“Captain Clutch” – Wouters pots OT winner in Blades return to WHL playoffs

Captain Chase Wouters (#44) is mobbed after scoring his OT winner.

    Welcome to the WHL playoffs Chase Wouters.

    With his Saskatoon Blades playing in their first post-season game since 2013, the club’s captain, who turned 19-years-old in February, put the capper on a storybook comeback night for his side.

    Backed by a crowd of 5,193 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades fell behind 2-0 to the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors before rallying for a 2-2 tie that forced overtime. At the 3:23 mark of overtime, Wouters blew down the left wing of the Moose Jaw zone and lifted a backhand shot past Warriors netminder Brodan Salmond to give the Blades a 3-2 victory.

Chase Wouters sets a screen in front of the Moose Jaw goal.

    Wouters’ goal sent what is normally a reserved gathering at the SaskTel Centre during the regular season into delirium.

    “It is a pretty crazy feeling,” said Wouters, who is a career member of the Blades and hadn’t skated in a WHL playoff game until Friday. “It is something I will never forget that is for sure.

    “It was kind of a lot of hard work all game and got some reward. It is a pretty special moment. It is not only like for me.

    “It is for our group. We’ve worked all hard to this point, and this is kind of something we’ve wanted since we started the year. We got it, so it was good.”

    The win allowed the Blades to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven first round series with the Warriors. Game 2 is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Chase Wouters wins a defensive zone faceoff.

    Blades head coach Mitch Love said his side would have been happy to see anyone on their roster get the overtime winner, but the bench boss admitted it was great to see Wouters come through in that moment.

    “That is Watty (Wouters),” said Love. “He works hard.

    “He plays key rolls. He plays in every situation for us. It is overtime hockey.

    “You just get pucks to the net and see what happens. That is what happened in overtime tonight.”

    The Warriors drew first blood at the 3:03 mark of the second, when winger Kaeden Taphorn fired home the rebound of a shot taken by linemate Luke Ormsby to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

    Just 93 seconds after Taphorn’s goal, Warriors rookie centre Eric Alarie fired home a midrange shot from the front of the Saskatoon goal to put the visitors up 2-0.

A young fan show support for Blade C Kirby Dach.

    The goal from the associate player call up from the Rink Hockey Academy prep team in Winnipeg, Man., was the first of his WHL career.

    Alarie turned 16-years-old in late January, and he is eligible to play with the Warriors for the rest of the post-season.

    Wouters admitted the players on his team had some early nerves to start Friday’s game, and said it was great the crowd was engaged in supporting his team through the rough moments.

    “It was definitely a little different atmosphere for sure,” said Wouters. “There was a good crowd tonight supporting us, and we appreciate that. It was great.”

    The Blades cut the Moose Jaw lead to 2-1 at the 7:21 mark of the second while working on the power play on a snipe from overage right-winger Max Gerlach. Gerlach converted a beauty backdoor feed from defenceman Nolan Kneen to get the host side on the board.

    With 8:12 remaining in the third period, the Blades evened things up at 2-2 to force overtime, when left-winger Riley McKay popped home a goal close in from the right side of the Moose Jaw goal.

Eric Alarie (#15) celebrates his first career WHL goal.

    His equalizer came off a rebound on a shot taken by Blades defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus.

    That set the stage for Wouters to come through with the overtime winner.

    Nolan Maier made 21 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. 
    Brodan Salmond turned away 35 shots to take the setback in goal for the Warriors.

    “It was a good bounce back from our group,” said Love. “That was playoff hockey.

    “It is those ebbs and flows of the game. We are just trying to stress to our guys just stay even keel, stay with the process, stay the course, all the stuff we talked about over a 68 game schedule. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of that.

Riley McKay had the third period equalizer for the Blades.

    “It took us awhile though. It took us probably a little longer that we would have liked.”
    Love said the Warriors came out with some good jump at the start of the contest.

    “They came out with a little bit of juice,” said Love. “I thought we were a little nervous and hesitant in our game. We found a way.”

    The Blades bench boss enjoyed how engaged his team’s fans were on Friday. Love said it was something his side noticed.

    “It was a great crowd tonight,” said Love. “We can’t thank the fans enough that showed up here tonight.

    “We need them again and again and again. That was awesome.”

    Love said Blades owner Mike Priestner was given the game puck, as Friday’s game marked the first time the Blades won a playoff contest since Priestner bought the team before the 2013-14 season. 
    The first year head coach said his side has to be prepared for a big push back by the Warriors on Saturday.

The SaskTel Centre crowd celebrates Chase Wouters OT winner.

    “We have to be ready for a huge response tomorrow night against that team,” said Love. “That team is going to come and battle hard.
    “I think they will be better. We’ve got to be even better.”

    Going forward, Wouters expects it to be easier for his side to take off at the start of future playoffs games now that the nerves of the first post-season contest have passed.

    “There won’t be quite as many nerves, but we still have to play our game like it is our last and get out there and put some work in,” said Wouters. “I think we just kind of got to do the same thing we did today.

Chase Wouters gives a young fan a stick after getting first star honours.

    “We outshot them by quite a bit there. We just have to continue to work and get a good rest tonight and comeback ready to work tomorrow.”

    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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Blades rally past Warriors in playoff type tilt

Two sides will collide in first round of WHL post-season

The Blades and Warriors engage in a third period scrum.

    It was a game that had a bit of everything including a post-season feel.

    On Sunday, the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors took on the Saskatoon Blades before 4,454 spectators at the SaskTel Centre in the final regular season clash between the two sides. The two clubs will meet in a best-of-seven WHL first round playoff series once the regular season concludes.

    As for Sunday’s clash, the Warriors held leads of 2-0 and 3-1 only to see the Blades close things out with four consecutive goals to pull out a 5-3 victory.

Max Gerlach scored his 40th goal of the season on Sunday.

    Saskatoon won five out of the six head-to-head encounters with Moose Jaw in the regular season.

    Along with the Blades posting a comeback win, Sunday’s contest featured a stopped penalty shot, some chippy play, trash talking and a post-game standoff. The standoff occurred right after the Blades gave a salute to the crowd.

    Most of the Warriors players hadn’t left their bench yet, and they were yelling at the players on the Saskatoon side. The Blades players formed a line on the ice and fired verbal barbs back at the Moose Jaw side.

    The officials ultimately ushered both clubs to their respective dressing rooms.

    The win was the seventh in a row for the Blades allowing them to improve to 44-14-8. Saskatoon has won 14 out of its last 15 games and is 28-5-3 since last Dec. 1. 

Tristin Langan scored his 50th goal of the season on Sunday.

    The Warriors fell to 37-20-6-2 with the setback.

    While the Blades have piled up the wins, standout left-winger “Uncle” Gary Haden said posting a comeback win over Moose Jaw was important for his team.

    “It was big for sure,” said Haden. “Being down two goals twice in the game, it is not wanted obviously.

    “We didn’t get off to the start we wanted either. I think it showed good resiliency battling back against a team we are going to meet in the first round and hopefully setting a tone for the first round of playoffs.”

    The Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals coming off the sticks of 16-year-old rookie defenceman Daemon Hunt and overage star centre Tristin Langan.

    Saskatoon had a chance to score on a penalty shot from rookie left-winger Kyle Crnkovic, when the Warriors were up 1-0, but the Chestermere, Alta., product was stopped by Warriors netminder Brodan Salmond.

    With the post-season just around the corner, Blades head coach Mitch Love was curious to see how his side would respond to the jump the Warriors got on the scoreboard in the opening 20 minutes.

Justin Almeida had a beauty assist on the Warriors third goal.

    “The one thing that we talked about after the first period was going down 2-0 is we’re going to be faced with this here in a couple of weeks for real,” said Love. “I was kind interested in the character in terms of just staying to the plan and staying the course.

    “It is something that we talked about all the time. Our guys did a real good job of that tonight.”

    The Blades broke through on the scoreboard, when overage star right-winger Max Gerlach wired home a shot at the 12:03 mark of the second period to cut the Warriors lead to 2-1. Gerlach’s goal came during a span of four-on-four action due to penalties.

    Just 20 seconds later, Langan one-timed a setup pass from linemate Justin Almeida to give the visitors a 3-1 lead during that same span of four-on-four action.

Dawson Davidson scores a key power-play goal for the Blades.

    Momentum swung again just over three minutes later. The Blades were about to go on a two-man advantage for 33 seconds, and club’s coaching staff called a timeout to draw up a play for an offensive zone faceoff.

    On that faceoff, Haden won the draw to linemate Ryan Hughes, who got the puck over to offensive defenceman Dawson Davidson. Davidson sniped home a mid-range shot to cut the Warriors lead to 3-2.

    “I told Hughesy to help me on the draw, because I was going against (Tristin) Langan,” said Haden. “I just said, ‘Hey, I’m going to try and tie him up. I just don’t want to lose it clean.’

    “I kind of won it, and he (Hughes) poked it to Davy (Davidson). Davy made it all look easy, and I will take that assist anytime.”

    After killing off a Warriors power play early in the third period, the Blades evened things up at 3-3, when a pass from Gerlach was deflected into the Moose Jaw goal by Haden off an offensive rush. The tally was Haden’s 30^th goal of the season marking the first time he hit that plateau in his WHL career.

The Blades celebrate Gary Haden’s 30th goal of the season.

    “It is super cool,” said Haden. “Obviously, I didn’t come into this year thinking I was going to score 30.

    “I just wanted to play consistent hockey. You have to give my linemates credit. I couldn’t have done it without them.

    “Hopefully, there is a lot more to come this year.”

    Love thought Davidson’s power-play goal and Haden’s equalizer after a successful penalty kill were key moments in Sunday’s game.

    “We talked about the special teams being a factor in regular season play and it was again tonight,” said Love. “I thought our penalty kill to start the third period was huge.

    “Going down 4-2 versus getting through there down 3-2 and staying the course and getting some goals to happen right after that kill was huge in the hockey game.”

Gary Haden scored twice for the Blades on Sunday.

    The Blades took a 4-3 lead at the 5:24 mark of the third when overage defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus passed the puck from the point down to Gerlach, who was open in close at the right side of the Moose Jaw net. Gerlach sniped home his second of the contest and 40^th of the season to give the Blades their one-goal edge.

    Gerlach had scored 30-or-more goals in each of his first three seasons in the league, but Sunday marked the first time he hit the 40-goal plateau in one campaign.

    “That obviously felt really good,” said Gerlach. “You want to do as best as you can for the team to help them win.

    “Obviously, I think those were two really big goals - one to get us started and then one to kind of seal things off there. I was obviously really excited about that. Any way I can help the team I feel great about it.”

    Looking to shake things up, the Warriors coaches pulled Salmond after Gerlach’s go-ahead goal. Salmond actually had a strong night turning away 36-of-40 shots sent his way.

Blades captain Chase Wouters (#44) battles past the Warriors defence.

    Adam Evanoff played the rest of the way in relief turning away all nine shots he faced.

    Haden scored into an empty net with 55.4 seconds remaining in the third period to seal with win for the Blades.

    Nolan Maier made 21 saves to pick up the win in goal for Saskatoon.

    The Warriors travel to Brandon on Wednesday to face the Wheat Kings at 7 p.m. local time at Westoba Place.

    The Blades close out their regular season schedule with a home-and-home series with their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders. The two sides meet on Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. They go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

Blades C Kirby Dach eludes Warriors D Dalton Hamaliuk.

    The Blades and Warriors open their playoff series on March 22 at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. Love said the Blade 5-1 record against the Warriors in the regular season won’t mean anything when the post-season starts.

    “Everything is out the door now against those guys,” said Love. “We start from scratch.

    “It is going to be a grind. It was a grinding game. I think they started to fatigue playing three games in three nights.

    “We had the game last night against Swift Current, so we had a little more juice. That is a good hockey team over there, and we are going to have to be really, really sharp with details to stop that group.”

The Blades salute the SaskTel Centre crowd after their win on Sunday.

    NOTES - Blades rookie defenceman Aiden De La Gorgendiere left the second period of Sunday’s game with an upper body injury. He is expected to undergo further evaluations on Monday.

    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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Leason’s late game magic delivers Raiders hard fought 4-3 win over Warriors

The Raiders celebrate Brett Leason's winning goal on Saturday.

    PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Brett Leason stepped up in a prime time moment to power his Prince Albert Raiders past a red hot foe.

    On Saturday night before a standing room crowd of 2,630 spectators at the 2,580 Art Hauser Centre, the Raiders held a 3-2 lead on their WHL East Division rivals the Moose Jaw Warriors late in the third period of a regular season encounter. With 4:15 remaining in the third period, Warriors star left-winger Justin Almeida scored on the tail end of a power play to even things up at 3-3.

    It appeared the Warriors, who had won their last four straight and picked up standings points in their last eight games, had the momentum to rally for the win.

    At that point, Leason stepped up to play the role of hero for the host side.

Brett Leason came through with a clutch winner for the Raiders.

    With 2:25 remaining in the third, Leason took a beauty setup pass in the right slot from overage centre Noah Gregor and drove home the winning goal to give the Raiders a 4-3 victory. Leason’s winner allowed the Raiders to soften the sting of a 6-3 setback taken at the Art Hauser Centre against the Central Division leading Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday night.

    “It was great timing for sure,” said Leason, who leads the Raiders in scoring with 32 goals and 43 assists for 75 points. “Gregor made a great pass to me.

    “We’ve been battling back and forth all game. They tie it up, and we pop back right ahead. It was nice to get that relief in the last few minutes.”

    The win allowed the Raiders to improve their WHL leading record to 42-7-0-2. 

Justin Almeida had a late third period equalizer for the Warriors.

    While the wins are still coming for the Raiders, they have experienced a few more valleys for about the last month. Head coach Marc Habscheid was pleased to see Leason come through in the clutch.

    “It was obviously a big goal,” said Habscheid. “Wins aren’t coming easy right now.

    “The game is not coming easy. We’re not winning 7-1. We played a good team last night and didn’t play great.

    “We played a good team tonight and played much better. I thought we deserved the win for sure.”

    The first two periods of Saturday’s game swung back and forth.

    At the 4:34 mark of the opening frame, Raiders star left-winger Cole Fonstad wired home his 21^st goal of the season from the front of the Moose Jaw net to give the host side a 1-0 lead.

    The Warriors evened things up with 19.1 seconds remaining in the first period, when captain Josh Brook slipped home a bad angle goal on the power play to force a 1-1 score.

Cole Fonstad had the Raiders first goal on Saturday.

    Prince Albert jumped back in front 2-1 at the 4:50 mark of the second, when Raiders overage centre Sean Montgomery tipped home an off-speed point shot from captain Brayden Pachal.

    Moose Jaw forced a 2-2 tie scoring on the power play at the 15:31 mark of the second when right-winger Brayden Tracey, who is having a stellar 17-year-old rookie season, converted a backdoor feed from Brook. The tally was Tracey’s 23^rd goal and 52^nd point of the campaign.

    Before the second period ended, the Raiders jumped back out in front 3-2 when rookie defenceman Kaiden Guhle’s point drive found the back of the Warriors goal.

    “They bring it every time we play,” said Leason. “We just have to stick to the system and play as quick as we can.

    “We need to be a little gritty at times against them too.”

    On the power-play chance where the Warriors tied the game in the third, they worked with a two-man advantage for 1:20. After the two-man advantage ended, they ultimately scored with seven seconds remaining on the leftover one-man advantage.

Jett Woo had three assists for the Warriors on Saturday.

    That set the stage for Leason to get the winner moments later.

    “After the last couple of weeks and how we’ve been struggling a little bit, I think that was a huge character win for us,” said Raiders star netminder Ian Scott. “It was something that we can compare a lot to like a playoff game.

    “They are a good team. We know we are going to be up for a battle, when we play those guys. It is just who wants it more when we come to those games.”

    Scott made 28 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders. Brodan Salmond turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Warriors (28-12-6-2).
    Defenceman Jett Woo had assists on all three of Moose Jaw’s goals.

    For Scott, Saturday’s game was a bounce back one after being pulled in the third period of Friday’s loss to the Oil Kings. The Calgary, Alta., product thought he competed harder in Saturday’s game than he did on Friday night.

    “I think it was just the battling, staying with it,” said Scott. “You’re going to have nights where you fight it like last night, you know rough patches.

Ian Scott made 28 saves in goal for the Raiders on Saturday.

    “As long as you keep working hard, and just keep in the right mindset it will get better.”

    The rivalry the two sides built from the Warriors winning a tough seven game first round series in last year’s WHL playoffs showed through at the end of Saturday’s clash.

    After time expired in the third period, Brook slew footed Raiders import defenceman Sergei Sapego. As the Warriors captain was being led away from Sapego by the officials, a scrum ensued when Raiders right-winger Justin Nachbaur tried to get at Brook.

    Nachbaur ended up getting tangled up with Warriors centre Tristin Langan.

    When the dust settled, Nachbaur was given a fighting major and a game misconduct. Langan was assessed a minor penalty for leaving the penalty box, a fighting major and a game misconduct. He was in the penalty box after taking a checking from behind minor penalty with 67 seconds remaining in the third.

Sean Montgomery had the Raiders second goal on Saturday.

    Brook didn’t receive any infractions at the end of the contest.

    The WHL office will likely review what happened at the end of Saturday’s contest for possible further discipline.

    With the Raiders being rated first in the CHL’s Top 10 rankings, Habscheid expects his Raiders will be involved in encounters that were similar in intensity to Saturday’s game going forward.

    “I think everyone who plays us is obviously treating it like a Game 7 to beat us,” said Habscheid. “In the end, that is going to make us better.

    “If we don’t have our A-game, then we lose. Tonight, we played a team that was on a roll. They were on a winning streak.

    “We deserved the win. Their power play was good. That is where they made us pay, but five-on-five, I thought we were real good tonight.”

    The Raiders return to action when they travel to Edmonton to face the Oil Kings at 7 p.m. Edmonton time at Rogers Place.

Josh Brook (#2) skates away after slew footing Sergei Sapego.

    Saturday’s contest marked the second time the Raiders played at home over a 12 game stretch that started on Jan. 16 and wraps up on Feb. 13.

    The Warriors hit the ice again on Wednesday when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blades at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

    NOTES – Saturday’s contest was the Raiders’ “WHL Suits Up” with Don Cherry to promote organ donation game. The Raiders wore specially designed Don Cherry-themed jerseys that were auctioned off during the contest. All proceeds of the auction go towards the Prince Albert chapter of the Kidney Foundation of Canada.

The Raiders salute their fans after Saturday’s win.

    It was also parents’ weekend for the Raiders, and the team honour the moms and billet moms of the players before Saturday’s game.

    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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Warriors waste little time in reloading, rally for 3-2 win

Tristin Langan had three points in a Warriors comeback win.

    The Moose Jaw Warriors reload appears to have been a quick one.

    Last season, the Warriors finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 52-15-2-3 record and bowed out of playoffs in a tough second round series that went seven games to the eventual WHL champion Swift Current Broncos. The Broncos finished second overall in the WHL with a 48-17-5-2 record in the 2017-18 campaign.

    Experiencing significant turnover, the Warriors currently have just seven players on their roster that were with the squad last season. If anyone thought the current campaign was going to be a write off for Moose Jaw, the Warriors appear to have their own ideas about how the season is supposed to go.

    On Friday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Warriors fell behind 2-0 to the host Saskatoon Blades in the first period of a WHL regular season clash only to rally back for a 3-2 victory before 3,236 spectators.

Brodan Salmond stopped 33 shots in goal for the Warriors on Friday night.

    The win allowed the Warriors to improve to 16-6-4-1 and tie the Blades, who fell to 17-10-3, for second in the WHL’s East Division with 37 points in the standings. Warriors overage centre Tristin Langan was the main offensive catalyst in the comeback scoring the equalizer and drawing assists on Moose Jaw’s other two tallies.

    With that outburst, Langan, who is in his fourth WHL campaign, has career highs in goals (20), assists (29) and points (49).

    “I think it is just all of my teammates,” said Langan. “We started the season and no one expected us to do anything.

Brayden Tracey had the winning goal for the Warriors.

    “We’re doing really good.”

    The Warriors started out posting a 7-5-3-1 record over their first 16 games. They are 9-1-1 in 11 contests following that point.

    Thanks to their surge of wins, the Warriors earned an honourable mention in the CHL Top 10 rankings that were released on Wednesday.

    Friday’s victory stopped a mini-skid as Moose Jaw had a regulation and an extra time loss in its two previous contests.

    Still, it appeared Friday’s game was going to be a rocky one for the Warriors.

    After the opening faceoff, the first stoppage occurred at the 4:31 mark of the first period, when Blades left-winger Eric Florchuk tipped a pass from linemate Kirby Dach past Moose Jaw netminder Brodan Salmond to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

    The Blades increased their lead to 2-0 at the 9:29 mark of the opening frame, when left-winger Gary Haden dove and made a pass across the face the Moose Jaw goal to linemate Josh Paterson. 
    Paterson tapped the puck into the open side of the cage to give Saskatoon its two-goal edge.

Kirby Dach set up the Blades first goal on Friday.

    The Warriors halted the Blades momentum with 7:32 remaining in the first on a goal from right-winger Luke Ormsby.

    “I think we came off to a slow start here,” said Langan.  “We came in and gathered ourselves (in the first intermission).

    “We came out and played a solid next 40, so it was nice to get the win out here tonight.”

    Moose Jaw tied things up at 2-2 working on the power play with 4:19 remaining in the second period, when Langan tipped home a point shot from defenceman Jett Woo.

    The Warriors netted the winning goal working on another power play at the 9:37 mark of the third period. Right-winger Brayden Tracey wired home a shot from the front of the Saskatoon goal converting a tick-tack-toe passing play from captain Josh Brook and Langan.

    Moose Jaw connected on two-of-three power-play chances and killed off all five of the Blades power-play opportunities. The Warriors even killed a Blades two-man advantage that lasted 1:48 that started near the end of the second period and ended early in the third.

Captain Josh Brook charges up the ice for the Warriors.

    Entering Friday’s game, the Warriors had a dismal 69.6 per cent success rate on the penalty kill. Langan said his Warriors have been focusing on the penalty kill at practice and is pleased to see results are starting to show from that work.

    “I think we were just bearing down on pucks, being hard around pucks and getting pucks down when we needed it,” said Langan. “It was good to see that we killed them off here.”

    Still, the Blades could have come away with a victory had it not been for Salmond making 33 saves in the Warriors net. Nolan Maier, who is the Blades star goalie, turned away 22 shots in Saskatoon’s cage.

The Blades push for the equalizer in the final seconds of Friday’s game.

    With just under 15 seconds to play in the third, Haden got in alone on the Moose Jaw goal for a prime scoring chance, but Salmond turned back the threat with a kick save.

    The Blades pressured for the equalizer in the dying seconds of the third during frantic action around the Moose Jaw goal. When the clock expired, the coaches and players from Saskatoon were arguing there should have been an offensive zone faceoff as the puck disappeared under the bodies of a couple of Warriors players.

    The two clubs will go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw. Langan said his side has to get a good rest in, when the team bus arrives home in Moose Jaw, and watch some film to prepare for Saturday’s encounter.

The Warriors celebrate their win on Friday night.

    The Swan River, Man., product said his Warriors need to embrace the chance to continue to play well in a season where the Moose Jaw side wasn’t pegged to be one of the league’s elite clubs.

    “We’re just playing as a team,” said Langan. “We’re just taking it one game at a time here, so it is nice.”

    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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