Blades knock Raiders down to last life with 4-1 win in Game 4

Saskatoon takes 3-1 lead in first round WHL playoff series

The Blades celebrate a goal from Misha Volotovskii (#17).

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – The Saskatoon Blades are runnin’ back to Saskatoon with the chance to knock their archrivals out of the 2024 WHL Playoffs.

On Wednesday night before a standing room crowd of 2,926 spectators at the 2,580 at the Art Hauser Centre, the Blades downed the host Prince Albert Raiders 4-1 holding a 36-16 edge in shots on goal in Game 4 of a best-of-seven first round series. With the win, the Blades take a commanding 3-1 lead in the set.

They will have a chance to put the series away back in Saskatoon in Game 5, which is set for Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

“I thought there were some stretches of some really good stuff,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “I’m definitely pleased with how we played overall.

Misha Volotovskii had a goal and an assist for the Blades.

“There are always little things we are looking to adjust, but in general, I thought we played really hard.”

The Blades came storming out of the gate in the opening frame. It took a number of saves by Raiders star netminder Max Hildebrand to keep the visitors at bay.

Early in the first, Hildebrand turned away a smart redirection from Blades 18-year-old left-winger Rowan Calvert from the front of the Prince Albert net. Later on in the frame, Hildebrand stoned Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov with a shoulder stop on a shot from the right of the Prince Albert goal.

The Blades finally broke through on the scoreboard with 1.7 seconds remaining in the first. While working on the power play, Blades star overage left-winger Easton Armstrong banged home a goal from the left of the Prince Albert net to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Raiders C Turner McMillen, left, battles Blades LW Easton Armstrong.

The tally was Armstrong’s fourth goal in the last two games. He had a hat trick in the Blades 4-3 overtime win in Game 3 on Tuesday in Prince Albert.

“Every night is a new night,” said Armstrong. “You just come and try to play your hardest, and obviously, my teammates have really helped me out along the way.

“The puck has been going my way, and that has been nice.”

The Los Angeles, Calif., product was pleased he was able to break his team through on the scoreboard on Wednesday night after Hildebrand came through keeping the visitors at bay to that point in the contest.

Max Hildebrand stopped 32-of-35 shots in goal for the Raiders.

“Obviously, it is huge to score late in a period,” said Armstrong. “It brings momentum into the next period.

“I definitely thought we played a lot more full of a game tonight. We just came and played 20 guys for 60 minutes.”

The Blades kept their momentum going early in the second and benefitted from some great play by 18-year-old centre Misha Volotovskii. At the three-minute mark of the second, Volotovskii floated a shot from the point through a screen into the Prince Albert net to push the visitor’s edge out to 2-0.

Just 3:03 later, the Volotovskii had the puck on the left wing boards and centred a pass to Blades offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk. Molendyk one-timed home a midrange shot to give the Blades a 3-0 advantage.

Easton Armstrong (#27) reacts to scoring late in the first period.

“He (Volotovskii) just played hard and smart,” said Sonne, who was named the East Division’s nominee for the WHL’s coach of the year award on Wednesday. “He didn’t force anything.

“He was just getting heavy in the offensive zone and just pounced on opportunities when they were there as opposed to trying to force things and create things out of nothing.”

When the second intermission came around, the Blades went into the break holding their 3-0 advantage along with a 25-11 edge in shots on goal.

“I think at times I think that they just had the puck in our zone at will,” said Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt. “They did what they wanted to do and hemmed us in there for quite a while.

Tanner Molendyk had the Blades third goal on Wednesday.

“They are strong on pucks. From our standpoint, there had to be a little bit more emotion in that offensive zone just not standing still, so we can open up holes. We have to generate things that way.”

Truitt said there were times his Raiders had chances to come through with a traction moment to get the game turned around, and a cash in on one of those chances could have changed the game around.

“We didn’t get a lot of quality looks,” said Truitt. “We had some chances, and I think that if we would have capitalized on a few of our chances it could have been a different story.

“We have to generate more dangerous opportunities in traffic to the net. It is tough sledding out there, and you’ve got a get pucks and traffic to the net and fight for second opportunities and grind it out. We came up short here tonight.”

Ryder Ritchie scored for the Raiders in the third period.

The Raiders were able to battle back a little bit in the third. At the 4:02 mark of the frame while working on the power play, Raiders star 17-year-old star right-winger Ryder Ritchie blew into the Saskatoon zone down the left wing and potted home a shot that Blades breakout rookie netminder Evan Gardner got a piece of, but the puck flipped into the net to cut the Saskatoon lead to 3-1.

With about four minutes to go in the third, the Raiders pulled Hildebrand for an extra attacker, but the comeback wasn’t to be. Sidorov, who signed an NHL entry-level contract with the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, sealed the final outcome scoring into an empty net with 2:01 remaining in the third.

Hildebrand turned away 32-of-35 shots to take the setback in goal for the Raiders. Gardner, who was named the East Division’s nominee for WHL rookie of the year, stopped 15 shots to pick up the win in net for the Blades.

Egor Sidorov had an empty net goal for the Blades.

The only down part for the Blades was veteran left-winger Tyler Parr had to be helped off the ice leaving the game with 16:11 remaining in the third.

Entering the first round series between Saskatoon and Prince Albert, the Blades finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season with a 50-13-2-3 record and were rated sixth in the final CHL Top 10 rankings. The Raiders entered the WHL Playoffs as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 31-32-2-3 mark.

Sonne was pleased his club was able to win both Games 3 and 4 in Prince Albert after the two sides split Games 1 and 2 in Saskatoon. The Blades bench boss said the series hasn’t been easy and now the focus shifts for the opportunity his squad has on Friday at home.

The Blades celebrate their win on Wednesday.

“This is a series,” said Sonne. “This is a war.

“It is first to four. We just have to turn the page and get ready for Game 5.”

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.