Ugly Warriors OT goal deals Blades near fatal blow

Moose Jaw takes massive 3-0 lead in WHL first round series

The Warriors celebrate Cordel Larson’s OT winner.

Cordel Larson’s overtime winner on an unassuming play drove a dagger through the hearts of the Saskatoon Blades.

With Larson’s visiting Moose Jaw Warriors locked in a 2-2 tie with the host Blades in overtime, the overage right-winger ended being the beneficiary of a positive-bounce break. The Weyburn, Sask., product skated with the puck from behind the Blades net and circled out of the left corner along the boards of the Saskatoon zone.

After getting a stride length in front of the icing line, Larson threw the puck to the centre of the Saskatoon goal. The puck deflected in off a Blades player to deliver the Warriors to a 3-2 victory in Game 3 of a WHL first round playoff series at the 9:40 mark of the extra session.

The Warriors start embracing Cordel Larson (#34) after his winner.

Larson’s goal disappointed most of the 3,544 spectators at the SaskTel Centre outside of a sizable vocal contingent of Warriors fans, who made the trek up for the contest from Moose Jaw.

The Warriors also take a stranglehold 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. That has turned out to be the norm for the first round of this year’s WHL playoffs, because six teams hold 3-0 leads in the eight first round best-of-seven series that are being played.

Moose Jaw will have a first crack to close out its series with Saskatoon in Game 4 on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Needing a win to get back into the series, the Blades came storming out of the gate on Tuesday and scored the contest’s first goal at the 3:20 mark of the opening frame while working on the power play. Blades right-winger Noah Boyko took a shot from the right side boards that got tipped home by centre Jayden Wiens to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

Carl Tetachuk made 27 saves in goal for the Warriors.

Saskatoon kept storming after that tally and held a 10-1 edge in shots on goal 10 minutes into the contest. Warriors star overage netminder Carl Tetachuk came up with a number of big saves to prevent the Blades from assuming an even bigger lead.

The Warriors proceeded to find their legs as the opening frame drew to a close, and they gave their goaltender some offensive support.

With 1:45 remaining in the first period, Warriors right-winger Eric Alarie got the puck at the right point of the Saskatoon zone. Alarie deked around a Blades forward, got close on the Saskatoon goal and sniped home his first marker of the post-season to even the score at 1-1.

Moose Jaw proceeded to go ahead 2-1 at the 4:43 mark of the second on a goal from import left-winger Martin Rysavy. Rysavy one-timed home a shot from the front of the Saskatoon goal for his first tally of the post-season.

Nolan Maier made 34 saves for the Blades.

Warriors right-winger Jagger Firkus made a beauty pass from the left corner of the Blades zone to set up Rysavy’s goal.

The Warriors kept building the pressure after Blades left-winger Vaughn Watterodt was given a double minor for slew-footing. That infraction will automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Blades killed off the double minor thanks to some outstanding saves by Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier.

During that kill, Maier robbed Warriors centre Ryder Korczak on a backdoor chance, made a sprawling pad save on Alarie and stoned Firkus on a dangerous midrange drive.

Jayden Wiens (#9) scored the Blades first goal on Tuesday.

The Warriors kept bringing the pressure for the rest of the frame but were unable to beat Maier. Moose Jaw held a 16-4 edge in shots on goal in the second period.

The Warriors appeared set to close out the contest in the third period doing a pretty strong job clamping things down defensively.

That all changed with 3:21 remaining in the frame. Rysavy received a double minor for boarding after ramming Blades defenceman Ben Saunderson into the boards.

With 44.5 seconds remaining in the third and Maier pulled for an extra attacker, Blades standout left-winger Brandon Lisowsky banged home the equalizer during a net scramble in front of the Moose Jaw goal to even the score at 2-2 and force overtime.

Eric Alarie scored the Warriors first goal on Tuesday.

In overtime, the Blades were sloppy with the puck when they had control of it. Maier stoned Firkus on a rush down the right wing after Firkus got the puck when the Blades weren’t strong in handling it.

The veteran puckstopper proceeded to turn away Warriors left-winger Robert Baco on a drive from the front of the Saskatoon goal after the Blades turned the puck over in their own zone.

That set the stage for the Warriors to take the contest on Larson’s greasy overtime winner.

Maier turned away 34 shots to take the setback in goal for the Blades. Carl Tetachuk stopped 27 shots to pick up the win in net for the Warriors.

Blades star overage centre and captain Tristen Robins returned to his team’s lineup after missing the previous six games due to injury. He was listed as day-to-day in the Blades previous three contests with a lower body injury.

Brandon Lisowsky scored with 44.5 seconds in the third to force OT.

In Game 3 against the Warriors on Tuesday, Robins only took the ice for shifts on the power play, and he didn’t look effective. The Clear Lake, Man., product didn’t seem to be as speedy as he normally is and didn’t display much power when he tried to shoot the puck.

Robins still made see-eye passes in the offensive zone, but he wasn’t the same offensive threat that saw him finish second in Blades regular season scoring this season with 78 points coming off 33 goals and 45 assists in 62 games to go with a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department.

The Warriors have been without star defenceman Daemon Hunt so far for the series, because he is out week-to-week with a lower body injury.

The Blades fans cheer Brandon Lisowsky’s game tying goal.

Going forward in the series, the Blades face a long uphill battle. 

In the history of the WHL dating back to the circuit’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 battling back to claim that first round series 4-3.

Tristen Robins returned from injury to only play on the power play.

Saskatoon trailed the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-0 in a second round series in the 1990 WHL Playoffs before rallying back to tie the set at 3-3. In a series deciding Game 7 in Lethbridge, the Blades fell 4-3 in overtime with defenceman Neil Hawryluk netting the winning goal for the Hurricanes.

With the way the series between the Blades and Warriors has played out, Moose Jaw has to be given full marks for taking a 3-0 lead in the series, and it surprising considering the Blades won six out of eight head-to-head contests in the regular season between the two sides.

The Warriors 81 standings points and 37-24-4-3 record in the regular season just edged the Blades for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. The Blades finished fifth in the Eastern Conference with 80 standings points coming off a 38-26-3-1 record.

The Warriors celebrate their overtime win on Tuesday.

It feels almost certain that Saskatoon is stuck in a hole that it won’t be able to dig out of.

EDITOR’S NOTE - The original version of this column credited Atley Calvert with scoring the overtime winner for the Warriors. Calvert was originally listed as the overtime goal scorer on the WHL’s online game summary. That was an error, and it has been corrected on the WHL’s official summary. A big thanks goes out to Warriors play-by-play voice and director of hockey administration James Gallo for the hard work he put in to ensure the information on the overtime winner was corrected.

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“Acknowledge Him!” – Blades’ Maier becomes WHL’s all-time goaltending wins king

Goalie Nolan Maier begins celebrating his WHL career wins record.

Nolan Maier stands alone on the mountain top as the WHL’s goaltending wins king.

On Friday night, Maier made 20 saves to backstop the Saskatoon Blades to a 2-0 victory over their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders before 4,802 spectators at the SaskTel Centre. The victory allows the Yorkton, Sask., product to sit alone in top spot on the WHL’s career regular season wins list with 121 triumphs.

The overage star netminder passed Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith for first on the all-time wins list. Hirsch and Sexsmith now sit tied for second on the WHL’s career regular season wins list with 120 victories.

Hirsch picked up his 120 victories playing four seasons with the Kamloops Blazers from 1988 to 1992. Sexsmith collected his 120 wins over five seasons with the Vancouver Giants from 2005 to 2009. He also had one non-decision relief appearance for the Medicine Hat Tigers late in the 2004-05 campaign.

The Blades mob netminder Nolan Maier after Friday’s win.

In Friday’s clash between the Blades and Raiders, Maier was in awe of the moment when the game clock hit zero and everyone in the building was on their feat saluting his accomplishment.

“It was surreal,” said Maier, who stands 6-feet and weighs 172 pounds. “It is a moment I will never forget.

“I’m just so happy that I was able to do it at home and just against our rivals. It almost brings a certain sentimental value to it too. It is pretty amazing.”

When the game clock hit zero, the Blades players poured off their bench and mobbed Maier in a scene that looked like the celebration of a championship win.

Nolan Maier (#73) gets a hug from Trevor Wong (#38).

“It was a little excessive,” said Maier with a laugh. “It looked like we won the Stanley Cup.

“They (his teammates) were pretty excited, and I think that is awesome just to have a big group of brothers in there and just how they’ve supported me all year. It has been awesome. I couldn’t ask for anything better from them.”

Maier joined the Blades on a full-time basis as a 16-year-old rookie in November of 2017. He has appeared in 215 career regular season games with the Blades posting a 121-72-18 record, a 2.90 goals against average, a .905 save percentage and 12 shutouts.

Members of the Blades faithful cheer Maier’s record accomplishment.

Along with those statistics, Maier has played 12,549 career minutes in goal for the Blades and made 5,753 career saves.

Maier’s career shutout, games played, minutes played and saves totals are all Blades franchise records.

For the veteran puck stopper, he was happy to capture the WHL’s career regular season wins record playing his whole major junior career with the Blades, who played a tribute for him at game’s end.

Blades players watch a tribute video for Nolan Maier.

“I think that is what makes it so much special for me to be able to do it with the same team and under the same management and a few different coaches,” said Maier, who was selected in the second round and 25^th overall way back in the then 2016 WHL Bantam Draft by the Blades. “For most of it, it was kind of all the same.

“It means everything, and everyone here is just a huge part of my family, especially (Blades owner) Mike (Priestner) and (Blades general manager) Colin (Priestner) and (Blades associate general manager) Hilty (Steve Hildebrand) and now (Blades head coach) Sonnes (Brennan Sonne) and (Blades associate coach) Marshy (Ryan Marsh) and everyone and especially (Blades goalie coach) Harv (Jeff Harvey). I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.

Nolan Maier cuts a piece of the net from his record win.

“It is just unbelievable the support I’ve had here.”

Sonne was proud to see Maier take sole possession of the WHL’s career regular season wins record. The bench boss said when you reflect on all the netminders who have come through the WHL during the history of the league it makes Maier’s accomplishment look that much more impressive.

“I mean think of the goalies, right,” said Sonne. “It is phenomenal.

“I’m not going to say anything that would even do it justice. It is incredible. It is awesome.

“We are so happy for him.”

Maier made his first big save of the night when the Blades were working on a power play about seven-and-a-half minutes into the opening frame. Raiders overage captain Reece Vitelli had a short-handed breakaway, but he was stoned by Maier, who swallowed the puck in his midsection.

Nolan Maier embraces his teammates after cutting a piece of the net.

With about 2:31 remaining in the first, the Blades had their best scoring chance of the frame, when right-winger Noah Boyko was robbed close in by the left side of the Prince Albert goal by the glove had of Raiders rookie import netminder Tikhon Chaika.

The teams played a tight checking opening 20 minutes where the shots on goal were tied 6-6. The second frame was a tight checking one too, even though the Blades had a 10-8 edge in shots on goal in that stanza.

Nolan Maier stops Raiders captain Reece Vitelli (#15).

The Blades had the best scoring chance in the second near the middle part of the period, when defenceman Tanner Molendyk was denied close in by Chaika with a shot coming close in on the left wing off a two-on-one break.

With the game remaining scoreless after 40 minutes, Maier said he did get some antsy feelings.

“I think those thoughts creep into your head,” said Maier, who has three shutouts this season. “As a goalie, you try not to worry about it.

“It is a cliché, but near the end going into the third 0-0, I knew we just needed one. Once we got that one I knew it was going to happen.”

Nolan Maier makes a stop on a screen shot.

With 9:21 remaining in the third, Raiders defenceman Tayem Gislason drew a double minor for high sticking. The infraction will automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

Near the tail end of the first half of that power play, Blades rookie import right-winger Egor Sidorov banged home a shot from the front of the Prince Albert goal to give the host side a 1-0 lead with 7:43 remaining in the frame.

From that point, the Blades skaters did a solid job of clamping things down defensively, and the Raiders didn’t have any real solid scoring chances.

Egor Sidorov (#19) had a goal and an assist for the Blades.

With 1:59 remaining in the third, Blades centre Trevor Wong backhanded home an insurance goal during a net scramble over top of a fallen Chaika. That sealed the 2-0 win for the host side. Sidorov picked up an assist on Wong’s tally.

Wong, who joined the Blades in a trade with the Kelowna Rockets right before the start of the regular season, said it was important to the players on his team to do their part to help Maier get the WHL career regular season wins record.

“He (Maier) is kind of the role model for this whole organization, and a lot of our guys look up to him,” said Wong. “I’m pretty new here, but I could already see since the day I got here by the way he carries himself and just the way he treats others he is a class act.

Egor Sidorov (#19) celebrates scoring for the Blades.

“It was huge that we got it done for him.”

Chaika turned away 22 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders.

The Blades improved to 37-26-3-1 with the win, and they moved one point ahead of the 36-23-3-2 Moose Jaw Warriors for fourth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. The fourth place club in the conference will have home ice advantage for a best-of-seven first round playoff series against the fifth place squad.

The Brandon Wheat Kings sit sixth overall in the conference with a 34-25-3-2 record and are five standings points behind the Blades and four standings point back of the Warriors. The Wheat Kings won their fourth straight game on Friday downing the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers 6-3.

Tanner Molendyk controls the puck in the offensive zone.

The Blades have one game left on their regular season schedule, while both the Warriors and Wheat Kings have four contests remaining on their respective regular season slates.

The Blades are off until this coming Friday when they close out their regular season schedule against the Brandon Wheat Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

Saskatoon still has five regulars on the injury list. Defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

Overage star centre Tristen Robins, who is the Blades captain for the rest of the current season, is out day to day with an upper body injury and the same goes for veteran centre Josh Pillar.

Trevor Wong scored the Blades second goal on Friday.

Rookie centre Lukas Hansen is week-to-week with an upper body injury, and utility player Spencer Shugrue is day to day with a lower body injury.

Overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart returned to the Blades lineup from an upper body injury for Maier’s milestone win.

Sonne said his Blades need the time off before their next contest.

“It feels like so long where we’ve played three games a week and that is just taxing,” said Sonne. “We’re not like an older team either.

“We’re a younger team, so it is just even more so. We just get back at 5:30 in the morning (on Thursday) from Lethbridge (after a 6-1 loss to the Hurricanes on Wednesday night), and these guys are getting up to go to school. This has been getting taxing.

Raiders G Tikhon Chaika stops a screen shot.

“They need a few days off, so it is a really good thing.”

The Raiders fell to 26-34-4-1 with the setback to remain 10^th in the Eastern Conference. They sit two points behind the 26-34-5-2 Swift Current Broncos for eighth place and the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

Prince Albert is one point behind the 25-31-6-2 Calgary Hitmen for ninth in the Eastern Conference. The Raiders are two points ahead of the 25-34-3-2 Regina Pats.

The Broncos have one regular season game remaining, the Raiders have three contests left on their slate and the Hitmen and Pats each have four games remaining on their respective schedules.

Nolan Maier made 20 saves on Friday night.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes (30-30-4-1) officially locked up a playoff berth with their 5-4 overtime setback to the Rebels in Red Deer on Friday. 

The Hurricanes sit seventh overall in the Eastern Conference.

The Raiders return to action on Saturday when they travel to Regina to take on the Pats (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).

With sole possession of the WHL’s career regular season wins record under his belt, Maier said his milestone win to sit alone as the record holder will be a night he always remembers.

Nolan Maier (#73) is saluted by his teammates.

“Easily, this will be the highlight of my life, especially just to do it here in front of my fans and lots of family and friends I have here,” said Maier. “I couldn’t have wrote it any better.”

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Blades’ Maier equals WHL career wins record

Netminder makes 20 saves in 4-0 victory over Tigers

Nolan Maier tied the WHL regular season career wins record at 120.

It was a terrific Tuesday night in Medicine Hat for Nolan Maier.

The Saskatoon Blades star overage netminder made 20 saves in a 4-0 win over the host Tigers before 1,880 spectators at Co-Op Place. With the win, Maier equals the WHL record for career regular season goaltending victories at 120.

Maier shares the career goaltending wins mark with Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith.

Hirsch picked up his 120 victories playing four seasons with the Kamloops Blazers from 1988 to 1992. Sexsmith collected his 120 wins over five seasons with the Vancouver Giants from 2005 to 2009. He also had one non-decision relief appearance for the Medicine Hat Tigers late in the 2004-05 campaign.

Maier entered Tuesday’s action tied with Jordan Papirny for second on the WHL’s all-time career regular season wins list with 119 victories. Papirny picked up his 119 career regular season wins playing five seasons in the WHL from 2012 to 2017 with the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Swift Current Broncos.

Maier joined the Blades on a full-time basis as a 16-year-old rookie in November of 2017. The Yorkton, Sask., product has appeared in 213 career regular season games with the Blades posting a 120-71-18 record, a 2.90 goals against average, a .905 save percentage and 11 shutouts.

Along with those statistics, Maier has played 12,429 career minutes in goal for the Blades and made 5,702 career saves.

Maier’s career shutout, games played, minutes played and saves totals are all Blades franchise records.

Kyle Crnkovic had a goal and an assist on Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s clash with the Tigers, the Blades netted their first goal with 1:41 remaining in the first period, when defenceman Ryan Nolan and star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic teamed up to spring standout right-winger Brandon Lisowsky on a breakaway.

Lisowsky snapped home his 33^rd goal of the season stick side on Tigers 18-year-old netminder Beckett Langkow for the 1-0 lead.

At the 8:28 mark of the second, Blades rookie import right-winger Egor Sidorov roof home his 22^nd tally of the season to the top right corner of the Medicine Hat net to give the Blades a 2-0 advantage. Sidorov’s scoring chance on his goal came after he collected the rebound from a shot taken by Nolan.

Just 54 seconds later, Blades 19-year-old right-winger Noah Boyko backhanded home a rebound from his own close in first shot to extend Saskatoon’s advantage to 3-0.

Inside the final two minutes of the second, Maier denied Tigers left-winger Oren Shtrom on a drive from the right slot. The rebound went to Shtrom’s linemate in Noah Danielson, but Maier’s sprawling right pad stuffed Danielson’s shot attempt.

Early in the third, Tigers 16-year-old rookie left-winger Andrew Basha wired a shot off the post of the Saskatoon goal. A short time later, Maier denied Tigers 17-year-old rookie left-winger Steven Arp on a backhand shot from the front of the Saskatoon net.

The Blades rounded out the 4-0 final in their favour at the 6:39 mark of the third. Nolan sprang Crnkovic on a breakaway on a long flip stretch pass, and Crnkovic backhanded home his 38^th tally of the season.

Langkow turned away 20 shots to take the setback in goal for the Tigers (11-49-3-1).

Brandon Lisowsky scored for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Tigers are locked into finish last in the entire WHL and will continue to play out the string on Friday, when they travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings (7 p.m. local time, Westman Place).

With the win, the Blades improve to 36-25-3-1 to remain in contention to get home ice advantage for a first round playoff series.

They trail the 36-23-3-2 Moose Jaw Warriors by one point for fourth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and the right to have home ice advantage in the first round of the post-season. Moose Jaw has a game in hand on Saskatoon.

The Wheat Kings jumped back into contention for that fourth place spot after winning their third straight game downing the visiting Regina Pats 5-4 at Westman Place on Tuesday night. Brandon improved to 33-25-3-2 to continue to hold sixth place in the conference six points behind Moose Jaw and five points behind Saskatoon.

The Wheat Kings have one game in hand on the Warriors and two games in hand on the Blades.

Saskatoon still has six regulars on the injury list. Defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

Overage star centre Tristen Robins, who is the Blades captain for the rest of the current season, is out day to day with an upper body injury and the same goes for veteran centre Josh Pillar and overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart.

Rookie centre Lukas Hansen is week-to-week with an upper body injury, and utility player Spencer Shugrue was out day to day with a lower body injury.

Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Blades return to action on Wednesday, when they travel to Lethbridge to take on the 29-30-3-1 Hurricanes (7 p.m. local time, Enmax Centre).

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Blades rock Rebels 5-2 in bounce back win

Tristen Robins had a pair of goals and an assist on Saturday.

It proved to be no problem at all for the Saskatoon Blades to get a bounce back win against a team that had won seven in a row.

On Saturday night, the Blades rolled off a 5-2 WHL regular season victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels to the delight of 3,999 spectators in attendance at the SaskTel Centre. The Rebels, who have been one of the WHL’s top teams this season, entered Saturday’s clash riding a seven game win streak.

The Blades went into the encounter having dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker in overtime at home one night earlier to the WHL East Division leading Winnipeg Ice.

The Blades celebrate a goal from Noah Boyko.

After falling to the Ice, the response by “the Bridge City Bunch” against the Rebels was a welcome one. Actually, Blades head coach Brennan Sonne appreciated how his club took on the Rebels’ traditionally tough and physical style of play.

“My favourite part of tonight was that we stayed in the battle,” said Sonne. “Red Deer is a big, strong, physical team.

“They can be intimidating. Instead of shying away from that, I thought we engaged with it, which is awesome from our group. As kind of a younger team and a smaller team, we engaged in that battle pretty much the whole time, so I was really pleased with that.”

The Rebels came out of the gates holding a 7-2 edge in shots on goal before the Blades hit top gear.

With 6:19 remaining in the first, the Blades broke through on the scoreboard, when right-winger Noah Boyko deflected home a point shot by defenceman Rhett Rhinehart to give the host side a 1-0 lead.

Rhett Rhinehart scored for the Blades on the power play.

About two-and-a-half minutes later, Rhinehart pushed the Blades advantage out to 2-0 floating home a point shot through a screen to the top left corner of the Red Deer goal with the hosts working on a power play.

The Blades weren’t done on the scoreboard there. With 54.6 seconds remaining in the first, Blades overage star centre Tristen Robins scored on a one-timer off a set up pass from sophomore defenceman Tanner Molendyk. The puck from Robins’ shot hit Rebels netminder Chase Coward, bounced high into the air and floated over top the puck stopper into the Red Deer goal giving the Blades a 3-0 lead.

Vaughn Watterodt, right, drives a shot on goal for the Blades. 

“We’ve kind of eased into games as of late,” said Sonne. “The first five minutes or so we’ve just kind of not been right into it right away.

“It has been a point of emphasis for us. Once we got our legs under us a little bit, and we started spending some offensive zone time I thought we just kind of got rolling and got some pucks to the net and did some good things.

“Those offensive zone shifts really helped.”

The only down part for the Blades in the opening 20 minutes was fact veteran 18-year-old centre Trevor Wong went down with the team holding a 2-0 edge. Wong went down after taking a cross check in the mid-section from Rebels import defenceman Christoffer Sedoff after making a pass in the offensive zone.

Tristen Robins scored a key power-play goal in the second period.

No penalty was called on the play.

The injury brought an end to Wong’s streak or recording a point in 11 consecutive games. During that streak, Wong piled up 17 points coming on eight goals and nine assists.

The Blades kept coming in the second period. Working on the power play, Robins blasted down the left-wing and put home his second of the contest fooling Coward on a deke move to give Saskatoon a 4-0 edge at the 5:11 mark of the second frame.

Coward was pulled after that tally having stopped 9-of-13 shots sent his way to take the loss in goal for the Rebels (36-16-2-1). Connor Ungar turned away 14-of-15 shots playing the rest of the way in relief for the Rebels.

Vaughn Watterodt tallied to give the Blades a 5-0 lead.

Just over five minutes later, the Blades went ahead 5-0 on a goal from left-winger Vaughn Watterodt, whose bad angle shot handcuffed Ungar and went into the Red Deer goal.

Robins said it was big for his squad to have a strong start to the second period to follow the strong finish they had to the opening frame. The Clear Lake, Man., product thought his club did a good job matching the Rebels physical style.

“They are physical team, and that is what helps them win,” said Robins, who had an assist to go with his two goals on Saturday. “We elevated our game.

Arshdeep Bains scored 21 seconds into the third for the Rebels.

“We had a physical night as well. We didn’t shy away at all and ultimately came out with these two points.”

Just 21 seconds into the third, the Rebels got on the scoreboard as Rebels star overage right-winger Arshdeep Bains scored on the power play to trim the Blades lead to 5-1. Bains was his 30^th goal of the season marking the first time in his WHL career he hit the 30-goal plateau.

Sedoff added a second power-play goal for the Rebels to round out the game’s scoring.

Nolan Maier stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (30-18-3-1). The victory was Maier’s 116^th of his regular season career, and he is just sixth goalie in the history of the WHL to reach that milestone.

The officials break up a scrum in the third period.

Maier, who is already the Blades franchise record holder for career regular season victories, is four wins away from equaling the WHL’s career regular season wins record of 120. That record is held jointly by Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith.

Hirsch picked up his 120 victories playing four seasons with the Kamloops Blazers from 1988 to 1992. 

Sexsmith collected his 120 wins over five seasons with the Vancouver Giants from 2005 to 2009. He also had one non-decision relief appearance for the Medicine Hat Tigers late in the 2004-05 campaign.

Robins said the bounce back victory for his team on Saturday was big after falling in heartbreaking style in overtime one night earlier.

Nolan Maier picked up his 116th career regular season win.

“It was awesome that we got three out of four points this weekend, but it is easily a weekend where we should have had four out of four,” said Robins. “Coming into this game and executing like we did is a must.”

Blades captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere wasn’t able to finish Saturday’s game. There was no status update for either De La Gorgendiere or Wong at the end of the game.

The Blades return to action on Wednesday when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Rebels get back it on Friday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers (7 p.m. Red Deer time, Peavey Mart Centrium).

Robins said his Blades will continue to work on smoothing out kinks in their game in preparation for their clash with the Hurricanes.

The Blades celebrate their win on Saturday over the Rebels.

“We just have to take things one day at a time,” said Robins. “We’re going to have a couple of good practice days here right away to get right and tune things up for that game and hopefully bring back another two big points.”

NOTE – The Blades wore special jerseys for Saturday’s contest to honour the Saskatoon Police Service.

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