WHL arenas fall silent due to COVID-19 surge

Connor Bedard, right, and his Pats weren’t in action this weekend.

The WHL regular season should have been in top gear this weekend, but the circuit’s rinks were eerily quiet instead.

On Friday, all 10 scheduled WHL regular season contests for the night were postponed.

By the evening hours on Saturday, nine out of the 10 games originally slated for that night were postponed. The only game that went ahead was clash between the Portland Winterhawks and Kelowna Rockets in Kelowna, B.C., which the Winterhawks won 3-1.

All three of the WHL’s games scheduled for Sunday have been postponed.

Looking ahead to the near future this coming week, all four WHL games slated for Tuesday have been postponed.

At the moment, only three out of the eight contests slated for Wednesday have been postponed.

The postponements piled up as new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases surged upwards across Canada. The majority of new cases have been of the Omicron variant, which is supposed to be milder but is way more transmissible than other strains.

Not all postponements are due to COVID-19.

A total of four games scheduled to be played in Manitoba over the time span starting Jan. 1 and running thru to today were postponed due to capacity restrictions in that province, which were brought in to curb the spread of COVID-19.

On Friday, a Spokane Chiefs home game against the Everett Silvertips and a Tri-City Americans home contest in Kennewick, Wash., against the Seattle Thunderbirds were postponed due to inclement weather.

Connor McClennon and the Ice are currently playing the waiting game.

When Friday evening rolled around, the WHL has 15 clubs pause team activities due to multiple players and staff being added to the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List.

Those teams included the Calgary Hitmen, Edmonton Oil Kings, Silvertips, Kamloops Blazers, Medicine Hat Tigers, Moose Jaw Warriors, Prince Albert Raiders, Prince George Cougars, Red Deer Rebels, Regina Pats, Saskatoon Blades, Chiefs, Americans, Victoria Royals and Winnipeg Ice.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes and Swift Current Broncos had been on pause, but were allowed to resume team activities on Friday.

The circuit issued a release on Friday that included a statement from commissioner Ron Robison that each team would play a full 68-game regular season.

“The WHL and our member clubs remain fully committed to playing through the 68-game WHL regular season schedule and playoffs,” said Robison in Friday’s statement. “As we work through the challenges presented by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our priority continues to be to deliver a world-class development experience for WHL players, staff and officials, and to do so in a safe and healthy manner.

“On behalf of the entire WHL, I wish to thank WHL fans and WHL corporate partners everywhere for their patience as we work to reschedule games in the coming weeks.”

On Saturday, the WHL announced the Warriors, Pats and Americans were all cleared to resume team activities.

For fans, supporters and followers of the WHL, it was easy to get comfortable tracking the day-to-day happenings on the circuit as the schedule before the Christmas break pretty much unfolded like normal.

Before the Christmas break, the Chiefs had to adjust three games on their schedule after two players tested positive for COVID-19.

Some teams in the Western Conference had to make some minor schedule adjustments due to bad weather, which included heavy rains in B.C. in November that caused slides, flooding and washouts.

Arshdeep Bains and the Rebels wait to continue their surprise run.

Enough games got in that storylines developed like the rise of the Ice, the continued strong play of the Oil Kings, Blazers and Silvertips and the surprising climb up the standings by the Rebels.

On an individual front, numerous eyes are on Regina Pats 16-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard, who was playing for Canada at world juniors held jointly in Edmonton and Red Deer before the event was called off after three days of games due to COVID-19.

As a 15-year-old rookie last season, Bedard played 15 games of the Pats abbreviated 24 game regular season piling up 12 goals, 16 assists and a plus-nine rating in the plus-minus department. He left the Pats early to help Canada win gold at the under-18 worlds that were held in Frisco and Plano, Texas.

There were thoughts that Bedard had been struggling this season as he had a slow start in comparison to last season. In his last five games with the Pats, Bedard posted eight goals, five assists and a plus-two rating to put that notion to rest.

The North Vancouver, B.C., product had four goals including the overtime winner in the Pats last game on Jan. 1, when they downed the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 7-6.

In 25 games with the Pats this season, Bedard has 18 goals, 10 assists and a minus-five rating.

Before the WHL Christmas break, you could even find some ultra-passionate fans get emotionally freaked out when the team that they support lost bad or made a trade they aren’t sure about. You almost forgot the WHL was reduced to playing an abbreviated season in 2020-21 without fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a shift to be hooked into the league pretty much like normal once again and then all of sudden have almost everything shutdown with no games to go to.

For the WHL’s two teams in northern Saskatchewan, the Raiders at the moment are scheduled to take on the Rebels in Red Deer on Wednesday, while the Blades are slated to face the Broncos in Swift Current this coming Friday.

The Raiders and Blades were on pause this past weekend.

With the way things can change daily in reaction to the developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, league followers have to hurry up and wait to see how everything unfolds when it comes to going to games of teams they support.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

WHL doing the COVID-19 shuffle

Dylan Guenther, left, and the Oil Kings have had games postponed.

The Prince Albert Raiders are fortunate to have played all 32 games that were on their schedule to date, but we might soon see how long that lasts.

On Tuesday morning, the WHL issued a release stating team activities for the Edmonton Oil Kings, Moose Jaw Warriors and Red Deer Rebels were paused as a result of multiple players and staff being added to the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List. That resulted in a total of five games involving those clubs being postponed.

Since returning from a traditional league-wide Christmas break, the WHL has been doing the coronavirus shuffle.

The first indication that the WHL schedule after the Christmas hiatus could likely have bumps came on December 27, 2021 about 65 minutes before the first games after the break hit the ice. Before those first games took place, the WHL issued a release that introduced the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List and noted 36 players and hockey operations staffers were on the list at that time.

Persons are added to the list if they exhibit symptoms or test positive for COVID-19. The WHL has elected to not list names that are on the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click the link right here.

Oil Kings down Blades 4-1 in strange feeling game

The Oil Kings celebrate a second period power-play goal.

It was an odd night at the rink when you realized the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings had three players on the ice who should have been elsewhere.

On Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Oil Kings hit the ice for a WHL regular season clash with netminder Sebastian Cossa, centre Dylan Guenther and left-winger Jake Neighbours in the lineup as they faced the host Saskatoon Blades.

All three were suiting up for the Oil Kings for the first time since the remainder of IIHF’s world juniors were cancelled on Wednesday. Cossa, Guenther and Neighbours were all playing for Canada at world juniors, which were held jointly in Edmonton and Red Deer.

Dylan Guenther had two assists on Saturday for the Oil Kings.

With those three in the fold, the Oil Kings downed the Blades 4-1 holding a 40-16 advantage in shots on goal in a contest played before 2,827 spectators.  

Due to the fact world juniors were supposed to run thru to this coming Wednesday, the Oil Kings are in the middle of a seven-game road trip, which started when the club resumed action following the WHL Christmas break. Saturday’s contest against the Blades was the fourth game of that trip.

On Thursday, the Oil Kings downed the Wheat Kings in Brandon 3-2 after a tiebreaking shootout in a contest that was played without fans in attendance at Westoba Place. Following the win over the Wheat Kings, the Oil Kings made the jaunt to Saskatoon and Cossa, Guenther and Neighbours joined up with the Edmonton club there.

Jake Neighbours was back in the Oil Kings fold on Saturday.

All of those events occurred because the world is still stuck in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which took root in North America in a big way in March of 2020. The emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is causing a rapid rise in new cases in North America.

Dealing with the Omicron variant has been challenging, because while it is supposed to be a variant that is milder than other strains of COVID-19, it is more transmissible than other variants.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the remainder of world juniors after three days of games were held.

A WHL game was played in Brandon without fans on Thursday in order to best comply with the public health orders that current exist in the province of Manitoba.

Sebastian Cossa made 15 saves earning a win for the Oil Kings.

The Blades were holding their traditional New Year’s Day game on Saturday, which they weren’t able to do in 2021 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the Blades were able to hold that traditional New Year’s Day contest, the COVID-19 specter was there.

It was seen in the fact that that Cossa, Guenther and Neighbours were playing with the Oil Kings and not for Canada at world juniors.

The Oil Kings had two other players attend world juniors who were not in the lineup in defenceman Kaiden Guhle and centre Jakub Demek. The Edmonton club has both listed as not yet having rejoined the team.

The Blades can’t stop a Jalen Luypen (#23) Oil Kings power-play goal.

Guhle was the captain of Canada’s team, while Demek was skating for Slovakia.

It is possible both could be getting their respective Christmas breaks right now. Most major junior teams that have players take part in world juniors will find a spot to give those players a Christmas break.

With that said, the COVID-19 pandemic is the elephant in the room, so it makes you wonder.

On the Saskatoon side, the Blades were without star 20-year-old centre Tristen Robins and 19-year-old right-winger Noah Boyko, who was acquired on Tuesday in a trade with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, for undisclosed reasons.

Jalen Luypen had a goal and an assist for the Oil Kings.

Both suited up for the Blades on Thursday, when they downed the Prince Albert Raiders 6-4 at the SaskTel Centre. Robins and Boyko finished that contest, so the COVID-19 elephant is there in that instance.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, Boyko’s former team in the Hurricanes had 14 players placed on the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List. The Hurricanes road game on Saturday in Calgary against the Hitmen and home game on Sunday against the Swift Current Broncos were both postponed.

The absence of Robins and Boyko saw the Blades add 15-year-old associate player call up Zachary Moore to their roster. Moore made his WHL debut for his hometown team at forward.

Nolan Maier made 36 saves in goal for the Blades.

Belarusian import left-winger Egor Sidorov found his way back into the lineup since rejoining the Blades following the WHL Christmas break.

Once the game between the Oil Kings and Blades got started, it quickly felt like what a normal WHL regular season contest should feel like. When the action on the ice was going on, the focus for most in the building was on hockey.

The Oil Kings took a 1-0 lead at the 3:54 mark of the opening frame when import offensive-defenceman Simon Kubicek took a pass from centre Jalen Luypen at the point, skated down to the right slot and wired a shot to the top left corner of the Saskatoon goal.

The Blades evened things up at 1-1 scoring on the power play at the 7:37 mark of the first. Sidorov positioned himself at the right side of the Edmonton goal and one-timed a setup pass that came across the front of the Oil Kings net from star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic to even the score.

Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades on Saturday.

Saskatoon hit a bump with 3:39 remaining in the first period when 16-year-old rookie centre Lukas Hansen took a double minor for high sticking. The double minor will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for as possible suspension.

The Oil Kings were able to go back in front on the second half of that penalty.

With exactly 59 seconds remaining in the first, Oil Kings 19-year-old defenceman Luke Prokop put an off-speed point shot on goal that found its way thru a maze of bodies into the Saskatoon net for a power-play marker that gave the visitors a 2-1 edge.

The Blades ran into more troubles in the penalty department when 18-year-old centre Jayden Wiens took a major penalty for boarding at the 2:22 mark of the second period. Wiens was penalized after making an awkward hard hit into the boards on Oil Kings 19-year-old defenceman Carson Golder.

Zachary Moore made his WHL debut on Saturday.

Golder had to be attended to on the ice by the Oil Kings training staff. He left the contest and didn’t return.

Wiens’ infraction also triggers an automatic review by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Oil Kings managed to score once on the five-minute power-play to go ahead 3-1 at the 3:33 mark of the second.

The scoring play saw Oil Kings 20-year-old right-winger Josh Williams hold the puck at the left side of the Saskatoon goal, and slide a pass across the face of the Blades net to Luypen. Luypen popped the puck into net just out of the reach of a sprawling Blades 20-year-old star netminder in Nolan Maier to give the visitors their two-goal edge.

The goal helped Luypen complete a two-point night.

A scrum takes place by the Saskatoon net in the second period.

A big scrum around the Saskatoon net occurred with 6:46 remaining in the second that amused the spectators. There were some wrestling and holding matches in the scrum, but no actual fights resulted from it.

The Oil King proceeded to seal victory scoring a big dagger goal just before the midway part of the third period to round out the 4-1 final thank to a nice setup play by Guenther.

Guenther passed the puck from the left back boards behind the Saskatoon goal to the front of the net to linemate Jaxsen Wiebe, who popped home his fourth tally of the season. Guenther finished the contest with two assists, while Wiebe had a helper to go along with his goal.

Jaxsen Wiebe had a goal and an assist for the Oil Kings.

Maier played heroically turning away 36 shots to take the setback in goal for the Blades (17-14-1-1). Cossa stopped 15 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings (24-8-2-1).

The Oil Kings return to action on Sunday, when they travel to Prince Albert to take on the Raiders (6 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Blades return to action this coming Friday when they host the Regina Pats (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

A total of seven games got played in the WHL on Saturday night. At the moment, the majority of the circuit’s contests are still happening.

The COVID-19 pandemic specter is still there going forward with the Omicron variant seemingly taking centre stage. It is the back in everyone’s mind that more game postponements due to the pandemic will still happen.

Oil Kings C Jalen Luypen and Blades LW Kyle Crnkovic face off.

No one knows when the next postponements will be.

The teams are trying to do their best to prevent players and staff from contracting COVID-19, while still having reasonable but limited contact with the world outside the team environment.

That includes trying to do more media interviews via telephone and Zoom calls. Before the Christmas break, most WHL teams were still doing media interviews in person.

At the moment, most games are going ahead, but that potentially might not always be the case in the future even with everyone’s best efforts.

The Oil Kings celebrate their win on Saturday night.

Every time a game gets in, that in itself is a good little victory.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Finding path forward was a big challenge in 2021

The Hilltops raise the PFC championship trophy.

As I sit at the keyboard on the final day of 2021, I don’t know what to write.

When it comes to tackling a year-end column, my plan seemed to change as this month went along. If I typed this column up four weeks ago, it likely would have been a lot more upbeat.

Like everything during these times with the world still stuck in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, this column will likely be a roller-coaster.

Due to these crazy times, I didn’t think it was appropriate to type out a top 10 cools things post I saw during the year. If I do such a post in future years, I’m not sure what look it will take.

I will note the highlight of the year didn’t come from the sports front. The highlight was attending my niece’s wedding in Jasper, Alta., on September 4.

The weekend was a good one on the family front. I don’t want to get into too much detail there as most of my family aren’t public figures, but on the need to know front, that wedding weekend was an outstanding weekend.

For 2021, the goal was just to find a way forward. I couldn’t describe what that looked like.

Basically, you are trying to follow your gut as you navigate the world.

One thing that was always in the back of my mind was to be aware that setbacks could occur at any time even after progress was made depending on developments on the COVID-19 pandemic front.

The biggest challenge for me and one I am still mindful of is navigating the fact that everyone is out to satisfy their selfish needs. I wrote in my year end post for 2020 that I’ve become a little more jaded in general when it comes to dealing with people.

All set for my niece’s wedding in Jasper.

I wrote people are basically out trying to be their best versions of Professional Football Hall of Fame diva receiver Terrell Owens.

Basically, you see people out there saying, “Teams is spelled M, E, me. Me. I’m the greatest. Me!”

If I was more jaded in general when it can to dealing with people thinking they were selfish in 2020, I’ve pretty much accepted that is the norm in 2021. In general, people just see the world through their own personalized world view and more and more they will not change or adjust that view.

If people are in a position of power, they use and abuse that position of power to help make their own life situation better.

Unfortunately when I apply those jaded observations to how most things unfold in the world, it always makes everything line up in the big picture of why things happen the way they do.

On the sports reporting front, I think one of the big things I’ve had to adjust to was that fans went back to acting like they did before the COVID-19 pandemic really sunk its claws into the world in March of 2020. In North America, the first pauses due to the COVID-19 pandemic took place on March 11, 2020.

Living in Saskatoon, the most obvious example came from watching fans of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders react to the fortunes of their team.

The CFL lost its entire 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and there was no certainty the circuit was going to return to the field. When the Roughriders hit the field at Mosaic Stadium to open their regular season schedule on August 6, the honeymoon was on.

A sellout crowd of 33,350 spectators watched the Roughriders down the visiting British Columbia Lions 33-29. As the Roughriders started out 3-0, the prevailing feeling among fans was that everyone was thankful to be able to go to a CFL game again.

By early October when the Roughriders found themselves sporting a 5-4 record, the honeymoon was definitely over. 

It seems everyone is their own best version of Terrell Owens.

It was easy to find commentary that the quarterback sucks, the coaches all suck, the general manager sucks and everyone seems to get ripped including the ball boy.

The Roughriders defence seemed to get the least criticism outside of comments of not coming through in the clutch.

Saskatchewan ultimately finished the regular season with a 9-5 record and fell in the West Division final to the eventual Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In recent days, the fan uproar about the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world junior tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer getting cancelled after three days of games due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been all over the place.

The ragehol is real.

Rightly or wrongly, I find I have developed the ability to tune all that noise out pretty quickly.

It did surprise me how fast those normal fan reactions returned.

In the case of the Roughriders season, you wouldn’t have known a season as missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ultimately for the fans, the fact a team wins or loses a game or an event gets cancelled doesn’t directly affect their lives unless they allow those things to affect their lives. At the end of the day, those developments don’t alter how fans pay the bills or put food on the table.

On July 11, all public health restrictions in Saskatchewan were lifted. Ultimately, mask mandates and proof of vaccination requirements would be install in the province on October 1.

People liked to beat up Cody Fajardo (#7) and the Roughriders.

At the time of July 11, it felt like numerous people rushed to declare the COVID-19 pandemic as being over. Actually, there are a number of people that still believe it is over.

During July when things were progressing more like normal, opportunities started to come up to get back into covering the sports scene.

I actually admit I was hesitant to get back on that track. It was always in the back of my mind that you could start covering various local teams and leagues and things could still change suddenly and fall off track.

I took a lengthy break from writing on this blog this year, because I felt like I got mentally unhealthy always writing about cancellations and dealing with constant rage people had regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

To be honest, I’ve lost a few friendships and associations over differing views with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, where that factor was the only deal breaker. There are times I’ve allowed myself to feel sad over that development.

In getting back in the swing of things on the sports reporting front, I took a measured approach about what I was going to do. I haven’t jumped back into covering all the teams and circuits I once did.

Part of that came due to the fact I’ve become more present in the home and with family during the pandemic.

On the sports front, I decided to get back covering the CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops and the WHL as a league. On the WHL front, the focus has been on covering the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades.

I decided to keep a smaller focus, so I don’t get dragged down with all the waves every league deals with in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mason Ochs (#73) and the Hilltops had big moments in 2021.

For me, it was extremely good to get back to covering the Hilltops, Raiders, Blades and the WHL. Working games involving those teams felt so good for me mentally.

I always feel like I am in a good place when I am in the building or stadium covering those games.

After missing the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was fun to see the Hilltops win the PFC final for a seventh consecutive season. The Hilltops downed the Thunder in Regina for the PFC title 29-9 on November 14 at Mosaic Stadium.

The Hilltops weren’t able to win a seventh consecutive CJFL title as they fell in a CJFL semifinal contest 17-14 to the host Rams at McLeod Stadium in Langley, B.C., on November 20. The Rams advanced on to with the Canadian Bowl as CJFL champions.

The Hilltops made history as linebacker Emmarae Dale became the first female to play games in a CJFL season. Unfortunately, she aged out after one campaign.

Hilltops all-time great left tackle Mason Ochs, right tackle Jonathan Chisholm and boundary cornerback Jared Giddings all returned for a fifth and final season with the team. They were integral in keeping the Hilltops vibe and culture intact coming off a missed season.

I did start to branch into going to a handful of University of Saskatchewan Huskies football and hockey games as U Sports got going.

It was a thrill to be at Griffiths Stadium on November 20, when the Huskies football team downed the University of Manitoba Bisons 45-17 to capture the Hardy Cup as Canada West Conference champions.

The Huskies advanced to the U Sports title game – the Vanier Cup – for the first time since 2006. They fell 27-21 to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs in that championship clash on December 4 at Stade Telus – Universite Laval in Quebec City, Quebec.

It has been great being back on the WHL circuit again.

The Huskies had a number of good guys return after their 2020 campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic including quarterback Mason Nyhus, running back Adam Machart, utility player Colton Klassen, receiver Yol Piok, right tackle Nick Summach, defensive end Riley Pickett and defensive back Charlie Ringland.

It was great to see those players take the Huskies program back to heights that hadn’t been seen in 15 years.

With the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 playing a major factor on the world stage in recent weeks, it feels just uncertain what is going to happen in 2022. Most provinces in Canada have added a number of public health orders in recent weeks.

On the overall COVID-19 front, I decided to check Worldometer to figure out how many people in the world died from it in 2021. In 2020, Worldometer total deaths from COVID-19 to be just over 1.82-million for that year.

At the time this post went life, I calculated from Worldometer’s information that 3.63-million people died of COVID-19 in 2021. Knowing people, they are going to spin those facts in any direction they like.

I post that number to show the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over, even though most of the United States seemingly acts that way, while most of the rest of the world has some sort of restrictions to deal with COVID-19.

Like the past 22 months, the challenge seems to be the same. You try to adjust the best you can to the changes that are out of your control that COVID-19 has an effect on.

You ultimately have to follow your gut to find the best path forward.

The Huskies raise the Hardy Cup as Canada West champions.

As love or hate him and always winning NFL head coach Bill Belichick says, “It is on to Cincinnati.”

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Lisowsky hatty powers Blades to 6-4 victory over Raiders

Brandon Lisowsky celebrates his hat trick goal.

Brandon Lisowsky was on fire, and that was a welcome development for the Saskatoon Blades.

On Thursday night, Lisowsky potted three goals to power his Blades to a 6-4 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders to the delight of most of the 2,729 spectators in attendance at the SaskTel Centre.

The hat trick was the second of the season for Lisowsky, who scored three times in a 5-4 overtime victory over the Warriors in Moose Jaw on December 14.

On the season, Lisowsky, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 167 pounds, has 19 goals and seven assists in 32 games.

In Thursday’s clash between the Blades and Raiders, the contest had some jerky ebbs and flows that saw the two sides combine for 10 goals on 37 total shots.

Brandon Lisowsky has two hat tricks for the Blades this season.

Both teams started out kind of playing each other cautious over the opening 15 minutes. The Raiders broke thru on the scoreboard with 4:06 remaining in the first period.

With the Blades working on the power play, the hosts were trying to break out of their own end.

Raiders star center Ozzy Wiesblatt intercepted a pass at the Saskatoon blue-line and broke into the Blades zone on a breakaway. He snapped a short-handed marker past Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier to give the visitors their 1-0 edge.

Ozzy Wiesblatt had the Raiders first goal on Thursday.

The Raiders extended their lead to 2-0 at the 2:18 mark of the second on a goal from defenceman Landon Kosior. Kosior pinched down from the point to the front of the Saskatoon net, received a pass from left-winger Evan Herman and popped home his eighth of the season.

The Blades proceeded to even things up 2-2 heading into the second intermission thanks to Lisowsky scoring his first two goals on the night.

The Port Coquitlam, B.C., product potted his first goal on the power-play banging home a rebound from a shot taken by linemate Jayden Wiens.

Lisowsky bagged his next marker scoring on a shot from close in front of the Blades net after converting a nice setup pass from 17-year-old right-winger Kyren Gronick coming from behind the Prince Albert goal.

The Raiders bench checks out the replay of a disallowed goal.

With under 50 seconds to play in the second, the Raiders thought they went ahead 3-2, when 18-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick snapped a shot past Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier.

The Blades coaches challenged that the play was offside, and the officials ruled the play was indeed offside after video review causing the goal to be disallowed.

The replay in the building showed Raiders centre Hayden Pakkala was unable to keep the puck onside while holding it at the Saskatoon blue-line.

Just 34 seconds into the third, the Blades jumped ahead 3-2 on a tally from captain Aiden De La Gorgendiere. De La Gorgendiere received a pass on the Prince Albert zone, skated into the left slot and wired a shot past Raiders netminder Tikhon Chaika.

Sloan Stanick (#23) jets up ice for the Raiders.

Lisowsky proceeded to net his hat trick goal to extend the Blades lead to 4-2 at the 5:59 mark of the third. Working hard on the forecheck in the Prince Albert zone, Lisowsky took the puck from a Raiders player in front of the Prince Albert net and blasted home his 19^th of the season.

Just 46 seconds after that tally, the Blades struck on the power play, when Wiens tipped home a point shot from De La Gorgendiere to the top corner of the Prince Albert goal.

Following that tally, the Raiders pulled Tikhon, who stopped 15 of 20 shots sent his way. He took the setback in goal for the Raiders (12-17-1-1).

Cole Tisdale played the rest of the way in relief stopping one of two shots sent his way.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere had a key goal for the Blades.

Blades star centre Tristen Robins beat Tisdale on a sick deke move to put the hosts up 6-2.

The Raiders attempted to make a comeback as import left-winger Vladislav Shilo scored with 3:06 remaining in the third and 17-year-old left-winger Niall Crocker potted his second marker of the season with 1:23 remaining in the third to cut Saskatoon’s lead to 6-4.

Maier stopped 11 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (17-13-1-1).

The two archrivals have met six times this season with each side claiming three wins. At the moment, these squads aren’t slated to meet again until well into the new year on March 11, 2021.

Since returning from the WHL Christmas break, both the Blades and the Raiders have each played three games in four nights, and overall both teams haven’t looked sharp in the defensive end and in goal resulting in those clubs being involved in high-scoring games.

The Blades celebrate their victory on Thursday.

Both squads would likely welcome at least four consecutive days of practice to be able iron things out on the defensive end and in net. For the moment, the two sides have a fairly quick turnaround before taking the ice again.

The Blades return to action on Saturday when they host their traditional New Year’s Day game against the 23-8-2-1 Edmonton Oil Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders get back at it on Sunday when they host the Oil Kings (6 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Following those games with the Oil Kings, the Blades and Raiders will get an adequate practice stretch that will allow them to sharpen up on the defensive end and in goal.

Raiders ink Ritchie to WHL player agreement, other notes

The Prince Albert Raiders have both of their first round picks in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft locked up.

On Thursday, the Raiders signed forward Ryder Ritchie to a WHL Standard Player Agreement. The Raiders selected Ritchie in the first round and 14^th overall in the WHL Prospects Draft held on December 9.

Ritchie, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 145 pounds, has a pair of goals and five assists in six games with Kelowna’s Rink Hockey Academy Under-18 prep team. He is the son of former NHLer Byron Ritchie.

The Raiders now have their top four picks from the WHL Prospects Draft held on December 9 signed to WHL Standard Player Agreements including their other first round selection in forward Cole Peardon, who was picked 13^th overall. They also previously signed forward Grady Martin (second round, 32^nd overall) and defenceman Seth Tansem (second round, 43^rd overall).

• On Thursday, the WHL announced that all team activities were paused for the Swift Current Broncos after the number of players on their CHL COVID-19 Protocol List grew to four. The Broncos home game on Thursday against the Winnipeg Ice and their scheduled home contest on Friday against the Regina Pats have been postponed.
• Bailey Peach had a monster game for the Victoria Royals on Thursday night. The 20-year-old left-winger was in on every Royals goal posting a hat trick and four assists as the Royals downed the visiting Vancouver Giants 7-3. The Royals, who have won three straight, improved to 12-13-4, while the Giants fell to 14-16-1.
• Garin Bjorkland, a 19-year-old netminder, made 41 saves on Thursday helping the Medicine Hat Tigers down the visiting Calgary Hitmen 3-2. The Tigers received a pair of goals from 17-year-old left-winger Tyler MacKenzie in improving to 6-19-3-1, while the Hitmen fell to 12-12-3-2.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Rebels outlast Blades in crazy high-scoring contest

Red Deer takes tiebreaking shootout 2-1 and game 7-6

The Rebels celebrate Talon Brigley’s shootout winner.

It was one of those nights that kept the fans on the edge of their seats and could potentially give coaches heart attacks.

On Tuesday night at the SaskTel Centre, the goals came in bunches like in the 1980s as the Red Deer Rebels downed the host Saskatoon Blades 7-6 after a tiebreaking shootout in a WHL regular season contest played in front of 2,741 spectators.

The Rebels took the tiebreaking shootout 2-1 with 16-year-old right-winger Talon Brigley scoring in the fourth round. Rebels 20-year-old centre Liam Keeler had Red Deer’s first tally in the tiebreaking session, while Blades star centre Tristen Robins had Saskatoon’s marker in the shootout.

There was lots of frantic action around the nets in Tuesday’s game.

Tuesday’s offensive fireworks came likely from the fact both teams started associate player call ups in net.

The Rebels, who were playing their first game since returning from their WHL Christmas break, did not have their star puck-stopping tandem available for Tuesday’s contest in 19-year-old Connor Ungar and 18-year-old Chase Coward.

Ungar was listed as being out with an undisclosed injury, while Coward is day-to-day with a lower body injury.

As a result, 17-year-old Justen Maric, who plays for the Edmonton Gregg Distributors Canadian Athletic Club under-18 AAA team, started his first career WHL game playing goal for Red Deer. 

Ben King had two goals and an assists for the Rebels.

Maric turned away three-of-six shots and was pulled after the first period.

Chase Wutzke took over in the Red Deer goal in making his WHL debut. The 15-year-old Debden, Sask., product, who plays for the Saskatoon Contacts under-18 AAA team, was greeted by cheers from family and friends in attendance.

Wutzke turned away 12-of-15 shots to playing the second, third and overtime periods for the Rebels and three of four shooters in the shootout. He picked up his first career WHL win helping the Rebels improve to 21-9-1.

Overall, Wutzke is a recent addition to the Rebels, who selected him in the second round and 40^th overall in the WHL Prospects Draft held on December 9.

Tristen Robins had a goal and five assists for the Blades.

With the Rebels being forced to dress two associate player call ups to play goal, the Blades elected to give 17-year-old associate player call up Austin Elliott his second career WHL start. Elliott is filling in for Blades backup goalie Ethan Chadwick, who is out day-to-day with a lower body injury.

Elliott, who plays junior A for the Notre Dame Hounds of the SJHL, turned away 24-of-29 shots playing the first and second periods for the Blades.

He was pulled for 20-year-old star veteran Nolan Maier at the start of the third frame. Maier turned away 12-of-13 shots playing the third period and overtime and two of four shooters in the shootout.

Kyle Crnkovic had three goals and two assists for the Blades.

Maier took the overtime setback in goal for the Blades, whose record moved to 16-13-1-1. The Yorkton, Sask., started for the Blades on Monday in a 4-1 victory over the Raiders in Prince Albert, and the Saskatoon side was originally trying to give Maier the night off on Tuesday.

Ultimately, the challenges both sides faced in goal created a situation that allowed both clubs to burn out the bulbs on the scoreboard.

The Blades opened the scoring at the 7:07 mark of the first period, while working on the power play. Stationed in the left slot, Robins one-timed a setup pass from rearguard Charlie Wright to give the host side a one-goal edge.

Liam Keeler had a goal for the Rebels on Tuesday.

Just 17 seconds later, the Rebels evened the score at 1-1, when 19-year-old star centre Ben King converted a tick-tack-toe passing play from Arshdeep Bains and Jhett Larson. King knocked home the puck from in close at the left side of the Saskatoon net.

Just 1:18 after that tally, the Blades went ahead 2-1, when star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic wristed home a shot from the point.

With 3:02 remaining in the first, the Blades struck again on the power play, when 17-year-old left-winger Brandon Lisowsky tipped home a point shot from captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere.

The second period was a wild one that attempted to knockout the scoreboard. 

Jace Isley scored the Rebels fifth goal on Tuesday.

Brigley scored to cut the Blades edge to 3-2, but the Blades replied with two straight goals to push their advantage to 5-2 as Crnkovic scored his second of the contest and Jayden Wiens potted a single on a power play.

The Rebels proceeded to score three straight to even things up at 5-5. Bains, Keeler and Jace Isley all netted singles for Red Deer in that offensive run that evened the score.

With 6.8 seconds remaining in the second, the Blades jumped back in front 6-5, when Crnkovic potted his third of the night on a backhand shot from the left side of the Red Deer net. The Chestermere, Alta., product had two assists to go with his hat trick.

Blake Stevenson looks for a scoring chance for the Rebels.

Robins made a nice pass across the face the Red Deer goal to set up Crnkovic for his third tally of the night. That set up was the fifth assist of the contest for Robins.

De La Gorgendiere finished the night collecting three assists for the Blades.

At the 10:42 mark of the third, the Rebels evened things up at 6-6 scoring on the power play.

Rebels right-winger Blake Stevenson took a shot from the right boards that deflected off the boards behind the Saskatoon net right to King at the left side of the goal. King popped home the equalizer into an empty cage for his second tally of the night.

King had an assist to go with his two goals on Tuesday.

In overtime, Wutzke came up with three clutch saves to prevent the Blades from pulling out the win including turning away Blades defenceman Rhett Rhinehart close in off a backhand shot.

The Rebels celebrate their win on Tuesday.

Defenceman Kyle Masters had the Rebels best chance to score in overtime when he wired a shot off the post of the Saskatoon goal.

That set the stage for the dramatics of the tiebreaking shootout, where Red Deer pulled out the win.

With the crazy victory under their belts, the Rebels return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Prince Albert to take on the 12-15-1-1 Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Blades will try and get back in the win column on Thursday when they host the Raiders (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

As for Tuesday’s clash between the Blades and Rebels, the fans definitely got full value for their ticket purchases on that night.

Blades, Tigers, Cougars combine on massive three-way trade

Kyren Gronick made his debut for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Saskatoon Blades, Medicine Hat Tigers and Prince George Cougars combined on a massive three-team trade on Tuesday involving six players and five WHL Prospects Draft selections.

In the deal, the Blades received 17-year-old right-winger Kyren Gronick from the Cougars, 17-year-old defenceman Ryan Nolan from the Tigers and a fourth round selection in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft from the Tigers.

Gronick, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 180 pounds, played 21 games for the Cougars this season posting three goals and six assists. The Regina, Sask., product made his debut for the Blades on Tuesday as they fell 7-6 after a tiebreaking shootout to the Red Deer Rebels at the SaskTel Centre.

Gronick was held without a point in his first game with the Blades.

Nolan, who stands 6-feet and weighs 156 pounds, appeared in eight games this season with the Tigers and didn’t register any points.

The Tigers received 19-year-old right-winger Brendan Lee from the Blades, 17-year-old defenceman Pavel Bocharov from the Blades and fifth round selection in the 2025 WHL Prospects Draft from the Cougars in the deal.

Lee, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 187 pounds, skated in 30 games for the Blades this season posting five goals and six assists.

Bocharov, who stands 6-feet and weighs 178 pounds, appeared in 30 games for the Blades this season collecting one goal and six assists.

The Cougars received 17-year-old left-winger Cayden Glover from the Tigers, centre Carlin Dezainde, who turns 17-years-old on Wednesday, from the Tigers, a conditional second round selection in the 2023 WHL Prospect Draft from the Tigers, a third round pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft from the Blades and a seventh round pick in the 2025 WHL Prospects Draft from the Blades.

Glover, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 186 pounds, has appeared in 15 games for the Tigers this season collecting three goals and two assists.

Dezainde, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 161 pounds, has appeared in 21 games for the Tigers collecting two assists.

The WHL trade deadline for the current campaign is January 17, 2022.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Blades role players run wild over Raiders

Rowan Calvert (#23) celebrates scoring his first career WHL goal.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – The Saskatoon Blades supporting cast ran wild over the Prince Albert Raiders.

In the first game after the WHL Christmas break for both sides on Monday night, two players from the Blades scored their first goals of the season and two players tallied their second markers of the campaign to power the visitors to a 4-1 victory over the Raiders. The result disappointed most of the 2,340 in attendance at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre.

“It was the first game back, and it looked that way,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. “Both teams I thought were OK only they were a little bit better than us.

“I thought the coaching was rusty. I thought our players were rusty and a lot of rust. Their depth outplayed ours I guess, but that happens sometimes.

Rowan Calvert was playing for the Blades as an AP call up.

“The first game back is a tough game, but they found a way to get her done, and we didn’t.”

The Raiders came out of the gate carrying the early momentum, but were held off the scoreboard by Blades star netminder Nolan Maier.

Early in the frame, Maier swallowed up a mid-range drive from Raiders rearguard Landon Kosior.

Maier proceeded to turn away Raiders left-winger Keaton Sorensen on an in close chance and then on a backhand shot Sorensen directed on goal after a coast-to-coast rush while working on the power play.

After killing two straight penalties that included a stretch of being down two men for 46 seconds, the Blades jumped ahead 1-0 when 16-year-old sophomore defenceman Tanner Molendyk snapped a shot past Raiders import rookie netminder Tikhon Chaika with 4:27 remaining in the frame. The tally was Molendyk’s second goal of the season.

Landon Kosior had a power-play goal for the Raiders.

Habscheid thought that sequence of events had a sizable impact on how the game played out.

“That was the TSN turning point for sure,” said Habscheid. “If we score there (on the power plays), we get a little bit of extra life.

“If they kill it, they get some life. They get that break and away they go with a nice shot. The first goal especially was important because it gave one team life and the other team was kind of limping around a bit.”

At the 8:22 mark of the second, the Blades went ahead 2-0 when 16-year-old right-winger Rowan Calvert scored his first career WHL regular season goal.

Standing in close at the right side of the Prince Albert net, Calvert, who is an associate player call up, received a pass from behind the net from linemate Jayden Wiens. Calvert, who is playing for his hometown Moose Jaw Warriors under-18 AAA team, quickly popped the puck into the goal to give his Blades a two-goal edge.

Tanner Molendyk scored the Blades first goal on Monday.

With about 3:30 remaining in the second, Raiders right-winger Carson Latimer nailed Wiens with a big hip check.

A few seconds later, Blades 19-year-old right-winger Josh Paulhus engaged Raiders 18-year-old rookie left-winger Vladislav Shilo in a spirited fight. Paulhus received a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct, while Shilo received a fighting major.

On the ensuing power-play, left-winger Sloan Stanick hit Kosior with a backdoor pass, and Kosior drove home his seventh goal of the season from the left slot to cut the Blades lead to 2-1.

Kosior believed the fight and the resulting goal turned the momentum back to the Raiders.

Raider LW Vladislav Shilo, left, fights Blades RW Josh Paulhus.

“I thought that was huge,” said Kosior. “For him (Shilo) to step up like that and fight like that, he did great.

“I thought that really gave us a big boost in momentum. To get a power play out of it and a goal was huge.”

Just when it seemed the Raiders had momentum on their side, Blades centre Spencer Shugrue snapped home a dagger at the 6:47 mark of the third period to give the visitors a 3-1 lead. Shugrue intercepted a pass in the Prince Albert zone from a Raiders defenceman and put home his second of the season for a two-goal edge.

Shugrue, who is normally a defenceman, was playing centre as the Blades were short-handed up front as they were missing import forwards Egor Sidorov and Moritz Elias.

Spencer Shugrue had a key insurance goal for the Blades.

Saskatoon also had three team members added to the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List before Monday’s game.

Kosior thought his team needed to show a little more resiliency after Shugrue scored to put the Blades up 3-1 in the third.

“I think it deflated us a bit, but we can’t let that happen to us,” said Kosior. “We just have to keep moving forward.

“We can’t let a goal affect us like that.”

With 4:47 remaining in the third, the Raiders went on the power play, and they pulled Tikhon for an extra attacker too for a six-versus-four skaters advantage.

Carson Latimer works with the puck in the offensive zone.

The Blades proceeded to ice the game with 4:21 remaining in the third, when 18-year-old rearguard Charlie Wright had the puck in his own zone and banked a long clear off the boards that found its way into the Raiders net to round out the 4-1 win. The tally was Wright’s first goal of the campaign.

Chaika turned away 15-of-18 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders (12-15-1-1). 

Maier stopped 23 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (16-13-1).

The Raiders were playing without star 19-year-old centre Ozzy Wiesblatt, who is out day-to-day with an upper body injury.

The Blades celebrate their win on Monday.

The Blades return to action on Tuesday when they host the 20-9-1-1 Red Deer Rebels (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders play host the Rebels on night later on Wednesday night (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Habscheid is looking forward to using the practice on the Raiders off day on Tuesday to further shake out the rust from the Christmas break.

“You just get guys moving the puck and getting playing again,” said Habscheid. “That is the way it is.

“This is always a tough game. It is a tough game for both. We had the home game, and they didn’t.

“They just seemed to want it a little bit more.”

WHL releases COVID-19 Protocol List

WHL team members aim to stay off the WHL COVID-19 Protocol list.

About 65 minutes before the first of Monday’s five scheduled WHL games hit the ice, the WHL office announced a WHL COVID-19 Protocol list.

The list is similar to one used in the NHL.

The WHL list displays the number of players and hockey operations staff that have tested positive for COVID-19 for each team. Unlike the NHL list, no names are given on the WHL list.

For Monday’s contest that saw the Saskatoon Blades down the Raiders in Prince Albert 4-1, the Blades had three team member test positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Raiders didn’t have any team members on the COVID-19 list.

The testing for Monday’s list was done as all players and personnel returned to their clubs from the WHL Christmas break.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.