Minten muscles Blades to 4-1 win in Game 1 over Rebels

Star centre gets three points, wins 18-of-24 faceoffs

The Blades celebrate a first period goal by Fraser Minten (#16) on Friday.

Fraser Minten is doing his best to ensure no one will ever forget about him playing in the WHL.

The Saskatoon Blades star 19-year-old centre did his best to lay claim to being the circuit’s most complete player on Friday night at the SaskTel Centre. Minten had a pair of goals, an assist and was a plus-two in the plus-minus department in powering the Blades to a 4-1 victory over the Red Deer Rebels in the opening game of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series between the two sides.

Along with his offensive production, Minten won 18-of-24 faceoffs and had a big shot block in the third period when Rebels were trying to press to get even on the scoreboard. When the game finished, Minten received a big salute from the 8,355 spectators in attendance.

Fraser Minten had two goals and an assist on Friday.

Minten said he went into Friday’s game feeling refreshed as the Blades had six days off since eliminating their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders in the opening round of the post-season.

“Having a week off, you have lots of energy in the legs,” said Minten. “Starting at home is always nice, so we’re just feeding off the energy of the crowd and the boys.

“It was lots of fun right from the start tonight. There were just results tonight. I try to do that every night.

“There were lots of times in the first round where I would have six or seven shots on net, and they just hit a post or hit the blocker and just miss. It was just an inch or two on the results tonight.”

Fraser Minten won 18-of-24 faceoffs for the Blades on Friday.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne thought Minten had a great outing in Game 1 on Friday.

“I really liked his game,” said Sonne. “I thought he was a driver.

“I think he is always a driver, but there are times he just takes it to this level that is really difficult for anyone to play against honestly. Probably Swift Current at home (in a 3-2 overtime win on January 28) would be another example, but I just thought he was very man like and pro like tonight.”

Minten opened the scoring for the Blades at the 8:32 mark of the first, when he deflected home a point shot from 19-year-old defenceman Grayden Siepmann. Minten’s deflection slipped past Rebels breakout rookie netminder Chase Wutzke and slowly entering the Red Deer net.

Grayden Siepmann had a pair of assists for the Blades on Friday.

After that tally, Blades rookie defenceman Morgan Tastad proceeded to make the highlight reels leveling Rebels star right-winger Kalan Lind with a big open ice hit with 6:53 remaining in the frame.

A short time after that hit, the Rebels had a huge chance to pull even on the scoreboard. Rebels 19-year-old offensive-defenceman Mats Lindgren pinched down to the doorstep on the left side of the Saskatoon net.

Lindgren received a perfect setup pass for a backdoor tap, but he was robbed by a sprawling Blades breakout rookie netminder in Evan Gardner.

“His (Gardner’s) lateral movements tonight I thought were very crisp and sharp,” said Sonne. “He was very steady for us.

Carson Birnie scored for the Rebels in the second period.

“I think we can help him out in a few areas. We gave up some chances on our faceoffs in our defensive zone that we need to clean up so we can help him there too. When he had to, I just thought he worked really hard laterally.”

With 5:13 left in the first, the Blades thought they went up 2-0, when a shot from 18-year-old centre Rowan Calvert floated past Wutzke. The officials disallowed the goal ruling correctly the Blades were offside on the play and that ruling held up after a video review.

The opening 20 minutes was more of a feeling out frame for both teams where the Blades held a 6-3 edge in shots on goal.

The Rebels proceeded to even the score at 1-1 on a goal from left-winger Carson Birnie at the 5:29 mark of the second. On the play, Rebels overage winger Carson Latimer tipped a point shot from Lindgren on to the Saskatoon net, and the tip chance was stopped by Gardner. The puck rebounded to the left of the Saskatoon net to Birnie, who popped home the equalizer.

Vaughn Watterodt scored the winning goal for the Blades on Friday.

The Blades would jump back in front 2-1 just 3:30 later. Minten circled down the right side of the Red Deer zone and centred the puck loose in front of the Red Deer net. Hard-working veteran Blades left-winger Vaughn Watterodt jammed home the loose puck to give the host side a one-goal edge.

With 6:58 remaining in the second, the Blade struck on the power play to push their edge out to 3-1. Blades 20-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright was working with the puck at the left point and sent a pass to the right faceoff circle to Minten. Minten one-timed home his second of the contest to give the Blades their two-goal edge.

Evan Gardner stopped 16-of-17 shots in goal for the Blades.

Minten said it was key for his side to respond scoring twice after the Rebels tied the game to start the second.

“That was a big part of the game,” said Minten. “They came out pretty aggressive and with some energy at the start of the second.

“We were a little bit flat to start. After that goal, you could sense that they were pushing. They were getting some momentum.

“Those were big goals for us.”

Early in the third, the Rebels appeared to have a huge chance to get back into the contest. Just two minutes into the frame, Blades offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk was given a double minor for high sticking. That infraction will be automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

Mats Lindgren works the puck in the offensive zone for the Rebels.

The Rebels weren’t able to score on the four minutes of power play time.

Shortly after the power play ended for the visitors, the Rebels continued to press in the Saskatoon zone. During a long string of pressure, Minten came up with a big shot block, and Gardner turned away the visitors twice on a frantic net scramble situation.

Blades star 19-year-old left-winger Brandon Lisowsky sealed the win scoring into an empty net with 48.9 seconds remaining in the third to round out the 4-1 final in favour of the host side.

Gardner made 16 stops to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. Wutzke turned away 20-of-23 shots to take the setback in net for the Rebels.

Brandon Lisowsky scored an empty-net goal for the Blades.

Lisowsky had an assist to go with his goal. Siepmann finished with a pair of helpers for the Blades.

Rebels interim head coach Dave Struch thought Friday’s contest was a bit of a bland game.

“I’m not sure it was a top end playoff game by either team,” said Struch. “They played their game for sure.

“I think that we got off to a bit of a slow start. I was hoping that we’d finish a little bit more checks along the way. You could tell by the shots we got premier shots, but we didn’t get any secondaries to give ourselves an opportunity.

HC Brennan Sonne gives directions from the Blades bench.

“I think for the most part it was just a vanilla game. I don’t think there was any type of rivalry there at all. It was more like a start of a season.”

On the injury front, the Blades were without utility winger Tyler Parr with a leg injury and star overage left-winger Easton Armstrong with an undisclosed injury.

The Rebels were without overage defenceman Elias Carmichael with a lower body injury. Carmichael has yet to appear in the 2024 WHL post-season. Red Deer was also without second-year netminder Rhett Stoesser due to an undisclosed ailment. Taylor Tabashniuk, who played this season for the Regina Pat Canadians under-18 AAA team, dressed as Red Deer’s backup goalie as an associate player call up.

Interim HC Dave Struch checks out play from the Rebels bench.

Friday’s win also marked the first time the Blades claimed a Game 1 of a WHL post-season series since downing the Moose Jaw Warriors 3-2 in overtime on March 22, 2019 in a first round series. The Blades ultimately swept that best-of-seven set 4-0.

Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Blades and Rebels is set for Sunday at 4 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. Sonne said the Blades have their plan already in motion to prepare for that contest.

“I’m going to talk to the players actually and get their feedback,” said Sonne. “We do have ice tomorrow, but based on some of the feedback, we’ll adjust the plan for tomorrow.

The Blades enjoy their win on Friday night.

“They have a half hour. They know whether it is a win or a loss that is us. We have our emotions for a half hour, and then we turn the page and get ready for the next one.”

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.