Blades role players run wild over Raiders

Rowan Calvert (#23) celebrates scoring his first career WHL goal.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – The Saskatoon Blades supporting cast ran wild over the Prince Albert Raiders.

In the first game after the WHL Christmas break for both sides on Monday night, two players from the Blades scored their first goals of the season and two players tallied their second markers of the campaign to power the visitors to a 4-1 victory over the Raiders. The result disappointed most of the 2,340 in attendance at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre.

“It was the first game back, and it looked that way,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. “Both teams I thought were OK only they were a little bit better than us.

“I thought the coaching was rusty. I thought our players were rusty and a lot of rust. Their depth outplayed ours I guess, but that happens sometimes.

Rowan Calvert was playing for the Blades as an AP call up.

“The first game back is a tough game, but they found a way to get her done, and we didn’t.”

The Raiders came out of the gate carrying the early momentum, but were held off the scoreboard by Blades star netminder Nolan Maier.

Early in the frame, Maier swallowed up a mid-range drive from Raiders rearguard Landon Kosior.

Maier proceeded to turn away Raiders left-winger Keaton Sorensen on an in close chance and then on a backhand shot Sorensen directed on goal after a coast-to-coast rush while working on the power play.

After killing two straight penalties that included a stretch of being down two men for 46 seconds, the Blades jumped ahead 1-0 when 16-year-old sophomore defenceman Tanner Molendyk snapped a shot past Raiders import rookie netminder Tikhon Chaika with 4:27 remaining in the frame. The tally was Molendyk’s second goal of the season.

Landon Kosior had a power-play goal for the Raiders.

Habscheid thought that sequence of events had a sizable impact on how the game played out.

“That was the TSN turning point for sure,” said Habscheid. “If we score there (on the power plays), we get a little bit of extra life.

“If they kill it, they get some life. They get that break and away they go with a nice shot. The first goal especially was important because it gave one team life and the other team was kind of limping around a bit.”

At the 8:22 mark of the second, the Blades went ahead 2-0 when 16-year-old right-winger Rowan Calvert scored his first career WHL regular season goal.

Standing in close at the right side of the Prince Albert net, Calvert, who is an associate player call up, received a pass from behind the net from linemate Jayden Wiens. Calvert, who is playing for his hometown Moose Jaw Warriors under-18 AAA team, quickly popped the puck into the goal to give his Blades a two-goal edge.

Tanner Molendyk scored the Blades first goal on Monday.

With about 3:30 remaining in the second, Raiders right-winger Carson Latimer nailed Wiens with a big hip check.

A few seconds later, Blades 19-year-old right-winger Josh Paulhus engaged Raiders 18-year-old rookie left-winger Vladislav Shilo in a spirited fight. Paulhus received a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct, while Shilo received a fighting major.

On the ensuing power-play, left-winger Sloan Stanick hit Kosior with a backdoor pass, and Kosior drove home his seventh goal of the season from the left slot to cut the Blades lead to 2-1.

Kosior believed the fight and the resulting goal turned the momentum back to the Raiders.

Raider LW Vladislav Shilo, left, fights Blades RW Josh Paulhus.

“I thought that was huge,” said Kosior. “For him (Shilo) to step up like that and fight like that, he did great.

“I thought that really gave us a big boost in momentum. To get a power play out of it and a goal was huge.”

Just when it seemed the Raiders had momentum on their side, Blades centre Spencer Shugrue snapped home a dagger at the 6:47 mark of the third period to give the visitors a 3-1 lead. Shugrue intercepted a pass in the Prince Albert zone from a Raiders defenceman and put home his second of the season for a two-goal edge.

Shugrue, who is normally a defenceman, was playing centre as the Blades were short-handed up front as they were missing import forwards Egor Sidorov and Moritz Elias.

Spencer Shugrue had a key insurance goal for the Blades.

Saskatoon also had three team members added to the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List before Monday’s game.

Kosior thought his team needed to show a little more resiliency after Shugrue scored to put the Blades up 3-1 in the third.

“I think it deflated us a bit, but we can’t let that happen to us,” said Kosior. “We just have to keep moving forward.

“We can’t let a goal affect us like that.”

With 4:47 remaining in the third, the Raiders went on the power play, and they pulled Tikhon for an extra attacker too for a six-versus-four skaters advantage.

Carson Latimer works with the puck in the offensive zone.

The Blades proceeded to ice the game with 4:21 remaining in the third, when 18-year-old rearguard Charlie Wright had the puck in his own zone and banked a long clear off the boards that found its way into the Raiders net to round out the 4-1 win. The tally was Wright’s first goal of the campaign.

Chaika turned away 15-of-18 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders (12-15-1-1). 

Maier stopped 23 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (16-13-1).

The Raiders were playing without star 19-year-old centre Ozzy Wiesblatt, who is out day-to-day with an upper body injury.

The Blades celebrate their win on Monday.

The Blades return to action on Tuesday when they host the 20-9-1-1 Red Deer Rebels (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders play host the Rebels on night later on Wednesday night (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Habscheid is looking forward to using the practice on the Raiders off day on Tuesday to further shake out the rust from the Christmas break.

“You just get guys moving the puck and getting playing again,” said Habscheid. “That is the way it is.

“This is always a tough game. It is a tough game for both. We had the home game, and they didn’t.

“They just seemed to want it a little bit more.”

WHL releases COVID-19 Protocol List

WHL team members aim to stay off the WHL COVID-19 Protocol list.

About 65 minutes before the first of Monday’s five scheduled WHL games hit the ice, the WHL office announced a WHL COVID-19 Protocol list.

The list is similar to one used in the NHL.

The WHL list displays the number of players and hockey operations staff that have tested positive for COVID-19 for each team. Unlike the NHL list, no names are given on the WHL list.

For Monday’s contest that saw the Saskatoon Blades down the Raiders in Prince Albert 4-1, the Blades had three team member test positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Raiders didn’t have any team members on the COVID-19 list.

The testing for Monday’s list was done as all players and personnel returned to their clubs from the WHL Christmas break.

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