29 years in the making – Blades unique playoff run memorable

Provided great follow for stellar regular season

The Blades salute their fans at the SaskTel Centre on Wednesday.

It will go down as the “I’m Still Standing” playoff run for the Saskatoon Blades.

When the Blades business brass were putting together plans for game day presentation for the 2022-23 campaign, it is highly unlikely anyone could foresee how fitting the decision would be to make Elton John’s hit tune from 1983 the club’s victory song. No one could have thought the Blades would win five games where they faced elimination from the WHL Playoffs and playing “I’m Still Standing” would be the perfect conclusion for the night’s events.

The Blades entered the post-season having put together a 48-15-4-1 record to sit fourth overall in the WHL regular season standings and were rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. In the WHL Playoffs, the Blades eliminated Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats in an exciting seven game first round series, came back down 3-0 to take out the Red Deer Rebels in a seven game Eastern Conference semifinal series before being swept 4-0 by the Winnipeg Ice in the Eastern Conference final.

Blades fans cheer their team's Game 7 win over the Pats on April 10.

In total, the Blades played 18 post-season contests in the span of 34 days. The series comeback against the Rebels ensures that this edition of the Blades will be remembered forever.

They joined the 1996 Spokane Chiefs and the 2013 Kelowna Rockets as the only teams to lose the first three games in a best-of-seven series and rally to take the set. Any time a team falls behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven WHL post-season series, the 2023 Blades will be mentioned alongside the 1996 Chiefs and the 2013 Rockets as the teams that rallied back to win a series from that type of deficit.

The scene after Trevor Wong scores an empty-net goal versus the Pats.

Overall, the Blades made their longest playoff run in 29 years. The last time they were in the Eastern Conference final was in 1994, when they eliminated the Brandon Wheat Kings in five games before falling to the eventual Memorial Cup champion Kamloops Blazers in the WHL final.

Going into the post-season, there were no thoughts about the Blades making their longest in the WHL Playoffs in 29 years. The single dominant storyline was the Blades versus Bedard.

Spencer Shugrue became “Mr. Game 7” for the Blades.

The Blades final two regular season home games were played against the 17-year-old phenom centre and the Pats. In the current seating configuration for the SaskTel Centre, the Blades sold out both of those contests with 14,768 spectators turning out for each of those games. 

That figure goes down as a Blades home attendance record, and those games were the first sellouts for the team in the SaskTel Centre’s current seating configuration.

Regina claimed the first encounter 4-2 on March 19, while Saskatoon took the second meeting 3-2 on March 24. The sellouts in contests involving Bedard were not a surprise.

Pats C Connor Bedard weaves his way through the Blades.

Bedard’s brand took a huge jump upwards since returning from this past world juniors held in Halifax, N.S., and Moncton, N.B. At that event, Bedard set numerous Canadian team records helping Canada take the gold medal final 3-2 in overtime over Czechia this past January 5 in Halifax. Once he was back in the WHL, any game that involved Bedard was usually sold out and sometimes set a building attendance record.

In the seven games against the Blades, Bedard did his best to win that first round series by himself posting 10 goals, 10 assists and a plus-eight rating in the plus-minus department. He was in on 20 of the Pats 26 goals.

The highlights of every game of that series were shown nationally on TSN and Sportsnet often just showing Bedard’s plays with the final score. Still, the series was getting national attention.

Egor Sidorov (#19) starts celebrating scoring an OT winner.

The Pats won the first two games of the set in Saskatoon. In Game 3 in Regina, it appeared the Blades were going to make a quick post-season exit. At the 9:39 mark of the third period, Bedard scored to give the Pats a 3-1 lead and the sellout crowd of 6,499 spectators at the Brandt Centre was rocking.

Just 53 seconds later, import star right-winger Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades to cut the Pats lead to 3-2. Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky netted the equalizer with 27.2 seconds remaining in the third to force a 3-3 tie and overtime. At the 5:19 mark of overtime, Sidorov got the puck deep in the Regina zone, drove around Pats star import defenceman Stanislav Svozil, cut across the front of the Pats goal and tucked home the winner to give the Blades a 4-3 victory.

Jake Chiasson scored a big OT winner for the Blades.

On night later in Game 4 at the Brandt Centre, Blades star left-winger Jake Chiasson scored the winner in overtime to give the Blades another 4-3 after again rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the contest. The Blades claimed Game 5 at home and the Pats took Game 6 at home to set up a winner take all Game 7.

In Games 1, 2 and 5 at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades drew respective crowds of 10,265 spectators, 10,598 fans and 12,098 onlookers. For Game 7 held on April 10, the Blades would get a sellout crowd to cement their post-season attendance record at home at 14,768 spectators. The host side was facing elimination from the post-season for the first time and skated away with a 4-1 victory.

Pats F Connor Bedard (#98) and Blades F Justin Lies (#43) shake hands.

The joy of the series win against the Pats didn’t last long. In an Eastern Conference semifinal series against Red Deer, the Rebels were poised, businesslike, hard-working and paid great attention to systems play claiming the first three games of the series outscoring the Blades 11-4. Saskatoon’s players looked like they were skating through quicksand trying to work their way up ice against the Rebels.

In Game 4 in Red Deer, it appeared this time the Blades would bow out of the post-season. The Rebels held a 2-0 lead after the first period and were up 2-1 going into the second intermission. Saskatoon was 20 minutes away from playoff elimination.

Egor Sidorov, left, and Tanner Molendyk celebrate a goal in Red Deer.

The Blades proceeded to roll off three straight goals in the third coming off the sticks of hard-working centre Jayden Wiens, Lisowsky and offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk to pull out a 4-2 victory. Following that rally up with wins in Games 5 and 6, the Blades were set to host Game 7 against the Rebels on April 25.

The two clubs were tied 2-2 going into the third period of Game 7, and the Blades rolled off three consecutive goals before a raucous and appreciative crowd of 9,489 spectators.

Blades utility player Spencer Shugrue cemented the fact he would be known as “Mr. Game 7” scoring two goals including the winner in that victory over the Rebels. Shugrue scored his team’s first goal in their Game 7 first round series win over the Pats and assisted on Chiasson’s game and series winner in that contest.

Blake Gustafson was injured in the series win over Red Deer.

While the Blades made history in their 3-0 series comeback against the Rebels, it wasn’t all good news. Saskatoon lost solid defensive-defencemen Blake Gustafson and Ben Saunderson to injuries in the series against the Rebels. Both weren’t available to play in the series against the Ice.

It wasn’t a good situation as 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 Blades dressed Black ace Morgan Tastad, who turned 17-years-old in January, and import rookie Tomas Zizka on the back end. 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.

The Blades celebrate a series winning goal by Spencer Shugrue (#26).

Zizka suited up for 32 regular season games for the Blades recording two assists and a plus-six rating. Both Zizka and Tastad played limited minutes.

As a result, captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, Molendyk, Charlie Wright and Shugrue played the bulk of the action it the four games against the Ice.

The Blades proceeded to lose Sidorov to injury in Game 2 against the Ice. Once the Blades back home to host Games 3 and 4 of that set, it was obvious the team was wearing down.

They tried to make one last push in Game 4 on Wednesday. The Blades got out to a good start and De La Gorgendiere opened the contest’s scoring at the 15:08 mark of the first period.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere looks to start a rush for the Blades.

The Ice evened the score at 1-1 heading into the first intermission and the teams were tied at 2-2 early in the third. Centre Briley Wood scored the game and series winner at the 6:19 mark of the third to deliver the Ice to a 3-2 victory before 5,638 spectators.

The Blades received a warm final salute before leaving to their dressing room. The WHL careers of De La Gorgendiere, Gustafson and centre Josh Pillar all came to an end as they were playing out their 20-year-old seasons.

Throughout the playoffs, the Blades received timely big saves from netminders Ethan Chadwick and Austin Elliott. Star centre Trevor Wong topped the team in scoring with 21 points coming off six goals and 15 assists.

Blades HC Brennan Sonne was the WHL’s coach of the year.

Sidorov was second in team scoring with nine goals and 10 assists. De La Gorgendiere was third in team scoring and topped all Blades defencemen with 17 points coming off three goals and 14 assists.

Throughout the post-season, the Blades received gritty performances from Wiens, Vaughn Watterodt, Lukas Hansen, Jordan Keller and Justin Lies in the forward group.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne was named the WHL’s coach of the year, and he long with his staff ensured the team’s players always believed they could rally past whatever adversity they faced. Over the entire campaign, Colin Priestner cemented himself as one of the league’s elite level general managers for his work on all fronts with the club.

The Blades and Ice shake hands after the Eastern Conference final.

The best part about the whole playoff run was that people in Saskatoon started talking about the Blades more than they had in arguably a decade. It became more frequent to see children around town wearing Blades jerseys.

Time will tell if the good vibes and Blades themselves will remain in the minds of the casual fans. 

The team still has to keep putting in the work to keep getting those casual followers out to games.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere hugs a teammate at the Blades bench.

At this moment, the people in Saskatoon are pumped about the memories the Blades gave to the city. They came through with unique moments that many never be replicated in the future.

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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Ice top guns freeze out Blades

Winnipeg takes 2-0 lead in Eastern Conference final

Connor McClennon had a hat trick and an assist on Saturday.

The Winnipeg Ice top line felt the need for speed and the need for goals.

The forward unit of right-winger Connor McClennon, centre Matthew Savoie and left-winger Zach Benson delivered an abundance of both in Game 2 of the WHL Eastern Conference Championship Series on Saturday afternoon against visiting the Saskatoon Blades. The Ice trio combined for five goals and five assists to power their host squad to a 6-2 victory before an appreciative gathering of 1,720 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena.

McClennon had a hat trick and an assist, while both Savoie and Benson each had a goal and two assists.

With the win, the Ice take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven set. Games 3 and 4 are set for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. both nights at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

Before the Ice stars took flight, the Blades came with a good initial push at the start of the first period. The visitor’s early momentum was assisted by the face Ice standout centre Conor Geekie was given a minor penalty for tripping at the 4:07 mark of the opening frame.

On the ensuing power play, Ice star netminder Daniel Hauser turned away two dangerous chances coming from a midrange shot from the left slot by Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky and a point blank shot from the front of the Winnipeg net by centre Jayden Wiens.

Matthew Savoie had a goal and two assists on Saturday.

Right as the power play expired, the Ice turned the game’s momentum around. First, Ice defenceman Karter Prosofsky dumped Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov with a big hit.

A short time after that hit, Ice star offensive-defenceman Carson Lambos had the puck in his own zone and hit McClennon with a stretch pass at centre ice. McClennon jetted into the Saskatoon zone down the right wing and snapped home a shot just above the right faceoff dot to give the hosts a 1-0 edge. The goal came on Winnipeg’s first shot of the contest.

After the Ice went ahead on the scoreboard, the Blades had a chance to pull even off a good rush by Lisowsky. On a rush down the left wing into the Winnipeg zone, Lisowsky made a toe drag move around an Ice defenceman and snipped a shot on goal that was turned away by Hauser.

With 2:29 remaining in the first, McClennon scored his second of the contest to put the Ice up 2-0 with the Winnipeg side working on the power play. Ice star offensive-defenceman Ben Zloty had the puck above the right faceoff circle and fed a pass down to McClennon, who was left all alone by the left post of the Saskatoon net. McClennon made no mistake potting his second of the contest into an open cage to give his squad a two-goal edge.

The Ice power-play goal ended a run for the Blades where they had killed 12 straight power-play chances by their opposition.

Zach Benson (#9) had a goal and two assists for the Ice.

When the opening 20 minutes came to a close, the Blades held a 10-9 edge in shots on goal, but the Ice held a 2-0 advantage on the scoreboard.

At the 3:25 mark of the second, the Ice’s topped line lived out the cliché that you have to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good. McClennon put the puck into the right corner of the Saskatoon zone on what seemed like a harmless dump in.

Blades netminder Austin Elliott started to skate behind his net in anticipation of playing the puck. The puck took a wicked curl off the boards and shot out across the face of the Saskatoon goal straight to a forechecking Benson. Benson dumped the puck into an empty Blades net to push the hosts lead out to 3-0.

With 7:31 remaining in the second, the Ice received a goal from outside their top forward line. Geekie had the puck just inside his own blue-line and hit standout centre Owen Pederson, who turned 21-years-old in late March, with a stretch pass just before the Saskatoon blue-line.

The Blades were caught on a line change, which allowed Pederson to streak into the Saskatoon zone on a breakaway. Pederson snuck a nifty backhand shot between the legs of Elliott for his third goal of the post-season to give the Ice a 4-0 lead.

Justin Lies scored for the Blades.

Just 68 seconds into the third, McClennon completed his hat trick to put the Ice ahead 5-0 on a play that almost resembled his power-play goal earlier in the contest. Ice defenceman Graham Sward had the puck at the right point and he fed a smart pass down to McClennon, who was again alone at the left post of the Saskatoon goal.

McClennon calmly potted his hat trick goal into an empty cage to give the hosts a five-goal edge. The tally was also the 10^th of the post-season for McClennon.

The Blades broke through for the first time in the series on the scoreboard shortly after the midway point of the third period where gritty left-winger Justin Lies seemingly turned into Blades all-time great Bernie Federko for a rush. Lies got the puck in the centre ice zone, jetting down the right wing, deked out and zipped around Lambos to get in alone on the Winnipeg net and slipped home a shot between the legs of Hauser to cut the Ice lead to 5-1.

With 5:21 remaining in the third, the Blades struck on the power play to trim the Ice advantage to 5-2. Wiens knocked home a puck about a foot in the air off the ice surface at the right side of the Winnipeg net to pull the Blades to within three. The opportunity Wiens cashed in on came from a rebound off a shot taken by Blades star centre Trevor Wong.

The officials checked out the tally on a video review and confirmed the goal was a good one.

The Blades were hoping to build on the two-goal surge and pulled Elliott for an extra attacker with 4:38 remaining in the third.

Jayden Wiens scored for the Blades on Saturday.

The Ice sealed the final outcome with 3:33 remaining in the third with an empty-net goal from Savoie that rounded out the 6-2 final.

Hauser made 27 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Ice, who have won five straight post-season games. Elliott turned away 27-of-32 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 Saturday as they were both injured in the team’s second game Eastern Conference semifinal series win over the Red Deer Rebels. They have yet to suit up for the Blades in their series with the Ice.

Black ace Morgan Tastad, who turned 17-years-old in January, dressed for his second career WHL post-season contest on Saturday and second straight game 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.

Saskatoon elected to dress left-winger Mikhail Volotovskii in place of centre Jordan Keller with the hopes of getting a spark offensively.

Trevor Wong had an assist for the Blades on Saturday.

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 third 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 Blades overcame a 2-0 deficit in a first round series against Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats and a 3-0 deficit in an Eastern Conference semifinal against the Rebels to win those sets in respective Game 7s.

The Ice are pleased to have a 2-0 series lead.

Looking ahead, the Blades can’t be counted out, but the Ice’s skill and depth in skill will be tough to overcome.

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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Blades power play and penalty kill heat up

Rebels need to reset and get back on task

The Blades celebrate a power-play goal from Egor Sidorov (#19).

The Saskatoon Blades power play and penalty kill is catching fire, and it could aid them in their quest to try and achieve the greatest playoff series comeback in team history.

The Red Deer Rebels are looking to reset and get back on task playing with a sound structure that has them to within one win of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championships Series.

The two clubs go at it on Sunday at 2 p.m. local time at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer for Game 6 of their WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Rebels hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven set.

Red Deer opened by winning the first three games against the Blades to get one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Championship Series. Saskatoon won the last two contests to get two wins away from being just the third team in WHL history to come back and win a best-of-seven series 4-3 after losing the first three games of the set.

Dating back to the WHL’s start in 1966-67, only two teams have rallied back to win a best-of-seven series having trailed the set 3-0. The Spokane Chiefs, who were guided by Mike Babcock as head coach, trailed the Portland Winterhawks 3-0 before rallying to take a first round series 4-3 in 1996. The Kelowna Rockets fell behind the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-0 in 2013 before rallying back to claim that first round series 4-3.

The Blades have been able to change the complexion of the series thanks to the play of their power play and penalty killing units over the past two games. Saskatoon has scored on 4-of-8 power play chances and allowed the Rebels to score on 1-of-6 chances on the man advantage. The Blades have successfully killed off the Rebels last five consecutive power-play opportunities.

The Rebels celebrate a goal from Kai Uchacz (#19).

In Game 4 on Wednesday in Red Deer, the Blades only allowed one power-play goal coming off the stick of Rebels star centre Kai Uchacz at the 6:27 mark of the first period. Red Deer was working on at five-minute power play after Blades gritty right-winger Justin Lies was given a major penalty and a game misconduct for delivering a head shot to Rebels star left-winger Kalan Lind, who turned 18-years-old in January.

While Uchacz was able to score, the Blades were still pretty strong on that kill.

The Rebels were able to exit the first period with a 2-0 advantage after Uchacz scored at even strength. Red Deer had a huge opportunity to put Saskatoon away when Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky was given a double minor for high-sticking at the 6:14 mark of the second.

The Blades gained some traction successfully killing off that double minor. A short time after that kill, the Blades got more traction going on the power play themselves, and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, who is a star offensive-defenceman, scored his first goal off the post-season on the man advantage to cut the Rebels lead to 2-1.

That set the stage for the Blades to roll off three straight goals in a span of four minutes and three second in the third to pull out a 4-2 victory.

Egor Sidorov is finding success on the power play for the Blades.

In Game 5 of the series on Friday in Saskatoon, the Blades took advantage of the Rebels taking some undisciplined penalties going 3-for-6 on the power play and killing off all three Red Deer power-play chances to pull out a 6-3 victory. Star import right-winger Egor Sidorov scored twice on the power play and De La Gorgendiere scored the winner on a chance with the man advantage.

During the regular season, the Blades power play and penalty killing units were among the best in the WHL. The Blades had the fourth best power play in the league converting on 73-of-265 chances for a 27.5 per cent success rate, and they had the third best penalty killing unit on the circuit killing off 202-of-245 opposition power-play opportunities for an 82.4 per cent success rate.

If the Blades special teams units stay hot, it will greatly help their chances of winning Game 6 and forcing a series deciding Game 7, which is set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre if needed.

The Rebels, on the other hand, need to get back to what they were doing well when they took a 3-0 lead in the series. During those first three games, the Rebels were sound in their structural play along with being poised, businesslike and hard working.

Kai Uchacz is piling up goals for the Rebels.

Red Deer clogged up the centre ice zone taking away the Blades tendency to go for stretch passes. In the defensive zone, the Rebels played with poise and had good spacing. The Blades players were often kept to the outside and seemed to second guess what they wanted to do when it came time to pass the puck.

In the offensive zone, the Rebels set up a strong forecheck that kept the Blades pinned for numerous stretches in their own zone. When the Rebels had the puck in the offensive zone, they moved it around with confidence and shot it with purpose once it was in a prime scoring area.

Red Deer was sound with systems play taking a 2-0 lead in the first period in Game 4. While the Blades had some push back in second period to cut the Rebels lead to 2-1, the Red Deer side was just 20 minutes from closing out the series going into the second intermission.

The Rebels seemed to unravel after the Blades surged ahead to take the contest 4-2 in the third and visibly showed frustration at times after going down by two goals. In Game 5, the Rebels were too occupied with trying to be physical, and that resulted in undisciplined penalties that allowed the Blades to take the game.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere has two post-season power-play goals.

It seemed like the Rebels got off track after Lind went down to injury. Lind is very popular amongst his teammates and is a fan favourite of the community of Red Deer.

The Rebels appeared to want to show their romantic “all heart” characteristic to try and pull out a win for their fallen teammate. Emotion can be a thing that speeds a team up and allows club to achieve new levels of greatness.

Emotion can also be a thing that causes a team to try too hard and lose composure. At that point, emotion can be a determent to a team, and that seems to be the case the Rebels find themselves in.

The Rebels also have to be concerned about their situation in goal too. 

In their first nine games in the WHL Playoffs, Kyle Kelsey posted stellar numbers with a 7-2 record, a 1.93 goals against average, a .928 save percentage and one shutout.

In the third period of Game 4, he allowed three goals on seven shots as the Blades surged to victory. Kelsey started Game 5 and was pulled with 1:57 remaining in the opening frame after allowing three goals on seven shots. Chase Coward played the rest of the way in relief and ultimate took the loss in net.

Ben King is one of the Rebels top offensive players.

The Blades were without Lies for Game 5, because he was suspended by the WHL for his head shot on Lind. On Saturday, the WHL finalized Lies’ suspension at three games. If the Blades are able to make the Eastern Conference Championship Series, Lies would be eligible to return for Game 1 of that set.

The Lies suspension marked only the second time in the 2022-23 campaign in the regular season and playoffs that the Blades have had a player get suspended.

Also on Saturday, the Rebels learned that they will be without import right-winger Frantisek Formanek due to a one-game suspension under supplemental discipline. In Game 5, Formanek was giving a boarding minor penalty at the 7:21 mark of the first period.

Formanek hit Blades 20-year-old defenceman Blake Gustafson from behind, and Gustafson was able to prevent himself from making a hard crash into the boards. The Blades sent in video to the WHL office asking for supplemental discipline as this was a dangerous play.

Originally, it was expected that this would be a tight series going in between the Blades and Rebels. 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 Rebels finished fifth in the overall WHL standings and topped the Central Division with a 43-19-3-3 mark.

The Blades and Rebels engage in activity after the whistle.

Taking an unconventional route, it has become a tight series. The next chapter and potentially closing chapter of this drama will play out on Sunday.

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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