Ice topped WHL regular season standings with
57-10-1 mark
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| The Blades celebrate a Conner Roulette (#34) goal on Tuesday. |
The Blades have had an impressive 2022-23 campaign to date. They finished fourth in the overall WHL regular season standings with a 48-15-4-1 record and were rated 10th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.
In the WHL Playoffs, the Blades took out Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats in an entertaining seven game first round series claiming a series deciding Game 7 by a 4-1 score.
The Blades then found themselves trailing the Red Deer Rebels 3-0 in a best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series. Saskatoon rallied with four straight wins taking a series deciding Game 7 by a 5-2 final this past Tuesday. In the process, the Blades joined the 1996 Spokane Chiefs and the 2013 Kelowna Rockets as the only clubs to lose the first three games in a best-of-seven series and rally to take the set.
In the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Championship Series, the Blades will face the super powerful Winnipeg Ice. The Ice topped the WHL regular season standings with a 57-10-1 mark and were rated third in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The 57 wins and 115 standings points are new franchise records for the Ice.
“Obviously,
they are a good hockey team,” said Blades captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere,
whose team’s last meeting with the Ice was a 3-2 victory in Saskatoon on
February 4. “We haven’t seen them in a while.
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| Blades LW Conner Roulette is from Winnipeg, Man. |
During the six head-to-head regular season meetings between the two sides, the Ice collected three regulation wins and an overtime victory, while the Blade collected two regulation wins.
Game 1 of the series between the Blades and Ice is set for Friday at the Wayne Fleming Arena in the Manitoba capital at 6 p.m. local time.
The Ice also topped the WHL regular season standings in 2021-22 with a 53-10-3-2 mark. They advanced to the Eastern Conference Championship Series and fell in five games to the eventual WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings. Winnipeg lost star centre Matthew Savoie to injury in Game 2 of that series against the Oil Kings, and that development dealt a big blow to the Ice in trying to win that series.
In this year’s post-season, the Ice swept the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-0 in a first round series and proceeded take out the Moose Jaw Warriors 4-2 in the other Eastern Conference semifinal.
Winnipeg entered the playoffs with two key players out due to injuries in 17-year-old centre Zach Benson and right-winger Carson Latimer, who turned 20-years-old in early January.
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| Zach Benson led the Ice in regular season scoring with 98 points. |
Benson has skated in six contests in the current post-season with the Ice recording two goals, five assists and a plus-two rating.
The Ice acquired Latimer in a trade with the Prince Albert Raiders on December 31, 2022 in order to bolster their depth. In 53 regular season games played between the Raiders and Blades, Latimer had 40 points coming off 14 goals and 26 assists. In five games with the Ice in the WHL Playoffs, Latimer has one goal and one assist.
The Ice got another big campaign from Savoie. In the regular season in 62 appearances, Savoie had career highs in goals (38), assists (57), points (95) and plus-minus (plus-57).
Ice star 20-year-old right-winger Connor McClennon had another banner campaign posting career highs in the regular season in goals (46), assists (46), points (92) and plus-minus (plus-51).
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| Trevor Wong led the Blades with 86 points in the regular season. |
The Ice’s fortunes in goal are second thanks to the play of star netminder Daniel Hauser. In 42 regular season appearances, Hauser posted a 37-4-1 record, a 2.28 goals against average, a .917 save percentage and two shutouts.
On Monday, the Ice closed out their series with the Warriors in Moose Jaw with an impressive 8-2 win in Game 6 at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“I watch
the Winnipeg game (on Monday),” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “They’re
a really good hockey team.
“They pose
their own challenges. They have elite talent. They’re elite everywhere, so we
need to rest up a little bit and just bring our best.
“We just
ask that they work. If they put it all out there, then let the chips fall where
they may. If they work, we’re good.”
Centre
Trevor Wong, who is 19-years-old, topped the Blades in regular scoring
with 86 points coming off 27 goals and 59 assists to go with a plus-23 rating
appearing in all his team’s 68 regular season games. All of Wong’s regular
season statistics are career highs. In the Blades 14 post-season game to date,
Wong has posted five goals and 14 assists to go with a plus-six rating.
Matthew Savoie had 95 regular season points for the Ice.
Import right-winger Egor Sidorov was second in Blades regular season scoring with 76 points coming off 40 goals and 36 assists to go with a plus-25 rating in 53 games. Sidorov has nine goals, 10 assists and a plus-seven rating in the Blades 14 post-season contests.
De La Gorgendiere led the Blades in defencemen scoring in the regular season. In 65 regular season appearances, De La Gorgendiere has 65 points coming off 12 goals and 53 assists to go with a plus-19 rating.
In the Blades 14 post-season contests, De La Gorgendiere has two goals, 13 assists and a plus-one rating. His 15 points tops all Blades defenders.
In goal,
the Blades are relying on two strong netminder in Austin Elliott and Ethan
Chadwick. Elliott appeared in 37 regular season games posting a 25-6-3 record,
a 2.20 goals against average, a .911 save percentage and two shutouts. Chadwick
appeared in 34 regular season contests posting a 23-9-2 record, a 2.61 goals
against average, a .899 save percentage and two shutouts.
At the end of
the series with Red Deer, the Blades were missing 20-year-old defenceman Blake
Gustafson and 17-year-old left-winger Mikhail Volotovskii due to upper body
injuries.
Egor Sidorov had 40 goals and 76 points in the regular season.
The winner of the Eastern Conference Championship Series will take on the winner of the Western Conference Championship Series between the Seattle Thunderbirds and Kamloops Blazers, who host the CHL’s championship tournament – the Memorial Cup.
The Thunderbirds topped the Western Conference and finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 54-11-1-2 record. The U.S. Division champions were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. Seattle’s 54 wins and standings points total of 111 points are new regular season club records.
The Blazers finished second overall in the Western Conference and third overall in the WHL regular season with a 48-13-4-3 mark. The B.C. Division champions were rated ninth in the final CHL Top 10 rankings.
The four squads remaining in the WHL Playoffs were the top four teams in the circuit’s regular season standings.
The series between the Blades and Ice will be a special one for Blades star left-winger Conner Roulette, who had 24 goals, 38 assists and a plus-19 rating in 60 regular season appearances in 2022-23. Roulette is from Winnipeg, so he will get to play in front of family and friends in his hometown.
“Winnipeg
is a great team,” said Roulette. “They’re fast, but you know we’re fast, and we
are a great team as well.
Connor McClennon had 92 points in the regular season.
“It is
going to be a good series. We’re just looking forward to seeing what the table
brings and what we have to do as a team to prepare for that.”
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