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.
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| 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 19th
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.
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| 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 20th
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 127th
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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