No Fear - Blades and their fans should just go for it

The Blades take the ice for Game 7 versus the Pats on April 10.

At this point in the WHL Playoffs, you might as well go after it with no fear.

The Saskatoon Blades and their fans should do everything possible to make the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series something they will never forget. 

The Blades will host Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference final on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively for a 7 p.m. start both nights against the powerful Winnipeg Ice.

The Ice lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 taking the first two contests in Winnipeg this past Friday and Saturday. Winnipeg topped the WHL regular season standings with a 57-10-1 mark and was rated third in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The 57 wins and 115 standings points are new franchise records for the Ice.

The Blades finished fourth in the overall WHL regular season standings with a 48-15-4-1 record and were rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. Saskatoon is appearing in the Eastern Conference final for the first time since 1994.

How long ago was 1994?

Jean Chretien was the Prime Minister of Canada, Bill Clinton was the President of the United States, Mark Messier captained the New York Rangers to their first Stanley Cup final win since 1940, the MLB season wasn’t completed due to a players’ strike with the Montreal Expos in first place and the British Columbia Lions won the Grey Cup over a Baltimore team that went by the name CFLers.

Fans cheer on the Blades at the SaskTel Centre.

The popular video game systems of the time saw Super Nintendo going against the Sega Genesis. In Canada, the most popular video game was likely NHL ’94.

In the music world, 1994 was best remembered for death of Nirvana founder, lead vocalist, guitarist and primary song writer Kurt Cobain died by suicide.

The Blades that year were lead in scoring by left-winger Andy MacIntyre, who had 89 points coming off 54 goals and 35 assists. Saskatoon’s roster included the likes of Derek Tibbatts, Paul Buczkowski, Trevor Hanas, Frank Banham, Mark Deyell, Clarke Wilm, Rhett Warrener and the now late Wade Belak.

The Blades were propelled by the heroics of veteran netminder Norm Maracle. During the 1993-94 regular season, Maracle recorded a 41-13-1 record, a 2.76 goals against average, a .918 save percentage and two shutouts. He was named the a WHL first team Eastern Conference all-star, the WHL’s top goaltender, a CHL first team all-star and the CHL’s goaltender of the year.

Fans at the SaskTel Centre, which was then known as Saskatchewan Place, used to give out a cheer of “Norm” like the one given to the Norm Peterson character in the sitcom Cheers.

Saskatoon claimed a 4-1 series victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings in the 1994 Eastern Conference final before falling in the WHL Championship Series in a series deciding Game 7 to the eventual Memorial Cup champion Kamloops Blazers.

Spencer Shugrue has become “Mr. Game 7” for the Blades.

Basically, 29 years ago was a long time ago. For Blades fans, it did feel like an eternity since the team advanced the WHL’s final four in the post-season. While the Blades may have their backs to the wall against the Ice, you still don’t want to miss out on enjoying the moment, if you are fan of the Saskatoon side.

The current roster of the Blades has turned out to be a gutsy one. They trailed Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats 2-0 in a first round series and rallied to take that set in a series deciding Game 7 by a 4-1 score at the SaskTel Centre before a sellout crowd of 14,768.

The Blades found themselves in a tougher spot in their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Red Deer Rebels. The Blades trailed that series 3-0, and in Game 4 in Red Deer, they trailed 2-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second frame. Saskatoon was 20 minutes away from having its season come to an end.

The Blades rallied to take Game 4 by a 4-2 score and ultimately came back to claim a series deciding Game 7 by a 5-2 score again at the SaskTel Centre this time before 9,489 spectators.

Along the way, Blades utility player Spencer Shugrue picked up the nickname “Mr. Game 7” for collecting three goals and an assist in those two Game 7 wins.

The Blades also 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.

The Blades current Blades have received big game performances from various players on their roster including the likes of Trevor Wong, Egor Sidorov, Brandon Lisowsky, Conner Roulette, Jordan Keller, Jayden Wiens, Justin Lies, Vaughn Watterodt and Lukas Hansen. Netminders Ethan Chadwick and Austin Elliott have come up with big wins at different times in the post-season.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere has played big minutes for the Blades.

In the series win over the Rebels, the Blades saw solid defensive-defencemen Blake Gustafson and Ben Saunderson go down with injuries, and both were not available for the first two games of the series for the Ice. Captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, Tanner Molendyk, Charlie Wright and Shugrue played like warriors skating for most of the minutes on defence in the first to contests against the Ice to protect Under-18 AAA call up Morgan Tastad and Tomas Zizka from bad matchups against a powerful and deep Winnipeg side.

The foursome of De La Gorgendiere, Molendyk, Wright and Shugrue wore down in those games, but they gave everything they had and that is all you can ask.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne and is staff is trying to find the way to guide their team through this latest adversity, but it might be too tall of an order to ask for.

Even with that in mind, the Blades players should rip it out and go hard with no fear. If they are overmatch due to fatigue and injuries, at least they know they gave what they could and did the best they could do.

The Blades fans have been loud and engaged through this post-season run. Even if the Blades are going to be overmatched, they should do their best to give their side a home ice edge.

They should great the team with a huge cheer when they take the ice at the start of the contest and feel free to try and bring the noise level up in the SaskTel Centre to the level of some of the loudest rinks in the NHL. The SaskTel Centre is designed similar to the former home of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers in the Northlands Coliseum, and it holds in noise really well like the Oilers old home rink once did.

Justin Lies (#43) and Ben Saunderson (#2) thank the fans on April 10.

When the Blades make their runs to ultimately falling in Game 7 of the WHL final in 1992 and 1994 with Lorne Molleken as head coach and Daryl Lubinieki as general manager, the people of Saskatoon packed the building’s then 11,330 seat configuration making it one of the toughest places to play on the WHL circuit.

In the current moment, the people of Saskatoon have a chance to relive those days. 

Like the players, the fans should feel free to bring everything they have, so there are no regrets when it came to seeing the Blades this deep in the post-season.

Anthem singer Lehner enjoying Blades run

Katelyn Lehner sings the national anthem on April 10.

One person who is soaking every moment of the Saskatoon Blades playoff run is local country music artist and guest anthem singer Katelyn Lehner.

The Blades brought Lehner in to sing the national anthem starting with their March regular season sold out home dates against Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats. If you check out Lehner’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts where she promotes her music, you can see she is having fun with her association with the Blades. She even got to read out the starting lineup for the team before one of their post-season contests.

In her life outside of singing, Lehner was an elite level track and field athlete. At the post-secondary level, she first became a member of the University of Calgary Dinos Women’s Track and Field team in 2013 and joined the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Track and Field team for two seasons from 2017 to 2019. She has also coached the sport in the past.

While she has been located in Saskatoon for some time, she is originally from Prince Albert and graduated from St. Mary High School located in that centre in 2013. As a youngster growing up, Lehner did sing the national anthem for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders on occasion.

With that noted, it has been really cool to see her dive in with enthusiasm in her anthem singing role with the Blades.

Raiders fans may come to cheer ex-players with Ice

Vladislav Shilo in action for the Ice on March 14.

When the Saskatoon Blades host Games 3 and 4 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship series, they might see a few ticket buyers show up from Prince Albert to cheer on the visiting Winnipeg Ice.

The fan presence from Prince Albert will be due to the fact that the Ice have two former players from the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders in import right-winger Vladislav Shilo and left-winger Carson Latimer. Both players were popular in Prince Albert during their stays with the Raiders.

Shilo was with the Raiders for the entire 2021-22 campaign appearing in 58 regular season contests recording nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points. He played three regular season games for the Raiders this season before being traded to the Ice.

In 66 regular season appearances with both the Ice and Raiders, Shilo has 26 points coming off 12 goals and 14 assists. In 12 post-season games with the Ice, Shilo, who turned 20-years-old in March, has eight points coming off three goals and five assists.

Latimer started his WHL career with the Edmonton Oil Kings and was dealt to the Raiders on December 1, 2021. In 44 regular season contests he played for the Raiders in 2021-22, Latimer posted 32 points coming off 12 goals and 20 assists.

He appeared in 31 regular season games with the Raiders this season recording 28 points on 10 goals and 18 assists before being traded to the Ice on December 31, 2022. Latimer, who turned 20-years-old in January, appeared in 22 regular season games with the Ice posting four goals and eight assists before suffering an injury.

The 2021 NHL Entry Draft selection of the Ottawa Senators got back into the lineup for the Ice’s last seven post-season outings collecting one goal and one assist.

Besides the support for Shilo and Latimer, there will also be some people coming in from Prince Albert to support Ice head coach James Patrick. Way back when the Raiders were in the junior A ranks, Patrick played one season in “Hockey Town North” in 1980-81 as an offensive-defenceman before eventually going on to a lengthy playing career in the NHL.

During that 1980-81 campaign, Patrick appeared in 59 regular season games posting 82 points coming off 21 goals and 61 assists. He helped the Raiders win the Centennial Cup as junior A national champions, and after that campaign, he was selected in first round and ninth overall in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers.

Current Ice play-by-play voice Brian Munz was the Raiders play-by-play voice for four-and-a-half season from 1999 to 2004, and he will likely have friend from Prince Albert come down to visit with him when he is not on the air calling games.

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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