Ice blue-liners give Blades the blues in Game 1

Saskatoon falls 3-0 in WHL Eastern Conference final opener

Ben Zloty scoring the winning goal for the Ice on Friday.

When you go almost three months between playing games head-to-head, a great team’s underrated players can catch a strong foe off guard.

In Game 1 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series, Winnipeg Ice offensive-defencemen Ben Zloty and Carson Lambos reintroduced themselves to the Saskatoon Blades. Zloty and Lambos each had a goal as the Ice blanked the visiting Blades 3-0 on Friday before 1,613 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena to open the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final.

Friday’s encounter marked the first time the two sides met since February 4, when the Blades posted a 3-2 regular season victory over the Ice at the SaskTel Centre.

When one looks at the Ice roster, it is easy to be memorized by the talent in the club’s forward group consisting of the likes of Zach Benson, Matthew Savoie, Connor McClennon, Conor Geekie, Owen Pederson and Zack Ostapchuk. With that noted, the Ice are at their best when their defence is quarterbacking the contest.

Zloty and Lambos rank among the top defenders in the WHL, because they can do it all. Their strong play in the defensive zone often gets overlooked, because they are so strong at the offensive side of the game.

When either Zloty or Lambos gets the puck even if it is deep in their own zone, it seems they have command with a presence of what the Winnipeg side wants to do on offence like Tom Brady quarterbacking the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL.

Carson Lambos scored the Ice’s third goal on Friday.

It should come as no surprise that Zloty, who turned 21-years-old in late February, led the WHL in defencemen scoring during the regular season. In 64 regular season appearances with the Ice, Zloty posted 81 points coming off 13 goals and 68 assists to go with a plus-67 rating in the plus-minus department.

Lambos, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild and turned 20-years-old in January, had a strong campaign posting 48 points coming off 12 goals and 36 assists to go with a plus-60 rating in 61 regular season appearances with the Ice.

The poise of Zloty and Lambos seems to run off on the rest of the Ice’s defensive unit including solid 19-year-old veterans like Graham Sward and Karter Prosofsky and 16-year-old dynamo Jonas Woo. Sward, Prosofsky and Woo can all motor up ice fearlessly with the puck. If they are on the ice with Zloty and Lambos, the supporting trio seamlessly looks after the defensive end allowing the team’s main point producing defenders to look after the offensive end.

Woo and Zloty teamed up to account for the Ice’s first goal at the 14:39 mark of the first period. Woo got the puck to Zloty at the left point in the offensive zone and allowed Zloty to go to work from there.

Zloty circled with the puck to the top of the right faceoff circle and put home a backhander through a screen to give the Ice a 1-0 lead. The tally was the first of the post-season for Zloty to go with 15 assists to sit second in defenceman scoring in the WHL Playoffs with 16 points.

With 4:28 remaining in the first, the Blades went on the power play after Benson took a minor infraction for hooking. Early in the power play, Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov got a prime scoring chance wiring a shot on goal from the right slot, but he was robbed by the glove had of Ice netminder Daniel Hauser.

Egor Sidorov had a good chance to score on a first period power play.

Shortly after that scoring chance, the Ice had a huge scoring opportunity with 3:55 remaining in the first when Ostapchuk had a short-handed breakaway.  As Ostapchuk closed in on the Saskatoon goal, he was hacked by Blades star centre Trevor Wong on the backcheck.

The officials awarded Ostapchuk a penalty shot. On the penalty shot, Ostapchuk wire home a shot blocker side on Blades netminder Ethan Chadwick to push the host side’s advantage out to 2-0 for the rare short-handed penalty shot marker.

While the Ice had a 2-0 lead going into the first intermission, the opening 20 minutes was played fairly evenly with the hosts holding a 10-8 edge in shots on goal.

The Ice came out of the gates controlling play in the second period. At the 7:45 mark of the second, Savoie got the puck top Lambos at the left point. Lambos carried the puck just inside the blue-line of the Saskatoon zone and floated home an off-speed point shot to put the hosts up 3-0.

The tally was the first of the post-season for Lambos, who also has four assists to go with a plus-10 rating in 11 contests.

The Blades would get two power play chances before the second period came to a close, but the visitors weren’t able to find a traction goal. Early in the third period, the Blades went on the power play for the fourth and final time of the contest but still weren’t able to put a puck past Hauser.

Ethan Chadwick made 25 saves in goal for the Blades on Friday.

The Ice had one power-play chance in the game, but the Blades were able to kill that penalty off. In the post-season the Blades have currently killed off 12 consecutive opposition power plays.

With three minutes to play in the third, the Blades pulled Chadwick for an extra attacker. The Ice appeared to get an empty-net goal with 28.3 seconds remaining in the third from import right-winger Vladislav Shilo. The goal was waved off after a video review after it was determined the Ice were offside on the rush into the Saskatoon zone.

Hauser stopped all 16 shots he faced to pick up his first shutout of the current post-season. Chadwick turned away 25 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades.

The Blades were without 20-year-old defenceman Blake Gustafson and 18-year-old rearguard Ben Saunderson on Friday as they were both injured in the team’s second game Eastern Conference semifinal series win over the Red Deer Rebels. Black ace Morgan Tastad, who turned 17-years-old in January, dressed for his first career WHL post-season contest to allow the Blades to have six defencemen.

Tastad played most of the 2022-23 campaign with the Saskatoon Contacts under-18 AAA team. In 41 regular season appearances with the Contacts, Tastad had three goals and 24 assists.

Gritty right-winger Justin Lies returned to the Saskatoon lineup after serving a league imposed three-game suspension. Lies was suspended for a head shot he threw on Rebels star left-winger Kalan Lind in the Blades 4-2 win in Game 4 of that series.

The Ice got to enjoy a Game 1 win over the Blades.

The Ice’s biggest scratch was 19-year-old defenceman Wyatt Wilson. Winnipeg elected to dress 17-year-old rookie rearguard Ashton Cumby for his second career post-season contest.

The Ice topped the WHL regular season standings with a 57-10-1 mark and were rated third in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The 57 wins and 115 standings points are new franchise records for the Ice. The Blades finished fourth in the overall WHL regular season standings with a 48-15-4-1 record and were rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.

The series resumes on Saturday with Game 2 at the Wayne Fleming Arena for a 4 p.m. start local time. In that contest, we will see if the Blades are able to adjust to the Ice defence led by Zloty and Lambos who love to activate and get into the play offensively.

T-Birds, Blazers to open Western Conference final, other notes

Brad Lambert leads the Thunderbirds in post-season scoring.

The Seattle Thunderbirds and Kamloops Blazers are set to get it on.

The two powerhouse clubs open their best-of-seven Western Conference title series on Saturday at 7 p.m. local time at the Accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Washington. Game 2 of the series is slated for Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Accesso ShoWare Center.

The Thunderbirds and Blazers met in last year’s Western Conference Championship series. That series went to a deciding Game 7, and it was claimed 3-2 by the Thunderbirds at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops. The Blazers led the series 3-2, before the Thunderbirds closed the set out with two straight wins.

Seattle went on to fall in the WHL Championship Series in six games to the Edmonton Oil Kings.

The Thunderbirds topped the Western Conference and finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 54-11-1-2 record. The U.S. Division champions were rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. Seattle’s 54 wins and standings points total of 111 points are new regular season club records.

The Blazers, who are hosting this year’s Memorial Cup tournament, finished second overall in the Western Conference and third overall in the WHL regular season with a 48-13-4-3 mark. The B.C. Division champions were rated ninth in the final CHL Top 10 rankings.

Seattle swept away the Kelowna Rockets 4-0 in a best-of-seven first round series and the Prince George Cougars 4-0 in a best-of-seven WHL Western Conference semifinal series. Kamloops swept the Vancouver Giants 4-0 in the first round and the Portland Winterhawks 4-0 in the other Western Conference semifinal series.

The Thunderbirds have been off since April 19, when they closed out their series with the Cougars with an 8-2 victory in Game 4 of that series in Prince George. The Blazers have been off since April 20, when they close out their series with the Winterhawks with a 10-4 victory in Game 4 in Portland.

Jared Davidson topped the Thunderbirds in regular season scoring.

Centre Jared Davidson topped the Thunderbirds in regular season scoring with 82 points coming off 38 goals and 44 assists to go with a plus-41 rating in the plus-minus department in 60 appearances. Centre Brad Lambert leads the Thunderbirds in post-season scoring with 16 points coming off two goals and 14 assists to go with a plus-nine rating in six appearances.

Star centre Logan Stankoven topped the Blazers in regular season scoring with 97 points coming off 34 goals and 63 assists to go with a plus-36 rating in 48 appearances. Stankoven and star defenceman Olen Zellweger share the Blazers team lead in post-season scoring at 21 points in the team’s eight playoff outings.

Stankoven has recorded his 21 points on 10 goals and 11 assists to go with a plus-12 rating. Zellweger has his 21 points coming off seven goals and 14 assists to go with a plus-17 rating.

The star netminders for both sides have had strong post-seasons. Thomas Milic has played every minute of the playoffs in goal for Seattle winning all eight of his starts posting a 1.13 goals against average, a .953 save percentage and one shutout. Dylan Ernst has played every minute in of the playoffs in goal for Kamloops winning all eight of his starts posting a 1.80 goals against average, a .927 save percentage and three shutouts.

If the Blazers win the series against the Thunderbirds, the winner of the Eastern Conference Championships Series between the Winnipeg Ice and Saskatoon Blades will earn a berth to the Memorial Cup tournament.

The Blazers last appeared in the WHL Championship Series in 1999 falling in five games to the Calgary Hitmen.

• When the Saskatoon Blades fell 3-0 to the host Winnipeg Ice on Friday in Game 1 of the WHL Eastern Conference Championship Series, it marked the first time long time Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk called a game in a conference final. He has been the Blades play-by-play voice since the start of the 1994-95 campaign. Lazaruk’s hometown is Winnipeg, and he had a lengthy sports broadcast career there before becoming the Blades play-by-play voice.
• The Blades purchased a billboard on Pembina Highway in Winnipeg welcoming Lazaruk back to his hometown. A couple of others on social media added that the welcome home billboards for Lazaruk are up in a couple of other locations in the city.
• Four WHL officials will work the upcoming International Ice Hockey Fedaration World Championship, which will run May 12 to 28 in Tampere, Finland, and Riga, Nevada. The four WHL officials heading to worlds include referees Adam Bloski and Mike Langin and linespersons Brett Mackey and Tarrington Wyonzek.
• The Saskatoon Blades appearance in this year’s WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series marks the first time they’ve gone this far in the WHL post-season since 1994. In 1994, the Blades took the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Championship Series 4-1 over the Brandon Wheat Kings. The Blades fell in the WHL Championship Series in seven games to the Kamloops Blazers, who went on to win the Memorial Cup. In 1994, the Swedish group Ace of Base had the best selling album in the United States that year with “The Sign.” The album’s title track “The Sign” was the best selling single in the United States in 1994.

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.