a good 60 minutes.

    “When they scored, we kind of kept it even-keel and didn’t stray from our systems or anything. We just came back and ended up getting another one.”

    Blades head coach Mitch Love was pleased with how his team responded after the Giants tied things up.

Blades goalie Nolan Maier holds of the Giants late in the third period.

    “I said to our guys tonight I liked after they scored their goal to tie it that we didn’t panic,” said Love. “We stayed patient.

    “That is sometimes hard to do, especially after a night on Sunday, where we gave up a couple of late goals for them to tie it up. I liked our composure in those times.”

    Overall, Love liked his is team played against Giants side that returned a large number of players that helped Vancouver reach the WHL final last season before falling in 3-2 in overtime in a series deciding Game 7 to the Prince Albert Raiders.

    “A bit of our game plan was obviously to try to limit their offence from their back end,” said Love. “That is the strength of their hockey team along with their goaltending.

Chase Wouters scored in the first period for the Blades.

    “They are a little depleted up front right now. They had some defencemen playing forward for them, so they are not at full health there. Again, they play a really, really good team game.

    “They’ve got a lot of good little schemes out there that they run that you have to be dialled in on. We were fortunate we had a few days between our Sunday game and tonight to prep for that, and I thought our guys did a good job of limiting their offence.”

    The Giants entered the game without injured second-year right-winger Lukas Svejkovsky (upper body, day-to-day) and injured rookie left-winger Cole Shepard (lower body, week-to-week). Due to their absence, the Giants had defencemen Nicholas Draffin and Tanner Brown play up front.

Despite the injuries, the Giants played a solid game.

Giants D Dylan Plouffe, left, battles Blades LW Colton Dach for the puck.

    At the start, the Blades got the jump. They broke through on the scoreboard, when captain Chase Wouters tipped home a point shot from defenceman Scott Walford for a power-play goal 78 second into the contest for a 1-0 lead.

    Near the midway point of the first, the Giants had a big chance to even things up, but a backdoor drive by Giants right-winger Tristen Nielson was turned away by the glove had of Maier.

    With 6:54 remaining in the first, Blades feisty left-winger Riley McKay was hauled down on a breakaway by Giants left-winger Jackson Shepard resulting in a penalty shot.

Trent Miner made 29 saves in goal for the Giants on Wednesday.

    On the penalty shot, McKay tried to go forehand to backhand but he was denied by a left pad save from Giants goalie Trent Miner.

    In the final seconds of the first, McKay made his presence felt again levelling Shepard with an open ice hit.

    The teams played through a scoreless second with the Giants holding a 12-10 edge in shot over the 20-minute stanza. Maier and Miner, who are both 18 years of age, put up walls in front of their respective goals denying all shooters that came their way.

    “He (Maier) looked sharp tonight,” said Love. “He looked like he was in the zone, a competitive zone.

Two young fans cheer on Blades LW Riley McKay.

    “I think sometimes as a goalie you also look at the other guy that is at the other end, and you want to try and out do him. Miner is a good young goal, the same age. There is some extra motivation there I am sure.

    “Both kids were real good tonight. Again when you have that, it tends to lead to a low scoring hockey game.”

    The scoreless second gave way to the drama in the third.

    Inside of the final two minutes of the third, Maier made key back-to-back stops on Nielsen and Giants star offensive-defenceman Bowen Byram to preserve the Blades victory.

    Miner turned away 29 shots to take the setback in goal for the Giants (4-5).

    “I think obviously when you come out with a win it is a fun game,” said Maier. “There are a lot of guys in the locker room that I think played their best game of the year.

    “That is really positive, especially for our young guys that aren’t getting as much minutes as our older guys. They are kind of finding their way. We’re all looking comfortable out there, so it is really good from a team perspective.”

The Blades celebrate their win on Wednesday night.

    The Blades return to action on Friday, when they travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings. The Giants are also back at it on Friday traveling to Moose Jaw to take on the Warriors.

    Maier said the Blades will be looking to earn a little bit of redemption in Friday’s game against the Wheat Kings after what happened last Sunday.

    “I think we want to prove something that we didn’t have our best game,” said Maier. “We kind of let it slip away from us, so I think we are going to have a really big one against them in their barn.”

    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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