Rhinehart’s big night paces Blades to 9-2 romp over Tigers

The Blades celebrate a short-handed goal from Rhett Rhinehart (#41).

The Saskatoon Blades were in good hands with Rhett Rhinehart.

The 20-year-old defenceman came up with a monster game posting a pair of goals, an assist and a plus-two rating in the plus-minus department as his Blades bashed the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 9-2 in a WHL regular season clash played before 2,713 spectators on Friday night at the SaskTel Centre.

Rhinehart was playing his first contest since the Blades fell 4-1 at the SaskTel Centre back on January 1. The Lloydminster product has been on the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List, but ultimately only missed two games.

Rhett Rhinehart had two goals and an assist on Friday.

He thought he got better as Friday’s game went on.

“It was pretty good,” said Rhinehart. “It was a little tough at first.

“It was my first game in three weeks. I was just kind of getting my legs back under me at first. Playing lots of minutes kind of helps you get into it.”

Rhinehart’s return was a welcome one as the Blades found themselves short staffed on defence due to fact four regulars were out due to COVID-19 protocols in captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, Marek Schneider, Tanner Molendyk and Ben Saunderson.

Saskatoon played with four natural defencemen with Rhinehart being paired with Charlie Wright, while rookie Ryan Nolan was paired with sophomore Spencer Shugrue. Centre Mikhail Volotovskii was moved to defence to help out the four natural blue-liners.

Rhett Rhinehart logged a lot of minutes on the Blade blue-line on Friday.

The Blades were also without head coach Brennan Sonne, who was isolating at home due to COVID-19 protocols. Associate coach Ryan Marsh ran the Blades bench along with assistant coach Dan DaSilva and goalie coach Jeff Harvey.

Rhinehart said it was important for the Blades defencemen to play smart, and he thought that helped him be on the ice for about half the game.

“It is definitely pretty gruelling,” said Rhinehart. “You’re going the whole time.

Oasiz Wiesblatt score to put the Tigers up 2-0 early on Friday.

“You get on the bench, and then you are going on in the next 40 seconds. You don’t get a lot of rest, so at points you have to conserve your energy and kind of just not really pace yourself, but take your points when you think you want to go a little harder.”

The Tigers got a quick jump in Friday’s clash jetting out to a 2-0 lead.

On an odd man rush into the Saskatoon zone, Tigers right-winger Carter Chorney charged down the right wing and passed the puck across the front of the Blades net to overage centre Logan Barlage.

Barlage quickly blasted home his eighth goal of the season and first as a member of the Tigers to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at the 3:24 mark of the opening frame. The Tigers acquired Barlage from the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a deal that was made before last Monday’s WHL trade deadline.

Kyren Gronick (#27) celebrates putting the Blades up 3-2.

The Tigers increased their advantage to 2-0 just 2:02 later scoring on the power play. Tigers right-winger Teague Patton passed the puck from the left corner of the Blades zone across the face of the Saskatoon goal to linemate Oasiz Wiesblatt, who tapped home his fifth of the season into an open cage.

Almost as quickly as the Tigers got the jump out of the gate, the Blades turned the momentum of the contest around.

Just past the midway point of the opening frame, Shugrue sprung overage centre Tristen Robins on a breakaway into the Medicine Hat Zone. Robins snapped his 19^th goal of the season past Tigers netminder Garin Bjorklunk to cut the Medicine Hat lead to 2-1.

The Blades evened things up at 2-2 scoring just 18 seconds later, when centre Jayden Wiens slipped home a mid-range shot.

Jayden Wiens had two goals and an assist for the Blades.

Saskatoon then jumped in front 3-2 when right-winger Kyren Gronick tipped home a point shot from centre Trevor Wong with 24.2 seconds remaining in the first for a power-play tally.

Wiens liked how his squad was able to respond quickly after falling behind 2-0 early.

“We’re a team that is not going to quit, even from a tough start like here tonight,” said Wiens. “I think it shows the character of the guys and just the no quit attitude for this group and the resiliency, so that is a good thing to see.”

The Tigers got out to a solid jump to start the second holding a 7-1 edge in shots on goal over the first 8:30 of the frame. The visitors were unable to solve Blades 17-year-old rookie netminder Ethan Chadwick.

Tristen Robins had two goals and an assist for the Blades.

The Blades proceeded to increase their edge to 4-2 at the 9:56 mark of the second period, when Rhinehart fired home a power-play goal through a screen in front of the Medicine Hat net.

The Tigers looked like they were going to have a good chance to change momentum when Nolan was penalized for hooking with 3:46 remaining in the second.

On that kill, the Blades scored a pair of short-handed goals coming 31 seconds apart from each other to push their lead up to 6-2.

Robins netted the first short-handed goal for his second tally of the night and 20^th goal of the season. Rhinehart potted the second short-handed goal and his second of the night coming off a rare offensive rush up the right wing.

Ethan Chadwick made 28 saves in goal for the Blades.

“He (Rhinehart) really stepped his game up,” said Marsh. “He had been off on a little bit of a layoff based off of COVID.

“Coming back in, I was a little bit concerned with us being a little bit short, and him not having played in the last few games. I just thought as the game went on he just got better and better. He played really well for us.

“He stepped up in all situations. He did a really good job on our power play getting some opportunity there with some guys that were out. I thought he was a horse out there on our penalty kill as well, and he was a real leader for us tonight.”

Following Rhinehart’s goal that put the Blades up 6-2, the Tigers pulled starting netminder Garin Bjorklund, who stopped 10-of-16 shots sent his way. He took the setback in goal for the Tigers as they fell to 7-25-3-1 having lost their last four in a row.

Noah Boyko had three assists for the Blades on Friday.

Beckett Langkow played the rest of the way in relief for Medicine Hat turning away five-of-eight shots sent his way.

Just 51 seconds into the third, the Blades netted their third power-play goal of the night, when Wiens netted his second goal of the contest tipping home a point shot from defenceman Charlie Wright.

The Blades proceeded to round of the contest’s scoring with Gronick scoring his second power-play goal of the night and Nolan netting his first career WHL regular season goal.

Nolan was acquired by the Blades from the Tigers in a blockbuster three-team trade that involved the Prince George Cougars on December 27, 2021.

Ryan Nolan scored his first career WHL goal on Friday.

Rhinehart said he was proud of everyone who played on the Blades short staffed back end on Friday night.

“Those guys were really awesome, and we had Misha (Mikhail) Volotovskii help out on the back end as well to give us an extra man for a little bit of help there,” said Rhinehart. “Obviously, Ryan Nolan scored his first Western League goal against his old team was a pretty special moment.

“He made sure that he enjoyed that one.”

Chadwick stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades, who improved to 20-14-1-1 with their third straight victory.

Robins, Wiens and Gronick each picked up a single assist to go with their respective two-goal nights. 

Egor Sidorov (#19) shows off some fancy stick work.

Wong and right-winger Noah Boyko each picked up three assists on Friday for the Blades.

The Blades return to action on Saturday when they host the Winnipeg Ice (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Tigers also get back at it Saturday when they travel to Prince Albert to face the 15-20-1-1 Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Marsh said his Blades will have their hands full on Saturday playing an Ice team that leads the WHL’s overall standings with a 29-5-2 record.

The Blades enjoy their big win on Friday night.

“It is a huge challenge,” said Marsh. “They are really a high-powered offensive team.

“We need to reset. We need to clean a few things up from a defensive standpoint and do some things off the rush. We have to get our rest and recovery tonight and be ready to go to battle.

“We have to play a Blades brand of hockey tomorrow, where you are outworking the opposition and taking care of business away from the puck. We are going to need everyone in all four lines, our six defencemen and (our goalie) making key saves to have success tomorrow.”

“Girls Rock Night” returned on Friday night

Keely Shaw, Brigette Lacquette and Emmarae Dale are saluted.

On Friday, the Saskatoon Blades brought back their traditional “Girls Rock Night.”

The Blades were unable to hold that night last season as they played an abbreviated 24-game schedule in a bubble environment at the Brandt Centre in Regina due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

With the Blades once again being able to host home games with fans this season inside a scheduled 68-game regular season, they are trying to get back to holding a number of traditional theme nights they held before the COVID-19 pandemic clamped down on North America back in March of 2020.

On Friday, the Blades had three special guests at their game in Brigette Lacquette, Keely Shaw and Emmarae Dale.

Lacquette played defence for Canada’s senior national women’s hockey team and is currently a scout for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks.

The ceremonial faceoff of the Blades “Girls Rock Night.”

Shaw won a bronze medal in cycling at the 2020 Paralympics that were actually held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Dale just graduated from the Saskatoon Hilltops after playing linebacker for them last season. Dale is the first female to play games in the CJFL.

She is a veteran player of the Saskatoon Valkyries of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League.

The trio took part in a pre-game speaking engagement designed for all ages. They also participated in a ceremonial pre-game faceoff, where they were introduced individually and given big cheers by the 2,713 spectators in attendance.

Following those festivities, the Blades would go on to down the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 9-2.

Pillar trade a first class move by Blades, Blazers

The Saskatoon Blades don’t mind waiting for a major roster addition, especially when a health situations needs to work itself out.

Before the WHL’s trade deadline this past Monday, the Blades acquired 19-year-old forward Josh Pillar from the Kamloops Blazers in exchange for a conditional third round selection in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft and a conditional second round pick in the 2024 Prospects Draft.

Pillar, who stands 6-feet and weighs 179 pounds, posted 11 goals, 20 assists and a plus-four rating in 29 games with the Blazers this season. In 183 career regular season games with the Blazers, Pillar has 43 goals, 83 assists and a plus-20 rating.

He was selected in the fourth round and 127^th overall by the Minnesota Wild in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.

At the time the trade was made, Pillar was at home in Warman, Sask., recovering from a private medical situation. As Warman is located along Saskatoon’s northeast border, management on both teams in conjunction with Pillar’s family agreed it was best for Pillar to be close to home. The Blades and Blazers did the classy thing and made this trade a reality.

Blades general manager Colin Priestner and Blazers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston both deserve a tonne of praise for the work they put in to make this trade a reality to get Pillar to his home stomping grounds.

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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