Blades fall to Warriors 7-0 as injuries pile up

Tristen Robins left Saturday’s game with an injury.

The injury bug is taking a large bite out of the Saskatoon Blades at the worst possible time.

On Saturday night, the Blades traveled down to Moose Jaw to face the Warriors in a key regular season contest that could ultimately determine which side had home ice advantage in a head-to-head playoff series. With the way the WHL’s Eastern Conference standings are shaping up, it appears the Blades and Warriors will likely face each other in a first round best-of-seven series.

Playing before 2,867 spectators at Mosaic Place, the Warriors thumped the Blades 7-0. With the win, the Warriors improved to 35-21-3-2 and sit three points ahead of the Blades for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Blades fell to 34-23-3-1 to hold down fifth in the Eastern Conference. Both the Warriors and Blades have seven games remaining on their respective regular season schedules.

Saskatoon has won five out of the seven head-to-head meetings between the two sides this season.

At the moment, the Blades have to be more concerned about their injury situation as opposed to the lopsided loss to the Warriors.

The Blades went into Saturday’s game with the Warriors minus the services of five regulars and three more regulars went down during the contest in Moose Jaw.

Going into that clash with the Warriors, the Blades were without centres Lukas Hansen, Josh Pillar and Trevor Wong along with right-winger Noah Boyko and defencemen Aidan De La Gorgendiere, who is the team’s captain.

Hansen, Wong and Boyko are all listed as week-to-week with upper body injuries. Wong was lost on March 5 after taking an unpenalized cheap shot cross-check from Red Deer Rebels import defenceman Christoffer Sedoff during a 5-2 home ice victory.

Pillar and De La Gorgendiere played in the Blades 3-1 victory at home on Friday against the Regina Pats.

De La Gorgendiere is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury, while Pillar’s injury wasn’t disclosed.

Denton Mateychuk had a goal and three assists on Saturday.

In Saturday’s game with the Warriors, the Blades centres Jayden Wiens and Tristen Robins and defenceman Rhett Rhinehart didn’t finish the contest due to suffering injuries. Going into the third period, the Blades were down 2-0, but had to play most of the third without Wiens, Robins and Rhinehart giving up five goals in the process.

Warriors star centre Ryder Korczak scored at the 3:47 mark of the first period to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Sophomore defenceman Lucas Brenton tallied at the 6:16 mark of the second to increase Moose Jaw’s edge to 2-0.

With 4:34 remaining in the second, Warriors import rookie defenceman Robert Baco hit Wiens from behind into the boards with Moose Jaw killing a penalty. Wiens was helped off the ice and didn’t return.

Baco was giving a major penalty for checking from behind along with a game misconduct. The major penalty will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Blades weren’t able to score on any of their six power-play opportunities on the night including the five-minute major assessed to Baco.

The goals snowballed for the Warriors in the third with Brayden Yager, Eric Alarie and Denton Mateychuk netting singles and Jagger Firkus potting a pair.

Mateychuk had three assists to go along with his goal and posted a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department.

Overage star netminder Carl Tetachuk made 31 saves to pick up his third shutout win of the season for the Warriors. Overage start netminder Nolan Maier turned away 33 shots going the distance taking the setback in goal for the Blades.

Last Wednesday, the Blades added four forwards to their active roster in Rowan Calvert, Jordan Keller, Zach Moore and Smyth Rebman as their respective seasons came to a close with their under-18 AAA clubs and under-18 academy teams. Calvert and Keller played in Saturday’s loss.

Those additions could potentially see even more action depending on the status of the eight regulars the Blades now have on their injured list. The status of Wiens, Robins and Rhinehart was still being determined at game’s end.

On top of fact the Blades have eight regulars injured, the injury list includes high quality players. Robins is one of the top players in the entire WHL having signed an NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks, and he sits second in Blades team scoring with 74 points coming on 32 goals and 42 assists.

Pillar, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild, Wiens and Wong are all high-end players who can put up points.

Rhett Rhinehart left Saturday’s game with an injury.

De La Gorgendiere leads the Blades in defenceman scoring with 45 points coming off four goals and 41 assists, and Rhinehart eats up a tonne of minutes on the blue-line and plays in most key defensive situations.

If these injuries last over a longer team, even the best “next man up” mentality focus may not be enough to help the Blades. There is only so much a team can do when injuries snowball like this.

The Blades will hope to have some injured players back this coming Wednesday, when they travel to Regina to face the 23-31-3-2 Pats (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).

The Warriors return to action on Tuesday, when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Ice (7 p.m. Winnipeg time, Wayne Fleming Arena).

Finley’s hatty helps Ice hammer Raiders 6-2

Jack Finley had a hat trick for the Ice on Saturday.

Power forward Jack Finley is finding his groove with the Winnipeg Ice.

On Saturday, Finley netted a hat trick to power the host Ice to a 6-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders before a sellout crowd of 1,621 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena. Finley had points in five straight games with the Ice collecting six goals and two assists over that span of time.

The Raiders actually got the jump on the Ice as rookie import right-winger Vladislav Shilo scored just 21 seconds into the contest to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Ice answered back with the next six straight goals to go ahead 6-1. Besides Finley’s hat trick, the Ice received singles from Matthew Savoie, Evan Friesen and Cole Muir.

Finley’s first tally sent the teams into the first intermission tied 1-1. The Ice led 3-1 after 40 minutes and built a 6-1 advantage in the third.

Raiders standout defenceman Nolan Allan rounded out the game’s scoring with the final tally for the visitors.

Daniel Hauser made 14 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Ice. Max Hildebrand, who is a 17-year-old rookie, turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders.

Vladislav Shilo gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead for a short time.

With the victory, the Ice extended their winning streak to 10 straight games, and they’ve earned points in the standing in 14 consecutive games posting 12 wins, one overtime loss and one shootout loss over that span of contests.

The Ice improved to 46-9-3-2 to lead the WHL standings with 97 points holding a two-point lead over the Edmonton Oil Kings (46-12-2-1). Winnipeg has a game in hand on Edmonton.

The Raiders fell to 24-31-4-1 to remain ninth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. They trail the 24-31-5-2 Swift Current Broncos by two points for eighth place and the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Prince Albert had two games in hand on Swift Current.

The Raiders and Ice go at it again on Sunday (5 p.m. Winnipeg time, Wayne Fleming Arena).

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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