“So what do you want to talk about?” – Raiders and Blades had it all on a feisty Friday

The Raiders and Blades engage in a game-ending scrum.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – You can always count on the Prince Albert Raiders and the Saskatoon Blades to come through with a classic rivalry game.

Friday night’s game at the storied and historic Art Hauser Centre had pretty much everything you would come to expect from a clash of arch-enemies. There were saves, goals, punches thrown and of course some controversy.

The controversy came with 2:56 remaining in the third period when Raiders star Brandon Gorzynski was given a slashing minor with the combatants locked in a 2-2 tie. Gorzynski was given the infraction working his way into his own zone on the backcheck and made a move to swat the puck off the stick of Blades 19-year-old import rookie right-winger Yegor Gusev.

Brandon Gorzynski was victimized by a tough break penalty call.

Definitely from an overall Raiders perspective you could say the call was really chintzy. 

From a Blades perspective, you could lean into the argument that Gorzynski’s light stick swat was a slash, but a break was likely gained on that call. When you get a break, you never question it, and you never apologize if you get a win out of it.

That is exactly what happened. On the ensuing power play, Blades star left-winger David Lewandowski wired home a shot from the just off centre parallel to the top of the left faceoff circle for the goal that gave the visiting Blades a 3-2 victory before a mostly disgruntled standing room crowd of 2,819 spectators at the Raiders 2,580-seat home rink.

David Lewandowski delivered a winning goal for the Blades.

After Lewandowski’s tally, the Raiders nearly sent the game to overtime. With 28.7 seconds remaining in the third, Raiders standout centre Maddix McCagherty attempted a wraparound to an open left side of the Saskatoon net with Blades import rookie netminder Martin Psohlavec sprawled in his crease. Psohlavec managed to reach out his blocker to make a game-saving stop.

The 18-year-old product of Ostrov, Czechia, was mostly sensational in his WHL regular season debut making 26 saves to pick up the win in goal for the visitors, who improved to 1-1-1. Psohlavec returned to the Blades earlier this week after attending training camp activities with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. He had been at Blades training camp and took part in winning one pre-season game before departing to Philadelphia.

Maddix McCagherty almost had an equalizer.

When the final buzzer sounded on Friday, a huge scrum took part in the left corner of the Saskatoon zone, which also saw someone in the crowd throw a water bottle onto the ice.

After the officials separated the players on both sides, the Blades celebrated their win departing the ice surface to a series of boos, which is the norm when they pull off victories at the Hauser. During the three star selections, Psohlavec and Lewandowski, who returned to the Blades Friday morning after taking part in training camp activities with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, took polite small laps after being named the respective first and second stars in the building.

You were kind of expecting them to potentially embrace the WWE villain role like netminder Nolan Maier and feisty left-winger Riley McKay did in a Blades 3-2 victory at the Hauser way back on December 27, 2019. In that contest, Maier and McKay were the respective first and second stars in the building, and they went out making big laps of the ice surface with smiles on their faces applauding the booing crowd.

Martin Psohlavec made 26 saves to win his WHL regular season debut.

While Raiders fans can come away from the night saying they were robbed, the Blades were deserving of the victory. The hosts came out strong in the scoreless opening frame getting the first eight shots on goal and holding a 13-6 edge in that department after 20 minutes. Psohlavec made his presence felt in that frame making a number of robbery type stops.

Over the final two periods, objective persons would have to give the edge in play to the Blades, especially in the third frame when the visitors had a 16-7 edge in shots on goal. The Raiders controlled the game in the opening stanza and that control slipped out of their grasp in the second and third periods.

Connor Howe had a goal for the Raiders.

Even with that development, the scoring swung back and forth.

With exactly eight minutes remaining in the second, the Blades struck on the power play working on a two-man advantage. Working the puck on the point, Blades captain and star defenceman Brayden Klimpke fired a seeing-eye shot and the puck rebounded to Blades 19-year-old left-winger Kazden Mathies in front of the Prince Albert net.

Mathies put home a backhand shot to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

The Raiders would even the score at 1-1 working on a power play of their own. With 15.7 seconds remaining in the second, Raiders 17-year-old left-winger and fan favourite Connor Howe slipped home a point shot through a screen for the equalizer.

Jack Kachkowski had a positive-bounce goal for the Blades.

At the conclusion of the second, Howe engaged Blades 19-year-old defenceman Jack Kachkowski in a crowd-pleasing fight. The two players traded hard shots before Howe came through with rapid hard shots to bring Kachkowski down to the ice.

Just 2:02 into the third, the Raiders went ahead 2-1 thanks to a rookie mistake by Psohlavec. Raiders 17-year-old right-winger Ben Harvey got the puck in the right slot rushing towards the Blades net and Psohlavec came out to poke check him.

Psohlavec missed with the poke check, and Harvey curved around him and slid the puck into an empty Saskatoon cage to give the host’s their one-goal edge. For the longest time, it appeared that tally would be the Blades undoing.

Connor Howe and Jack Kachkowski go at it in a fight.

The visitors proceeded to benefit from a positive bounce with 6:01 remaining in the third. At that moment in the game, Kachkowski had the puck in the left corner of the Prince Albert zone and made a centering pass to the front of the Raiders net. The puck deflected off the skate of Raiders defenceman Hubert Clarke into the Prince Albert goal to force the contest into a 2-2 tie.

That set the stage for the dramatics inside the final three minutes of the third.

Import star netminder Michal Orsulak had a solid night making 29 saves taking the setback in goal for the Raiders (1-2).

The two teams go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon. That contest will be the regular season home opener for the Blades.

Martin Psohlavec, left, enjoys his first WHL regular season win.

Including the pre-season, Saturday’s game will mark the fifth time the Raiders and Blades have gone head-to-head this month. There will likely be more fireworks coming in that encounter that could exceed the pyrotechnics the Blades use in their pre-game festivities.

NOTES – Raiders head coach Ryan McDonald was absent from Friday’s game and will miss Saturday’s game in Saskatoon due to personal reasons. In McDonald’s absence, Raiders assistant coaches Cole Bell and Conor Yawney are assuming co-head coaching duties. The Raiders asked that McDonald’s privacy be respected at this time.

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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Adult meeting with Hawerchuk was special

Jets legend passed away too soon at age 57

Dale Hawerchuk on a Jets all-time all-star team poster.

    I admit I had a misplaced fear that my adult meeting with Dale Hawerchuk wouldn’t go well.
    Way back when Hawerchuk was skating through his rookie season with the Winnipeg Jets in the 1981-82 season, I first met Hawerchuk at an autograph session that was held at the Athletes World sports store in Winnipeg. At the time, I was five-years-old, and I can’t remember anything about that meeting except for vivid memories of being inside that sports store.

    I received an autograph wood mini stick, which I still have to this day.

    Throughout most of the 1980s, my family lived in Winnipeg outside of one-year move to Regina for the 1982-83 school year and a two-year move to Edmonton starting in the summer of 1989.

    Due to being located in Winnipeg, Hawerchuk was my favourite NHL player, and he was the first athlete hero I had during my childhood years.
    I had the opportunity to see numerous Jets games in my youth, and I have lots of good memories watching Hawerchuk live in action.

A Dale Hawerchuk card from 1989.

    As I grew up, I continued to keep tabs on Hawerchuk’s playing career including his days with the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers. I kept tabs on his life after his playing days were finished.

    It was cool to see him have a number of good seasons as the head coach and director of hockey operations for the OHL’s Barrie Colts over nine campaigns starting in 2010 and running through to 2019.

    He took a leave up absence from the Colts to battle stomach cancer before the start of the 2019-20 season. Hawerchuk was given a clean bill a health in April, but the stomach cancer returned and he passed away from his battle with the disease last Tuesday.

    On Dec. 2, 2006, I got to interview Hawerchuk for a story in the Medicine Hat News. He was in town for an oldtimers’ game that was played at the Kinplex.

    At the time, I was in my best years working as a sports reporter for the News, and the outlet’s sports department was really kick butt. That was a time where I was in really good spirits.

    Leading up to the interview, I had talked to a few friends who mentioned they had disappointing experiences when as adults they met their sports heroes they looked up to as children.
    Before I headed out to the Kinplex to see Hawerchuk that day, one thought that ran through my head was, “Please don’t let this encounter suck.”

    During that game, Hawerchuk made some fancy plays. You could tell that at one time he did play hockey at its highest level.

A Dale Hawerchuk rookie card.

    Right when the game ended, I happened to be in the hallway where the players came off the ice.

    When Hawerchuk came off the ice, I think he might he might have thought he should have known me from somewhere. He actually immediately came over to shake my hand and went out of his way to be personable.

    The next part of the ice breaker was mentioning I lived in Winnipeg through most of the 1980s. Hawerchuk went on and on talking about city and how fond he was of it.

    It was crazy how much he knew about the city. He knew about the neighbourhood I lived, and talked about some of the businesses he had shopped at in my neighbourhood.

    He mentioned how cool it was that no matter where he went on the oldtimers’ circuit he always met people who lived in Winnipeg and always got to see Jets fans.

    I told him I wanted to interview him for the paper, and I said I had some time and that he could shower up first if he wanted to. As there wasn’t a Sunday edition of the paper to file for, I was hoping to do the interview in a more relaxed setting.
    Hawerchuk showered up and gave me all the time that I needed. I remember the interview went great. Actually, it was just an overall great visit.

    When that interview happened, the first version of the Jets had moved out of Winnipeg 10 years previous and the current version of the Jets were still another five years off from moving to the Manitoba capital from Atlanta, Georgia.

A Dale Hawerchuk card from 1987.

    Naturally, Hawerchuk campaigned that Winnipeg is a great hockey town and the NHL needed to back there.

    When the visit wrapped up, I got him to sign my poster of the Winnipeg Jets all-time all-stars.

    That visit helped to restore the childhood faith in the hockey hero. Hawerchuk lived up to the hero expectations.

    Over the years leading up to that visit, I met people in hockey and outside of the sports who knew Hawerchuk. All of them said he was a genuinely nice person, and he was a real quiet guy too.

    He was the superstar who enjoyed being out of the spotlight and his downtime, but he always wanted to be good and genuine.

    On the ice, the fact that Hawerchuk was a key member in helping the QMJHL’s Cornwall Royals win Memorial Cup titles in 1980 and 1981 as major junior hockey champions or that he played in 1,188 regular season games piling up 518 goals, 891 assists for 1,409 points are a small part of his story.

    The same goes with Hawerchuk playing for Canada and winning the draw that allowed Wayne Gretzky to set up Mario Lemieux for the goal that won the 1987 Canada Cup tournament in the final two minutes of the event’s deciding game.

    The outpouring of tributes that have poured in for him over the past week showed the 57 years he lived on this world were meaningful ones.
    Many sympathies were passed on to Hawerchuk’s wife, Crystal, the couple’s children in sons Eric and Ben and daughter Alexis.

A display of Dale Hawerchuk memorabilia.

    Even if you just had one memorable visit with Hawerchuk, you realized the world just lost one of its great good guys.

    That fact he had a positive influence on so many lives should definitely be celebrated.

    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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Leschyshyn and Patrick smart NHL Draft picks despite injuries

Jake Leschyshyn (#19) wins a battle in the corner for the Pats

    The player personal staffs of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Philadelphia Flyers might one day look back in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and give themselves a pat on the back for their bravery.

    Both clubs each picked a player from the WHL who had their respective 2016-17 campaigns cut considerably short due to injury.

    The Golden Knights selected 18-year-old centre Jake Leschyshyn of the Regina Pats in the second round and 62^nd overall. Leschyshyn was limited to 47 regular season games and missed the Pats entire post-season run to the WHL Championship series after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

    The Flyers picked centre Nolan Patrick, who will turn 19 in September, in the first round and second overall. The Brandon Wheat Kings star was often projected to be the first overall selection, but two sports hernia injuries limited him to 33 regular season games and kept him out of the playoffs.

Nolan Patrick in action for the Wheat Kings in May of 2016.

    Any teams that passed on either player might regret that decision one day. If you are an elite athlete that plays any sport at a high level over a lengthy period of time, chances are high you will eventually have to deal with a major injury in your career.

    Due to the fact Leschyshyn and Patrick are really young looking at the grand scheme of the hockey picture, they have lots of time to make respective full recoveries and return better than ever.

    Leschyshyn, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 182 pounds, first really turned heads in the WHL after putting on a gritty performance in the 2016 playoffs. He had a goal and three assists in 12 games as the Pats advanced to the second round before falling 2-1 in a series deciding Game 7 to the Red Deer Rebels. During that post-season, Leschyshyn was noticeable on the ice due to a fierce work ethic that was displayed when he had to battle in the hard areas.

    This season, Leschyshyn piled up 17 goals and 23 assists in 47 regular season games. When he did hit the ice, he gave the Pats a dynamic one, two, three punch at centre playing behind Sam Steel and Adam Brooks. Leschyshyn played a big part in helping the Pats post the best record in the league at 52-12-7-1.

Jake Leschyshyn (#19) creates a screens a goalie for the Pats.

    He comes from a real good family that is tied into the game too. Father, Curtis, had a lengthy NHL career as a defenceman and younger sister, Anna, is a star centre with the Saskatoon Stars female midget AAA team. Thanks to his family, Jake will have great guidance when it comes to a career in the NHL.

    As for Patrick, he watched the New Jersey Devils pick 18-year-old centre and Switzerland product Nico Hischier first overall. Flyers proceeded to select Patrick with the second overall pick.

    It almost seemed like Patrick’s spectacular sophomore season with the Wheat Kings in 2015-16 was forgotten. The Winnipeg product appeared in all 72 of the Wheat Kings regular season games piling up 41 goals and 61 assists.

    He played a huge role in helping the Wheat Kings capture the WHL Championship in 2016 recording 13 goals and 17 assists in 21 post-season games. Patrick, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 198 pounds, was named the MVP of the playoffs that season.

Nolan Patrick (#19) sets up in the offensive zone in May of 2016.

    Due to his later in the year birth date, Patrick wasn’t eligible for the NHL Entry Draft until the end of his 18-year-old season. After he played so spectacular as a 17-year-old, it seemed almost inevitable Patrick would be a first over selection.

    Having played such a big role in Brandon in 2015-16, one wondered what more amazing things he could do for an encore. Injuries hampered those hopes.

    Patrick also comes from a good family that has a strong hockey background. His father, Steve, played six seasons in the NHL at right wing in the 1980s. His uncle, James, had a lengthy career as a defenceman.

    The influence of both Steve and James, who is the new head coach of the WHL’s Kootenay Ice, will ensure Nolan has a pretty good heads up regarding waters he will have to navigate as a professional.

    The injuries both Jake Leschyshyn and Nolan Patrick had to battle through would definitely create doubts for some. At the moment, their ability to help a club in the immediate short term is still questionable.

    Over the long term, both the Golden Knights and Flyers will likely be rewarded with their sound selections of the two respective centres.

Rush thank you commercial sweet touch

The Rush players salute the SaskTel Centre fans.

    The Saskatchewan Rush gave a salute to their fans since their National Lacrosse League campaign came to an end.

    In both years the NLL franchise has been based out of Saskatoon, the Rush have advanced to the best-of-three league championship series. A year ago, the Rush swept the Buffalo Bandits 2-0 to claim the Champion’s Cup.

    Game 2 of that series was one for the ages as Rush defenceman Jeff Cornwall went coast-to-coast to score the series-winning goal with 12 seconds to play that broke a 10-10 tie and gave the Rush an 11-10 victory before 15,182 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

    Having won the Champion’s Cup in 2015 when the team was still located in Edmonton, the Rush franchise was trying for the three-peat this season. The Rush returned to the NLL championship series only to be swept 2-0 by the Duluth-based Georgia Swarm. Game 2 of the series was a heartbreaker for the Rush, who fell 15-14 in overtime at the SaskTel Centre on June 10.

    During the regular season, the Rush topped the Western Division standings with a 12-6 mark. Between the regular season and playoffs, the Rush always drew over 14,000 spectators to each of their home games. The energy created by the fans at Rush games is second to none.

    Since falling in the NLL finals, the Rush have run commercials on local television to thank the fans. The commercial is also posted on the team’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

    It was a classy move by the team and one that will always payoff in some positive way down the road.

Back in the Express with Roughriders analysis

Kevin Glenn (#5) throws a pass downfield at Roughriders training camp.

    I was back in the pages of the Saskatoon Express this past week with a column that provide analysis about the Saskatchewan Roughriders prospects for the 2017 CFL season.

    Due to the nature of writing for a weekly publication, the piece went to print before the team announced final cuts on June 17. The issue of the Express that contained the piece hit the streets on June 19.

    Since that time, the Roughriders opened the regular season dropping a 17-16 heartbreaker on the road to the Alouettes in Montreal last Thursday. I wrote in my piece that playoffs are possible for the Roughriders, and I still hold on to that despite the opening day result.

    When you check social media lines, the loss to the Alouettes has some Roughriders fans jumping ship. Had Roughriders kicker Tyler Crapigna nailed a 45-yard field goal attempt on the game’s final play to win it, you would see fans jumping on the bandwagon. Those reactions come with the territory of following Saskatchewan’s CFL franchise.

    The season opening game likely worked out a lot of emotion regarding Roughriders head coach and general manager Chris Jones and Alouettes and former Roughriders franchise quarterback Darian Durant. Jones traded Durant to the Alouettes in January as part of a huge effort to retool the Roughriders.

    After Crapigna missed his kick, Durant gave a big celebration directed at the Roughriders bench. Jones walked off the field looking more upset than normal after the setback. It was obvious from their respective reactions and both Durant and Jones have personal upset feelings regarding the end of Durant’s time in Saskatchewan.

    With all that said, the CFL regular season is a marathon and not a sprint due to the fact every club plays 18 regular season games. The Roughriders return to action this coming Saturday, when they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at 7 p.m. at new Mosaic Stadium.

    The piece I wrote on the Roughriders for the Express can be found here.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Nogier took big strides as a rookie pro with Moose and Jets

Nelson Nogier signs autographs as part of a charity event in Saskatoon.

    Nelson Nogier couldn’t ask for much more in his rookie year of professional hockey.

    The 21-year-old defensive defenceman spent most of rookie campaign playing for the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose appearing in 60 games collecting two goals, 11 assists and a minus-five rating in the plus-minus department. The Moose are the farm club of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets
    On March 21, the Saskatoon product made his NHL debut with the Jets, and he helped them pull out a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

    Nogier appeared in 10 games with the Jets posting a minus-one rating.

    “It was an unreal experience,” said Nogier, who played four complete seasons in the WHL with his hometown Saskatoon Blades and Red Deer Rebels. “The learning curve and the development process was sped up so much throughout those 10 games that I was up there.

    “I was able to soak in and learn a lot to try and set myself up here for a good summer.”

    Nogier experienced his first big highlight in his first professional regular season game. On Oct. 14, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa, Nogier fired home his first goal helping the visiting Moose down the Iowa Wild 3-1. He scored by keeping things simple.

    “Ryan Olsen passed me the puck out of the corner, and I just pulled it to the middle and threw it on net,” said Nogier. “Sure enough, it went in.”

Nelson Nogier during his days with the Saskatoon Blades.

    Like he did during his time with the Blades and Rebels, Nogier, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 191 pounds, focused on being solid in his own zone and becoming more consistent in his defensive game. He performed well enough that near the end of the campaign he received the break all rookie pros hope for.

    As injuries piled up on the Jets blue-line, Nogier received his call up to the big club.
    The night before he made his NHL debut he called his father, Pat, and mother, Lori, to tell them about the news. Both were able to make it to Winnipeg to see their son play his first regular season game with the big club and also receive some air time on TSN’s broadcast.

    The son will never forget that day.

    “It was amazing,” said Nogier. “For me, that was a dream come true, but to be able to share that with my parents who have had such an important role in my life, it is something that I will cherish forever.

    “Everything about it was kind of a whirlwind. It happened so fast. You’re kind of star struck at times, but you just try to be comfortable about it and go out there and play your game.”

    Another memory wasn’t a total highlight, but it was something Nogier laughs about afterwards. In the second period of a Jets 4-3 home ice overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks, Nogier had his first NHL fight taking on veteran heavyweight forward Jared Boll.

    Boll nailed Jets defenceman Mark Stuart with a high elbow, and Nogier came to the aid of his defence partner. The fight was a short one as Nogier walked into a right hand punch from Boll and went down.

    The rookie came out of that tussle unscathed despite being schooled by the veteran.

    “That was a tough situation,” said Nogier. “It was kind of a high hit on my D-partner, and I tried to step in for him and show the boys that I would be willing to step in for him when I needed to.

Nelson Nogier during his days with the Red Deer Rebels.

    “I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into, but I just tried to hang in there for as long as I could, even though it was a pretty short while.”

    Overall, Nogier was satisfied with his first professional season.

    “It was a good development year for me,” said Nogier, who collected eight goals, 42 assists and 196 minutes in penalties in 235 career regular season games in the WHL. “I came in there from making the jump from junior into the AHL.

    “I did real well and kind of got comfortable with the role I was set to play with the Moose and then obviously earn myself an opportunity where I could try and show that I could play at the next level as well. I just tried to make the most of the opportunity and go from there.”

    Now the hope will be to have a longer stay at the NHL level in his second season of professional hockey.

    “You don’t want to get your hopes to, too, high,” said Nogier. “You never know what you are going to get thrown at when you come into camp.

    “It is just going to be a matter of me making sure I have a strong summer of training here and setting myself up to be in a good position when I come into camp.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com. It should be noted that Nogier is my young cousin, and I do cherish the opportunities to write a piece like this.