Blades to set team attendance record, could hit building mark
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| Connor Bedard leads the WHL in scoring with 134 points. |
On Sunday, the Blades will host Bedard and his Regina Pats for a 4 p.m. regular season clash at the SaskTel Centre. Bedard is the Pats 17-year-old phenom centre who leads the WHL in goals (66) and points (134) to go with a plus-36 rating in the plus-minus department in 53 appearances this season.
The North Vancouver, B.C., product’s 68 assists are tied for tops in the WHL with Prince George Cougars 17-year-old star centre and Saskatoon product Riley Heidt.
Barring something unforeseen, Bedard will be the first overall selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft which will be held at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, from June 28 to 29. He is rated first among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s Mid-Term Rankings.
The Blades are expecting to smash their single game attendance record as over 15,000 tickets have been sold for Sunday’s contest. The team’s current single game attendance record sits at 12,588 spectators, and that mark came back on February 9, 2013 when they downed the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-2.
This season, the Blades attendance high was 7,868 spectators set back on November 13, 2023, when they downed Bedard and the Pats 5-2. Over 31 home dates, the Blades are averaging 3,864 spectators a game, which is an increase from the average attendance of 3,390 spectators that turned out for the Blades 34 regular season home dates in 2021-22.
It is expected that Sunday’s game will sellout as there were fewer than 100 tickets available as of Friday afternoon. It is uncertain what a sellout figure will look like for a sporting event for the SaskTel Centre.
The Blades are expected to threaten the current SaskTel Centre attendance record for a single sports event. That mark is currently held by the NLL’s Saskatchewan Rush, who the hold the top two single event attendance records for a sporting event in the history of the SaskTel Centre
The Rush drew a SaskTel Centre record 15,192 spectators on May 21, 2016 for their 12-9 victory over the Calgary Roughnecks in Game 2 of a best-of-three West Division semifinal series that they swept 2-0.
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| Connor Bedard, left, in action against the Blades on Nov. 13, 2022. |
The Rush claimed victory in dramatic fashion in their win over the Buffalos on June 4, 2016 to capture that year’s NLL championship. With that contest locked in a 10-10 tie with 12 seconds to play, Rush defenceman Jeff Cornwall ran coast-to-coast to score a breakaway goal to deliver the host side a league championship in thrilling style. Those two Rush contests were announced as sellouts.
At that time, the Rush were owned by Bruce Urban. Urban sold the Rush to what is now known as the Saskatoon Entertainment Group owned by Mike Priestner and his son Colin on May 10, 2021. That move brought the Rush and Blades under the same ownership.
The Rush games might end up with a higher attendance as a party alley was hosted in on the vehicle entrance leading to the SaskTel Centre’s playing surface. At Blades games, the vehicle entrances leading to the playing surface are usually filled with rink attendants and the team’s game night staff.
As for Bedard, his brand took a big jump upward after he set numerous Canadian team records at this past world juniors held in Halifax, N.S., and Moncton, N.B., Canada won gold taking the gold medal final 3-2 in overtime over Czechia this past January 5 in Halifax.
Bedard was named the most valuable player at world juniors along with picking up accolades being named the event’s best forward and a tournament all-star.
His tallies for assists (14) and points (23) were new Canadian records for a single world juniors along with setting a new record for points in a tournament by any player aged 18 or younger. In 16 career games played at world juniors, Bedard set new Canadian career records at the event for goals (16) and points (36).
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| Connor Bedard broke numerous Canadian records at world juniors. |
On eBay, Bedard’s first Pats team issued hockey card with a top mint grade of 10 has sold for around $3,400 on a number of occasions. You can find a number of Bedard hockey cards on eBay for around $25, but anything that has a mint grade of 10 usually has bids starting at $1,250.
As for Bedard jerseys, sellers on eBay have autographed versions of his blue Pats jersey for sale in prices ranging from $998 to $2,200. Hockey Canada Bedard jerseys start at $200 for unsigned replica jerseys and go up $2,500 for an autographed jersey.
In the current WHL campaign, Bedard is still rolling. On Friday night before a sellout crowd of 6,499 spectators at the Brandt Centre in Regina, the Pats dropped a 9-5 decision to their archrivals in the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors, but Bedard was in on every Pats tally posting a hat trick and two assists.
The Blades have sold out games in the past, but they haven’t sold out any games since the SaskTel Centre’s current configuration was put in place to accommodate the world juniors that were held in the building during the 2009-10 campaign.
When the Blades made it to the WHL final in 1992 and 1994, the SaskTel Centre was configured to hold a capacity of around 11,310 spectators at that time.
With all the anticipation surrounding Bedard’s visit, it is easy to forget the Blades (45-14-4-1) have a big game on Saturday when they host the 26-31-8 Brandon Wheat Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre). If the Blades win that contest, they will lock up a second place finish in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and ensure they will finish at least fourth in the WHL’s overall standings.
In the first round of the WHL Playoffs, the two division winners are given the first and second seeds. From the second round onwards, the teams are reseeded by standings points.
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| Connor Bedard and the Pats will be in Saskatoon again on March 24. |
If the Blades finish second in the Eastern Conference, they would have home ice advantage for any post-season meetings with the Rebels.
Still, Sunday’s encounter with Bedard and the Pats is the main event of the weekend. For anyone who misses that contest, Bedard and the Pats return to Saskatoon on Friday, March 24 for another regular season battle with the Blades set for 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
As of Wednesday, 13,600 tickets were sold for that contest on March 24. In short order, the “Tour de Bedard” hype gets to repeat itself all over again.
Raiders keep playoff hopes alive for another
day
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| Tikhon Chaika made 36 saves for the Raiders on Friday. |
On Friday night, the Raiders traveled to Brandon and downed the host Wheat Kings 4-3 in a WHL regular season contest played before 3,725 spectators at Westoba Place. The Raiders relied on a trio of their top players to pull out victory.
Import netminder Tikhon Chaika made 36 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders and also recorded an assist. Sloan Stanick, the team’s 19-year-old star left-winger, had a pair of goals, and 16-year-old star right-winger Ryder Ritchie had a goal and an assist.
In 57 games this season, Ritchie has 51 points coming off 20 goals and 31 assists. Stanick has 58 points coming off 26 goals and 32 assists appearing in 63 games for the Raiders. All of Stanick’s totals are career highs.
The win allowed the Raiders to improve to 27-34-3 to sit 11th overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. They sit five points behind the Calgary Hitmen (27-28-5-3) for eighth place and the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. Prince Albert has four games left on its regular season schedule, while Calgary has five contests left on its regular season slate.
The Wheat Kings fell to 26-31-8 with the setback to sit two points behind the Hitmen and three points ahead of the Raiders. Brandon is tied with the Swift Current Broncos (28-32-1-3) for the ninth and 10th spots in the Eastern Conference.
The Broncos have four games left on their regular season schedule, while the Wheat Kings have three contests left on their regular season slate.
In Friday’s clash between the Raiders and Wheat Kings, Prince Albert jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period with goals coming from Ritchie and Stanick netting his first of the contest. Just 39 seconds into the second, Nate Danielson netted his 33rd goal of the campaign to cut the Raiders edge to 2-1.
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| Ryder Ritchie had a goal and an assist for the Raiders on Friday. |
Stanick netted his second of the contest with 2:23 remaining in the third to push the Raiders advantage out to 4-2. Nolan Ritchie responded 53 seconds later to trim the Raiders edge to 4-3. The Wheat Kings were unable to get the equalizer from there.
Carson Bjarnason turned away 17 shots to take the setback in goal for the Wheat Kings, who have lost three straight. Malyavin had an assist to go with his goal, while Quinn Mantei and Kayden Sadhra-King each had a pair of assists for Brandon.
Raiders captain Evan Herman and Wheat Kings 19-year-old right-winger Dawson Pasternak engaged in a fight at the end of the second period.
Friday’s contest started a three games in three nights road trip for the Raiders. The Raiders travel to Winnipeg on Saturday to face the WHL leading 53-9-1 Ice (7 p.m. local time, Wayne Fleming Arena). Those two squads go at it again on Sunday in Winnipeg (5 p.m. local time, Wayne Fleming Arena).
The Wheat Kings get back at it on Saturday, when they travel to Saskatoon to take on the 45-14-4-1 Blades (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).
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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