Raiders to face playoff intensity out of gate in Rebels

The Raiders salute their fans at the Art Hauser Centre last Friday.

Getting the Red Deer Rebels first in the WHL Playoffs might be a good thing for the Prince Albert Raiders.

After topping the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 52-10-5-1 mark finishing the regular season with six straight wins, the Raiders will face real playoff intensity against the Rebels, who finished eighth in the conference 26-36-5-2. Two sides are set to engage in a best-of-seven first round series with Games 1 and 2 set for Friday and Saturday respectively at 7 p.m. at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre.

By tradition, the Raiders and Rebels are mirror images of each other. When they are at their best, they play with great skill offensively, grind out games, play physically, bring a strong work ethic and possess a never quit mentality. The Raiders traditional style dates back to when Terry Simpson was the team’s head coach and general manager, and the Rebels traditionally mirror in the image of their longtime general manager and owner in Brent Sutter.

The Raiders do go into the series with an edge in the experience department. Prince Albert is carrying a roster with five players in the 17-year-old age group and three players in the 16-year-old age group before adding in associate player call ups.

The Rebels are carrying 11 players in their 17-year-old seasons, and five of those players make up the seven skaters on their defensive unit. One of those overall 17-year-olds in centre Beckett Hamilton led the Rebels in scoring with 62 points coming off 24 goals and 38 assists, while 17-year-old right-winger Kalder Varga had 21 goals and 37 points.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

I am out of here outside of cameo on Wednesday

Break time has come again which will seem short

A picture of myself outside The Arena in Medicine Hat.

That time has come again where I take time away from creating content for this blog for an extended stretch.

The break will be interrupted for one story on Wednesday. The Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame is announcing its class for 2025 in the main hall of the Gordie Howe Sports Centre building on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds that day. I will write about that announcement here, and then I don’t plan to be in this space until the CJFL season starts for the Saskatoon Hilltops.

Even for me, that season is going to come way too fast when I see their Alumni Game is set for July 31 at 7 p.m. at Ron Atchison Field.

Over the past couple of years, the pressure has been mounting on my shoulders to be present at home more from my family. There was a time I felt family was “all in” when it came to my involvement in covering sports.

The real truth is that when someone is involved in sports it creates an unfair situation with their relationships in their blood family. Basically, the family members that are not involved with sports have to shoulder extra responsibilities in the home and the family. In a lot of cases, that unfair relationship gets challenged where it does need to evolve.

I’ve been more involved in planning fun family things, but even those fun things have their stress. There are other things that take up time.

During winter, I am hands on with snow clearing in my household as well as trying to get out to clear the snow from the homes of the seniors in the family. Last winter was a hard one on that front in Saskatoon, and I estimate I spent 106 total hours involved in snow clearing. When that happens, it pushes off and cancels other things.

The list of things I need to do around the home keeps getting larger. I have things on the hobby side I want to get to as well, but it seems impossible to get to those things.

These breaks I take from this blog coincide with the hockey off-season. The past two hockey off-seasons before this one I spent a tonne of time archiving photos from the games I worked in the WHL Playoffs and that ate away time at trying to focus on other things.

All the photos on that front this year have been looked after, so I am hoping that helps with the home life and maybe getting a break.

The Tigers run to winning the WHL title was big in Medicine Hat.

Last season, I basically cut out working University of Saskatchewan Huskies live events. The only one I worked was when the Huskies Men’s Hockey Team won the Canada West Conference title on March 9 at Merlis Belsher Place. The Huskies blanked the Mount Royal University Cougars 3-0 in a series deciding Game 3 of the Canada West final.

For the WHL Playoffs, I was going to fall off that road once both the Saskatoon Blades and Prince Albert Raiders were eliminated. I stayed on that trail as the Medicine Hat Tigers, who I have a lot of links to, marched on to win their sixth WHL championship.

The Tigers made it to the title game of the Memorial Cup tournament that determines a CHL champion. In that title clash played last Sunday at the Coliseum Sun Life Financial in Rimouski, Quebec, the Tigers fell 4-1 to the OHL champion London Knights.

I do admit my trips to Medicine Hat were super valuable on numerous levels. I don’t even think I know how many levels of my life the trips to Medicine Hat positively affected me on the personal and work fronts.

I was thinking about following the Saskatoon Valkyries 2025 campaign to a conclusion on this blog. I shot photos today of their 16-12 regular season victory over the Manitoba Fearless for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex social media lines. I also did interviews for their teams’ videos to be used on their various platforms.

The Valkyries finished the WWCFL regular season with a 4-0 record and will host a WWCFL semifinal at a date and time to be announced. I decided I needed to use the time I would put into the Valkyries on this blog into other things.  

With that said, the Valkyries are one of my favourite teams in the whole city of Saskatoon. Best part is the Valkyries players, coaches and staffers are very understanding when other things come up that take you away from the team.

The other thing I want to get back into is regular workouts. I got my regular workouts done for a week in the last week of May. Before that week, I hadn’t worked out since March.

My body physically feels like it is in the worst shape it has ever been in since I became an adult. With that said, I think I am still doing better than 80 per cent of the population.

Also, it is on my mind that the sports media industry is cut as bad as it has ever been, and there are tonnes of sports organizations that don’t get the coverage they deserve including a number of CFL teams. I also accept I can’t fill that void, and I do have to be mindful of looking out for myself.

The Valkyries do a cheer after their victory on Sunday.

Along with that, I don’t mind getting a break from all the fallout of what it will look like this off-season as players from the three CHL leagues can join hockey teams in the NCAA this coming season if that is the path they want to pursue. I’ve already seen freak outs in cases where it appeared potential returning WHL players are leaving for the NCAA for the start of the 2025-25 campaign.

Anyways, it is time to go, but I will be back. I will be involved in the sports world, but that involvement will depend upon what the cards are that life deals my way.

Elliott is forever a CHL championship goalie

Austin Elliott with the Memorial Cup. (Photo by Vincent Ethier/CHL)

With my past links to the Medicine Hat Tigers, it would come as no surprise that I really wanted to see them win the Memorial Cup to become CHL champions.

The WHL champion Tigers made the final of the Memorial Cup tournament that determines a CHL champion and fell 4-1 to the OHL champion London Knights last Sunday at the Coliseum Sun Life Financial in Rimouski, Quebec. While the Tigers didn’t win that title game, I was happy that the Knights winning goalie was overager Austin Elliott.

When the 2024-25 campaign began, I didn’t think Austin Elliott would be a WHL castoff having played two complete seasons from 2022 to 2024 for the Saskatoon Blades. In the 2024 WHL Playoffs, he lost the job as the Blades starting netminder to Evan Gardner, who would be selected in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets and would later sign an entry-level contract with that club.

If Elliott wasn’t starting for the Blades as an overager, I thought he would be a starting goalie in the WHL in the 2024-25 campaign. I believed you could argue that only about six other goalies were better than Elliott, and I likely should have pushed that point during the 2024 off-season.

I did have a couple of WHL observers come to me and say that Elliott was done as far as major junior hockey goes.

At the start of the 2024-25 regular season, Elliott made three starts with the Blades collecting wins in all three outings posting a 2.33 goals against average and a .897 save percentage. When Gardner returned from camp activities with the Blue Jackets organization, Elliott became a victim to the numbers game. He was released by the Blades and cleared WHL waivers.

In most cases when that happens to a player in the WHL, that player ultimately ends up playing junior A.

The Knights, who have been the top franchise in the CHL for the last 21 years, had other ideas. They were about to show why they are arguably the smartest organization in the CHL, which results in their continued winning ways resulting in dismay for their ever growing number of haters. The Knights haters are there, because the Knights always win.

Elliott was actually claimed on CHL waivers by the Barrie Colts, but that didn’t deter the powerhouse Knights. On October 16, 2024, the Knights dealt a 14^th round selection in the 2026 OHL Draft and a conditional fifth round pick in the 2027 OHL Draft for Elliott. The puck stopper never played a game for the Colts.

Elliott, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 180 pounds, played in 33 regular season games for the Knights posting a 32-1 record, a 2.10 goals against average, a .924 save percentage and three shutouts. Thanks to Elliott’s work, the Knights topped the OHL standings with a 55-11-2 mark and were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings released on March 25.

He started all of the 17 games the Knights played in the OHL Playoffs posting a 16-1 record, a 2.46 goals against average and one shutout as London claimed a second straight league title.

Elliott’s roll continued at the Memorial Cup tournament. During London’s five games at the Memorial Cup tournament, Elliott posted a 4-1 record, a 1.59 goals against average and a .943 save percentage. He went 55-3 including play in the WHL regular season, the OHL regular season and post-season and the Memorial Cup tournament.

When he was with the Blades, Elliott, who is from Strathmore, Alta., was an extremely likeable person. He was someone you wanted to see succeed.

It was cool to see him post a dream conclusion to his CHL career. When Elliott became an OHL and Memorial Cup champion, it showed there are times that good things do indeed come to good people.

Habscheid back in WHL with Rebels, other notes

Marc Habscheid raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup on May 13, 2019.

Marc Habscheid is back in the WHL.

On Thursday, Red Deer Rebels general manager, president and owner Brent Sutter announced that Marc Habscheid had been hired as the team’s new head coach. Habscheid, 62, replaces Dave Struch, 54, who stepped down on May 9 for personal family reasons.

Habscheid last coached in the WHL as the head coach for the Prince Albert Raiders from November 1, 2014 to July 14, 2022. He guided the Raiders to first overall in the WHL’s regular season standings in 2018-19 and WHL championship in the 2019 post-season.

He proceeded to coach two seasons of professional hockey in Austria. Last season, Habscheid had surgery on both hips, travelled a lot and bought a house in Spain.

From 1997 to 2022, Habscheid served as a head coach in the WHL for 18 seasons with the Kamloops Blazers, Kelowna Rockets, Chilliwack Bruins, Victoria Royals and Raiders. He piled up 582 career wins in 1,166 regular season games coached. Habscheid’s wins and games coached total in the regular season rank as the sixth most in both departments in the history of the WHL.

In the WHL Playoffs, Habscheid posted 75 wins in 139 games coached. He guided the Rockets to a WHL championship in the 2002-03 season and a Memorial Cup title as the tournament’s host team in 2004.

Habscheid was named the WHL coach of the year twice in the 2002-03 and 2018-19 campaigns. He claimed honours as the CHL’s coach of the year for the 2002-03 season.

In 2024-25, the Rebels posted a 26-34-6-2 mark finishing ninth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and 13 points back of the Swift Current Broncos (35-30-1-2) for eighth place and the final playoff berth in the conference.

Bringing Habscheid aboard was a huge addition for the Rebels. During his introductory press conference on Friday in Red Deer, Habscheid already started setting the steps to rally the people in the city and area around the team he is coaching, which is a characteristic he successfully accomplished in his past WHL stops.

“To win in the end, it doesn’t take just one player, one line, one coach, one trainer, one owner, it takes everybody, and that includes the city,” said Habscheid. “Everybody in Red Deer and area is important, if we’re going to win in the end and be successful.

“I want the city and the fans to know that they’re going to be a part of it, and we need their support.”

Sutter was pleased that Habscheid decided to join the Rebels.

“We coached against each other,” said Sutter. “We’ve both had success as coaches, and one thing that always stuck out with me that I kept going back to was I knew when I had to coach against him that his team was going to be very well prepared.

“I’m thrilled that ‘Habby’ wanted to be in Red Deer and wanted to coach the Red Deer Rebels. There’s an identity that we have here, and his teams played with the same identity.”

• During the Medicine Hat Tigers run to winning the WHL championship and falling in the title game of the Memorial Cup tournament, I loved the work that was put in covering that run by Tigers play-by-play voice Will Bryant and Medicine Hat News sportswriter James Tubb. Just to note, I listed them by last names in alphabetical order. Anyways, both did an outstanding job. I am also proud of the fact that in the 11 years since I left the Medicine Hat News and relocated to Saskatoon that the coverage and storytelling of the sports scene in “The Gas City” is in good hands.
• On Wednesday, it was announced the Prince Albert Raiders and Saskatoon Blades will open the 2025-26 campaign playing a home-and-home series against each other. The two sides go at it on Friday, September 19 at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert and on Saturday, September 20 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.
• On Wednesday, it was announced the defending WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers will open their 2025-26 regular season hosting the Regina Pats on Saturday, September 20, at Co-op Place in Medicine Hat.
• On Thursday, 22-year-old forward Conner Roulette committed to playing for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Hockey Team starting with the 2025-26 campaign. Last season, Roulette played for the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL, and he posted 17 goals, 17 assists and a plus-14 rating in the plus-minus department in 59 regular season games. From 2019 to 2024, Roulette played in 259 career WHL regular season contests with the Seattle Thunderbirds, Saskatoon Blades and Spokane Chiefs posting 118 goals, 170 assists and a plus-69 rating.

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 become bad guys in Red Deer to stay alive

Rebels’ Lind released from hospital after taking cheap head hit

Brandon Lisowsky celebrates his winning goal for the Blades.

RED DEER, Alta. - The Saskatoon Blades had to dawn the black cowboy hats in the eyes of the Red Deer Rebels fans in order to stay alive in the WHL Playoffs.

On Wednesday, the Blades went into Game 4 facing elimination in their WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series against the host Red Deer Rebels. The visitors fell behind 2-0 before rallying for a 4-2 victory.

With the win, the Blades cut the Rebels lead in the best-of-seven series to 3-1. They will get to host a Game 5 on Friday at 7 p.m. back at the SaskTel Centre.

Normally, this would be a contest that would be remembered for a heroic comeback script. Instead the contest will be remembered for an early incident that cast a pall over the night’s proceedings for the 4,702 spectators in attendance at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

Justin Lies is public enemy #1 in Red Deer.

With the game still scoreless at the 3:24 mark of the opening frame, Rebels left-winger Kalan Lind, who is pegged as big prospect for the coming NHL Entry Draft, was skating through centre ice and knocked a puck that came off the glass down to his stick.

As Lind started to continue up ice, he was felled by a vicious blindside elbow to the head from Blades 19-year-old right-winger Justin Lies. The impact of the hit set Lind’s helmet flying though the air. Immediately, Rebels star centre Kai Uchacz came out to challenge Lies, but the officials jumped in quickly to ensure nothing else escalated.

Lind was laid out on the ice for seven minutes being attended to by the medical staffs of both clubs. He was stretchered off to an ambulance and taken to Red Deer Regional Hospital. At night’s end after Wednesday’s game was complete, the Rebels announced that Lind had been released from hospital.

Rebels C Kai Uchacz (#19) challenges Blades RW Justin Lies.

Lies received a major penalty for checking to the head and a game misconduct. His hit will be automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

At first, it appeared the Rebels were going to rally around their fallen teammate. Uchacz, who hadn’t record any points for the first three games of the series, looked like he was going to play the role of hero for the host side.

On the ensuring five-minute power play after Lind went down, Uchacz, who was the Rebels leading scorer in the regular season, gave the Rebels a 1-0 lead scoring with the man advantage at the 6:27 mark of the frame. The De Winton, Alta., product popped home a loose puck during a net scramble around the Saskatoon goal.

Kai Uchacz scored twice in the first to put the Rebels up 2-0.

At the 13:05 mark of the opening frame, Uchacz got his second of the night to put the Rebels up 2-0. Uchacz won a race for a loose puck in the left faceoff circle in the Saskatoon zone and snapped a shot past Blades netminder Ethan Chadwick to give the hosts a two-goal edge.

When the first period came to a close, the Rebels looked like they were going to live up to their romantic image of honour that has been a part of the team since Brent Sutter bought the franchise before the start of the 1999-2000 campaign. The romantic image sees the Rebels as gritty, skilled hardworking, well mannered and well dressed team that never quits, and if one of their players goes down to a cheap hit, they never lose that game.

In the second, it appeared they were going to have ample opportunity to bury the Blades.

Kai Uchacz celebrates his second goal for the Rebels.

At the 6:14 mark of the frame, Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky clipped Uchacz with a high stick that drew blood. Lisowsky received a double minor for high-sticking which will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

Despite having the four minute power play, the Rebels weren’t able to add to their lead. After that kill, it seemed the momentum of the contest was starting to turn.

At the 12:09 of the second, the Blades got further traction when captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere fired home a power-play goal from the point through a screen to cut the Red Deer lead to 2-1. While the Rebels had a 15-9 edge in shots on goal in the second, it felt like the Blades had the better period.

Jace Isley brings the puck up ice for the Rebels.

The Blades proceeded to stun the Rebels faithful scoring on their first two shots of the third to take a 3-2 lead. At the 4:12 mark of the third, Blades hard-working centre Jayden Wiens fired a shot through a screen from the point on his squad’s first shot of the frame to even the score at 2-2.

Just 43 seconds later, the Blades were able to get the jump on the Rebels by finally getting a stretch pass to work. From deep in his own zone, Blades 18-year-old defenceman Ben Saunderson sprung Lisowsky on a breakaway connecting with him on a stretch pass at the Red Deer blue-line.

Lisowsky snapped a shot to the top left corner of the Red Deer goal to give the Blades a 3-2 lead.

Ethan Chadwick made 34 saves to allow the Blades to rally.

The Blades surge wasn’t done there. At the 8:15 mark of the third, offensive defenceman Tanner Molendyk took a pass from De La Gorgendiere, skated into the left shot and snapped a shot passed Rebels netminder Kyle Kelsey to give the visitors a 4-2 advantage.

At that point, Chadwick slammed the door on the Rebels. With 5:16 remaining in the third, Chadwick made a key stop on a close in backhand shot on Rebels 19-year-old left-winger Jace Isley.

That was the Rebels second shot on goal in the frame. They would pepper the Saskatoon net with 10 more shots before the third came to an end, which included the Rebels having pulled Kelsey for an extra attacker for most of the final 2:39 of the stanza.

The Blades celebrate an Aidan De La Gorgendiere traction goal.

Despite the shot volume, the Rebels weren’t able to beat Chadwick. One of his best saves was a glove stop on Rebels right-winger Jhett Larson.

Chadwich ultimately made 34 stops to pick up the win in goal for the Blades in his first start of the series. Kelsey turned away 20 shots to take the setback in net for the Rebels.

It was expected that this would be a tight series going in. 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.

Jayden Wiens (#9) scored the equalizer for the Blades.

Frustration did show from the Rebels at times with some scrum action once the Blades had taken a two-goal lead. At one point before the Rebels pulled Kelsey, it looked like Red Deer captain Jayden Grubbe was going to nail Wiens with a hard hit, but it seemed the Rebels skilled centre thought better of it creating a near miss situation at the last moment.

When the contest ended, the Rebels fans excited the Peavey Mart Centrium with the sober tonne of seeing the bad guy wrestler win a title belt in a WWE live event.

Still both teams showed great composure for the rest of the game. Had something like the Lies hit on Lind happened 20 years ago in WHL, the contest would have likely been a fight filled one the rest of the way. Instead, both teams moved on and got focused on the task at hand.

Tanner Molendyk scored a key insurance goal for the Blades.

The Blades acquired Lies in a trade with the Vancouver Giants before the current season began back on August 31, 2022. With the Blades, Lies has been the model teammate and a gritty hard working player that plays tough but within the rules.

In 56 regular season games with the Blades, Lies posted career highs in goals (nine), assists (14), points (23) and the plus-minus department (plus-six). In his previous three seasons with the Giants, Lies was suspended twice for a total of six games, and that could play a part in the WHL’s disciplinary ruling for his hit on Lind.

There could potentially ill will between the two clubs as the series carries on. Still, both teams moved on to focusing on the game at hand on Wednesday when play resumed after Lind’s hit.

Blades D Blake Gustafson (#3) skates the puck out of trouble.

In the current era of the game of hockey, usually nothing lingers on and things blow over pretty quick. Plus, the likelihood is high one of the WHL top executives will be on hand in Saskatoon for Game 5 on Friday to make sure everything goes smoothly. That often means WHL vice-president of hockey Richard Doerksen will be on hand to make sure everyone plays nice.

Coming under the ownership of the Priestner family before the start of the 2013-14 campaign, the Blades have pretty much always carried the image of being the good guys like Bret “the Hitman” Hart.

The Blades celebrate their win on Wednesday night.

In a weird twist, they were the bad guys like Roman Reigns for a one-night aberration, and it resulted in them getting a win to keep their season alive.

When the dust settled, it felt like everything that happened on Wednesday night was hollow until news came out that Lind was released from hospital. That was the true victory on the night.

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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Rebels all business in 5-2 win over Blades in Game 2

Red Deer leads WHL Eastern Conference semi 2-0

The Rebels celebrate a goal from captain Jayden Grubbe (#9)

Poised, businesslike and hard-working.

It was type performance one comes to expect out of the Red Deer Rebels when they are at their best under the ownership of Brent Sutter. Sutter serves as the team’s general manager and president, while the performance of the players is under the tutelage of veteran head coach Steve Konowalchuk, who currently has the Rebels playing up to a lofty traditional standard.

On Sunday playing before 6,156 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Rebels built a 4-0 lead and downed the host Saskatoon Blades 5-2 in Game 2 of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series holding a 20-16 edge in shots on goal. With the win, the Rebels now hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven set. They took Game 1 of the series 3-1 on Friday.

The Blades clear away the puck during a net scramble.

Games 3 and 4 are set for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. both nights at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer.

On Sunday, the Rebels were keenly focused on their systems play and pretty much suffocated the life out of the Blades and the enthusiasm of the host side’s fans in the building. Red Deer clogged up the centre ice zone taking away the Blades tendency to go for stretch passes. Saskatoon found it tough sledding to go up ice.

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.

Ben King had a goal and three assists for the Rebels on Sunday.

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.

Seeing how well the Rebels played shouldn’t come as a surprise from a club that is coached by Konowalchuk. Konowalchuk had a lengthy NHL career as left-winger with the Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche from 1992 to 2006, and he served as the head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds for six seasons from 2011 to 2017. He guided the Thunderbirds to a WHL championship in his final season with the club in 2016-17.

Jhett Larson had a goal and two assists for the Rebels on Sunday.

Following that WHL title, Konowalchuk moved on to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks in 2017-18 and served as a scout for the New York Rangers from 2018 to 2021. He was brought back to the WHL by Sutter on June 8, 2021 to serve as the head coach of the Rebels.

Konowalchuk is the type of bench boss Sutter had been looking to pass the head coaching roll to after holding that job title for the majority of the time he owned the Rebels since buying them in 1999. Konowalchuk’s teams traditionally play with good structure, discipline, poise and tenacity, which made him a perfect fit to be the Rebels head coach.

Jayden Grubbe had a goal and two assists for the Rebels on Sunday.

On Sunday against the Blades, the Rebels showed how strong they can be when they are focused on being their best. Even with their strong outing on Sunday, the Rebels are always looking for ways to improve and get better.

The opening 20 minutes started in a more tight checking fashion as the two sides were tied 4-4 in the shots on goal department.

Early in the second, Rebels captain Jayden Grubbe had a great chance to score close in on the right side of the Saskatoon net, but he was robbed by the glove hand of Blades netminder Austin Elliott. That was just a sign of the avalanche of momentum to come.

Hunter Mayo chases down a loose puck for the Rebels.

The Rebels broke through on the scoreboard at the 7:53 mark of the second. While working on the power play, Grubbe and defenceman Mats Lindgren got the puck over to star 20-year-old left-winger Ben King, who was positioned above the left faceoff dot.

King took his time and roofed home a power-play marker to give the Rebels a 1-0 lead. After that tally, the Rebels were off and running.

Just seconds later, Rebels centre Craig Armstrong drove a shot from the front of the Saskatoon net off the crossbar. The visitors didn’t dwell on the near miss.

The Rebels struck again 1:49 after King’s goal. On a rush into the Saskatoon zone, right-winger Jhett Larson and King combined to get the puck to star import offensive-defenceman Christoffer Sedoff, who was speeding down the left wing. Sedoff blew home a shot to the top right corner of the Saskatoon goal to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead.

Christoffer Sedoff had a goal for the Rebels on Sunday.

With 7:50 remaining in the second, Grubbe won a board battle in the left corner of the Saskatoon zone. He proceeded to get the puck to Larson at the top of the left faceoff circle. Larson fired home a shot to give the Rebels a 3-0 lead.

After that goal was scored, you could hear a pin drop in the Blades home rink.

Follow that Rebels tally, the Blades pulled Elliott. Elliott stopped 9-of-12 shots fired his way to take the setback in the Saskatoon net. Ethan Chadwick turned away 4-of-6 shots playing the rest of the way in relief.

The Rebels kept on coming in the third. At the 3:38 mark of the frame, rookie left-winger Carson Birnie fired home a midrange shot to give the visitors a 4-0 advantage.

Carson Birnie had a goal for the Rebels on Sunday.

The Blades got on the scoreboard at the 9:48 mark of the third with a power-play goal from star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky to cut the Red Deer lead to 4-1.

Grubbe added a goal just under three minutes later to round out the game’s scoring to give the Rebels a 5-1 edge. With 5.9 seconds remaining in the third, Blades 19-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright scored on a four-on-three power play to round out the 5-2 final in favour of the Red Deer side.

The Rebels forward unit of King, Grubbe and Larson had a banner night. King finished with a goal and three assists, while Grubbe and Larson each posted a goal and two assists.

HC Steve Konowalchuk has the Rebels playing in strong form.

Blades star centre Trevor Wong picked up helpers on both Saskatoon goals.

Kyle Kelsey stopped 14 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Rebels.

Going into the series, few would have expected the Rebels to win the first two contests on the road in Saskatoon. 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 took three out of the four regular season encounters between the two sides. In the two regular season clashes played at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades claimed a 6-2 win on January 7 and a 5-2 triumph on March 1.

Trevor Wong had a pair of assists for the Blades on Sunday.

In the post-season, it would have been viewed as big for the Rebels to get a split in the first two games in Saskatoon. Red Deer’s 3-1 win in Game 1 could have gone either way. For the Rebels to follow up with an impressive 5-2 win in Game 2 on Sunday, it was head turning.

To make matters worse for the Blades, their captain and star overage offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere didn’t play the third period. The Blades have also been without steady 20-year-old defenceman Blake Gustafson for the first two games of the series with an undisclosed injury.

Saskatoon has the potential to get back in the series. The Blades lost the first two games of their first round series at home to Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats before rallying for a 4-3 series victory.

The Rebels celebrate their Game 2 win on Sunday.

With that said, the Rebels are a different beast. They are sound defensively and benefit from having a touch more experience than the Pats had.

On the surface, it is going to be much bigger challenge for the Blades to comeback in the series against the Rebels than it was to rally against the Pats.

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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Sutter’s choice to step down as Rebels’ coach understandable

Red Deer hero has a lot on his plate in these crazy times

Brent Sutter mans the Rebels bench in the 2016 WHL playoffs.

The time finally came when Brent Sutter found he was spread too thin.

When it comes to Sutter, you almost didn’t imagine that moment would come until it actually came. Since buying the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels in 1999, Sutter had been the team’s head coach, general manager, president and governor for most of that time.

He gave up the head coach and general manager roles for five seasons from 2007 to 2012 to be an NHL head coach for two seasons with the New Jersey Devils and three campaigns with the Calgary Flames.

Following his time with the Flames, Sutter returned to taking on all of his many roles with the Rebels.

That all came to an end Saturday when Sutter, who is 58-years-old, announced he was stepping down as the Rebels head coach. The franchise owner will continue on as the club’s general manager, president and governor.

The coaching duties for the rest of the Rebels abbreviated season will be handled by assistant coaches Ryan Colvill and Brad Flynn, and they will be joined behind the bench by assistant general manager and director of player personnel Shaun Sutter, who is Brent’s nephew.

Speaking to Greg Meachem for a story on the Rebels website, Brent Sutter said the decision came from a perfect storm of navigating the team through the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a rash of injuries especially to the Rebels defence and a lack of on-ice success that has left both the players and coaches frustrated.

Sutter made his decision to step down after conversing with Shaun and Rebels senior vice-president Merrick Sutter, who is Brent’s son, following the Rebels 6-3 loss at home to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday.

The Rebels proceeded to fall 5-2 to the Hurricanes in Lethbridge on Saturday falling to 2-11-2 with an eighth straight loss.

Brent Sutter monitors game action in Prince Albert in 2018.

“Everything (negative) that could possibly happen has happened,” said Brent Sutter to Meachem. “I have to think about the players first and foremost and get them into a good frame of mind, so that when they’re leaving here they feel good about themselves.

“I just felt like this is a good time for them to hear a different voice, get reset, leave here in a good mindset and then come back next fall with that mindset.”

With Sutter as head coach, the Rebels won the WHL title and Memorial Cup as CHL champions in the 2000-01 season. He guided Canada to gold medal victories at world juniors as head coach in 2005 and 2006.

The former veteran NHL player helped oversee the Rebels as Memorial Cup hosts in 2016.He has 526 career regular season wins to sit eight all-time on the WHL list for most head coach victories.

Sutter will make a decision on a new head coach in the off-season. He said he thought about stepping away from the coaching role last summer.

You can bet Sutter hasn’t been able to spend the time he wants to on the coaching side of things. When something comes up on the COVID-19 front even just administratively that deals with a government health department, Sutter likely has to drop everything and focus on that.

“You need someone younger, because to be quite honest, coaching is the hardest position in an organization, when you’re dealing with players of this age,” said Sutter to Meachem. “You have to put so much time into it, and when you’re doing that plus the management side of it…. Because you’re so dialed in on the coaching side you’re not there to help out with some of the other side.

“Mentally it’s been really tough for everyone with the whole environment we’re in. We need to get the player upbeat again.”

Away from the Rebels, Sutter has had to wrestle with the fact his son Brandon became infected with COVID-19 as a centre with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have been derailed with over 20 players, coaches and staffers testing positive for COVID-19.

They last hit the ice for a game on March 24 falling 5-1 at home to the Winnipeg Jets.

Sutter works the Rebels bench during a road game in 2018.

Brent spoke about his concern for his 32-year-old son to Eric Francis of Sportnet.ca noting that parental instincts have been kicking in.

In taking to Meachem on Saturday, Brent said he may take some time to wind down.

“I’ve been coaching for 22 years and two months and I’ve been so dialed into it, so passionate about it,” said Sutter. “Yet you can’t be selfish.

“The players and the front of the jersey always comes first, no matter what. The right thing for this hockey team and this organization is for me to step down right now. For me personally, it’s the right thing.”

Pats’ Bedard all-heart in end of his WHL season, other notes

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A post shared by Regina Pats Hockey Club (@reginapatshockey)

It is a situation no 15-year-old should have to face.

Last Tuesday, Regina Pats 15-year-old phenom Connor Bedard, who is the first player to be granted exceptional player status to play full time in the WHL before age 16, found out after his team’s 6-1 win over the Swift Current Broncos that his grandfather, Garth Bedard, passed away in a car crash near Sicamous, B.C.

The Pats offered to fly the youngster home, but he elected to stay with the team for their game against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday. All the WHL East Division teams are playing in a bubble environment at the Brandt Centre in Regina due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bedard was slated to return after that contest so he could begin to self-quarantine before joining Canada’s entry at the world under-18 men’s hockey championships, which will run April 26 to May 6 in Frisco and Plano, Texas.

He said he wanted to play that Pats game on Friday, because his grandfather would have wanted him to do that. The two were super close and were best friends.

In that contest against the Wheat Kings, Bedard scored the first goal of the game 22 seconds into the second period. He gave a salute to the heavens after that tally for his grandfather.

The two sides went to overtime deadlocked at 1-1. With the Pats working on the power play, Bedard wired home the winning tally just 49 seconds into the extra session to give the Pats a 2-1 victory.

The Pats players poured off their bench to celebrate with Bedard and also support him in that emotional moment. Pats team photographer Keith Hershmiller got brilliant pictures of the celebrations from both goals.

Both Regina Pats play-by-play voice Phil Andrews and Rod Pedersen, who is doing play-by-play for the Pats television broadcasts of their game, had outstanding calls on the overtime winner.

Bedard’s performance was reminiscent of the game NFL legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre played a day after his father, Irvin, passed away. In arguably Favre’s most iconic performance coming on Monday Night Football on December 22, 2003, he completed 22-of-30 passes for 399 yards and four touchdowns in a 41-7 romp over the Raiders in Oakland.

For Bedard to have the game he did against the Wheat Kings on Friday was something out of an uplifting Disney movie script. To think he had that type of moment at age 15 is something that is super hard to comprehend.

When Friday’s action wrapped up, Bedard was the leading scorer in the WHL with 28 points coming off 12 goals and 16 assists. He also has a plus-nine rating in the plus-minus department.

By far Bedard’s performance on Friday is the most memorable moment so far in this shortened WHL developmental regular season.

• I was busy adding new content to the Howe Happenings blog on Friday. My main feature focused on Ignite Athletics and how positive the crew there has been mentally for the athletes they train. The piece also shared information about the Spark Park Summer Sport Camps. I always enjoy writing about the crew at Ignite, because they are such a good bunch. The post on Ignite can be found by clicking right here.
• The second post I added to Howe Happenings on Friday was a feature on rising softball star Jorde Chartrand, who turns 18-years-old on April 22. The ace right-handed pitcher, who is an alumna of the regional 222’s Fastpitch program and the Saskatoon Phantoms Softball Zone, will be joining the University of Central Arkansas Bears women’s NCAA Division I softball team in the fall. Chartrand is really talented, and she is a regular at the Indoor Training Centre. I did a story on her, because I hadn’t seen a lengthy feature piece on her. That doesn’t come as a surprise in the media cut era in Canada. I felt she was one athlete that deserved to have a lengthy story written about her. She is also strong academically in school, and I have to give a big shout out for edits she made on the piece. The post on Chartrand can be found by clicking right here.
• On Friday, the WHL announced the Calgary Hitmen had a player test positive for COVID-19 causing the Hitmen to suspend all team activities. The Medicine Hat Tigers were deemed a close contact having played the Hitmen in Medicine Hat on April 5, and they have had all their team activities suspended. The WHL announced no one from the Tigers had tested positive for COVID-19. A total of six games involving the Hitmen and Tigers had to be postponed. The WHL also announced a positive COVID-19 test for a player from the Kelowna Rockets and a positive COVID-19 test for a player from the Vancouver Giants. The Rockets player was deemed to be a close contact with the seven COVID-19 positive tests that were announced for the team on March 31. As the latest test occurred with the Rockets team cohort being in isolation, it doesn’t impact a possible return date for a return to team activities. The positive case with the Giants was for a player that was going through a mandated quarantine before joining the Giants roster. Since that player hadn’t joined the Giants team cohort, the Giants were able to proceed with team activities.
• On Sunday, the Prince Albert Raiders downed the Swift Current Broncos 4-2 in a WHL regular season clash. The win was the 550^th career regular season victory for Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. The Raiders improved to 5-8-2-1 with the win, while the Broncos fell to 3-12-1. The contest was the last game of the WHL season for Raiders 17-year-old defenceman Nolan Allan, who will join Canada’s entry for the world under-18 men’s hockey championships, which will run April 26 to May 6 in Frisco and Plano, Texas. Allan appeared in all of the Raiders first 16 games of the shortened regular season posting one goal, one assist and a minus-three rating. He is heading home to Davidson, Sask., to self-isolate before joining Canada’s under-18 team.
• Tickets are on sale for the April jackpot for the Saskatchewan Amateur Football Mega 50/50 lottery. The funds from this 50/50 lottery will go to support the CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops and Regina Thunder and the WWCFL’s Saskatoon Valkyries and Regina Riot. One prize will be drawn per month, and the remaining draw dates are Friday, April 30 and May 31. Tickets can be purchased by clicking right here, and purchasers must be in Saskatchewan in order to buy tickets.

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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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.

Canucks latest reminder COVID-19 pandemic is not over

A Bo Horvat card.

The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks have unfortunately become the poster example that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is not over.

While vaccines for COVID-19 are rolling out across Canada, some areas of the country increased restrictions to try and combat the virus as variants of concern become an increasing issue.

Over the Easter weekend, the halt of the Canucks NHL season caught the attention of the country.

As of Monday night, the Canucks have 17 players on the NHL’s COVID protocol list. The list doesn’t mean a player has tested positive, but a player could be a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Another unnamed player from the taxi squad is quarantining as a high-risk close contact, and three members of the Canucks coaching staff have tested positive for COVID-19.

It is reported that the NHL and the Canucks are proceeding under the belief they are dealing with the highly-transmissible P.1 variant, which was first identified in Brazil. At the moment, Vancouver is a global hotspot for the P.1 variant.

The P.1 variant is believed to be more transmissible and is capable of infecting people who were once infected by the original strain of COVID-19.

It is believed vaccines for COVID-19 that have been created to date are less effective on the P.1 variant, and people who get the variant can experience more severe sickness compared to the original strain of the virus.

It is believed younger people are more susceptible to a severe outcome, if they get infected by the P.1 variant.

The Canucks COVID-19 troubles began on March 30, when centre Adam Gaudette was pulled from practice after next day results from the previous day’s testing came back positive for COVID-19.

A Brandon Sutter card.

Last Wednesday, defenceman Travis Hamonic found out he had tested positive for COVID-19 from testing done the previous day after he participated in a morning skate. The Canucks ultimately held two on ice sessions with infected players.

That resulted in last Wednesday’s NHL regular season game between the Canucks and the visiting Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena being postponed 90 minutes before puck drop.

By this past Friday, the Canucks had seven players on their COVID protocol list. Another seven players were added this past Saturday and situation grew to the levels it sat at on Monday night.

Those on the COVID protocol list included the likes of forwards Bo Horvat, Jayce Hawyrluk, Brandon Sutter and Antoine Roussel, defencemen Tyler Myers and Quinn Hughes and netminder Braden Holtby, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.

The Canucks have had a couple of instances where dehydration was severe enough that team medical staffers were dispatched to player homes to administer IV drips to players.

There have been reports that many family members of Canucks players have tested positive or are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19.

As of Monday night, the Canucks have had six games postponed due to this COVID-19 outbreak including tilts with the Flames in Calgary this coming Thursday and Saturday.

The Canucks last played at Rogers Arena when they fell 5-1 to the visiting Winnipeg Jets on March 24.

At the moment, the Canucks are slated to play again on April 12 against the Oilers in Edmonton.

The Canucks have played 37 of their 56 regular season games for the current campaign posting a 16-18-3 record. They sit eight points back of the Montreal Canadiens for the final playoff berth in the all-Canadian North Division.

At the moment, there is no clear certainty as to when the Canucks will return to the ice.

An Antoine Roussel card.

In an interview with Eric Francis of Sportsnet.ca on Monday, former NHLer Brent Sutter, who is the head coach, general manager and owner of the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels, said he is concerned for his son Brandon, who plays for the Canucks, and Brandon’s family.

Brent confirmed that Brandon had indeed tested positive for COVID-19, and even though Brandon is 32-years-old, Brent said the parental instincts have kicked in, and he wished he could at his son’s side helping him out.

At the moment, no professional team in North America has had a rougher time dealing with COVID-19 than the Canucks have had.

The Canucks are an example that shows how real the COVID-19 pandemic still is.

Of course, the mixed messages are plenty when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. An MLB regular season game on Monday that saw the Toronto Blue Jays down the host Texas Rangers 6-2 drew 38,238 spectators to the 40,300 seat Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

The state of Texas is allowing 100 per cent capacity for sporting events.

Many that are against everything that is being done on the restrictions front to combat the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to pop the champagne corks at Monday’s developments Arlington celebrating the end to the pandemic.

It should be noted that the United States is still experiencing at least 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, which is still an improvement of daily increases of 200,000 new cases at the start of the year.

Still, the new case counts that are happening in the United States, Canada and the rest of the world are still a problem.

COVID-19 is still a problem that creeps up in the sports world including Canada’s sports world.

The WHL’s Kelowna Rockets are in the middle of a 14-day suspension of team activities due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

A Quinn Hughes card.

The junior A Alberta Junior Hockey League currently has six teams in the Grande Prairie Storm, Drayton Valley Thunder, White Court Wolverines, Okotoks Oilers, Camrose Kodiaks and Drumheller Dragons who are all under a 14-day suspension of team activities due to positive COVID-19 tests.

You can continue to keep listing examples like this.

Overall, the NHL’s Canucks have been the biggest recent noticeable example about how quickly things can still escalate on the COVID-19 front.

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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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.