Brennan Sonne and the Saskatoon Blades coaching staff have
been rewarded on the power play and penalty kill by showing faith in their
players.
That approach has allowed the Blades to have two of the best
special teams units in the WHL. On Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre, the
Blades seemingly had the upper hand going up a man or down a man against the
visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Blades finished 2-for-6 on the power play and were
successful on the three penalty kills the faced skating to a sound 5-1 regular
season victory before 3,615 spectators. On the season, the Blades have gone
69-for-241 on the power play for a 28.6 per cent success rate that is good for second
in the WHL, and they’ve gone 188-for-226 on the penalty kill for an 83.2 per
cent success rate.
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| Charlie Wright (#47) fires home a power-play goal for the Blades. |
“It is the players,” said Sonne, who is the Blades second
year head coach. “You can say whatever you want about coaching or whatever.
“We have good players that execute what we give them.”
Sonne said the Blades preparation work for the power play
and penalty kill actually isn’t done that much on the ice but more in a
classroom type setting.
“We don’t really practise it that much honestly,” said Sonne.
“We haven’t practiced the penalty kill except once this year.
“It is all done in video. Power play, we’ll practice maybe
once every couple of weeks, but that is mostly done in video as well.”
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| Charlie Wright scored his first power-goal of the season on Saturday. |
The Blades slick power play got going at the 6:20 mark of
the opening frame to open the game’s scoring. On that opportunity with the man
advantage, the Blades players gave a look that hadn’t been seen yet this
season.
Blades star left-winger Jake Chiasson had the puck at the
left side of the Lethbridge goal and passed the puck across the face of the net
to 19-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright, who had pinched down from the point
to the right side doorstep of the net.
Wright, who is more known as a defensive-defenceman, got the
puck and promptly fired home a power-play marker past a sprawling Hurricanes
20-year-old netminder Bryan Thomson. The tally was the sixth of the season for
Wright and his first that came on the power play.
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| Jayden Wiens scored on the power play for the Blades on Saturday. |
At the 3:23 mark of the second, the Blades pushed their
advantage out to 2-0, when Chiasson put home a backhand shot from the front of
the Lethbridge goal for his 19
th tally of the season.
The Blades power play struck again at the 9:49 mark of the
second on a beauty tick-tack-toe passing play. Star left-winger Brandon
Lisowsky and star import right-winger Egor Sidorov combined to get the puck to
centre Jayden Wiens at the doorstep at the left side of the Lethbridge goal.
Wiens directed home his 10th power-play tally of
the season to put the Blades up 3-0.
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| Conner Roulette had a pair of assists for the Blades on Saturday. |
Blades veteran star all-around defenceman and captain Aidan
De La Gorgendiere, who turned 21-years-old in late February, is a regular on both
the power play and penalty killing units. He said the Blades players pick up
what their coaches are teaching in a prompt fashion, and that has made the club’s
special teams units roll.
“I think our group in the dressing room learns pretty
quickly,” said De La Gorgendiere, who has four power-play goals and 28
power-play assists this season. “I feel like our penalty kill has been
excellent this year.
“Hopefully, we can keep that going. For our power play, I
just feel like we have a lot of chemistry going on right now with Liso
(Lisowsky) and me, Wonger (Trevor Wong) and Sido (Sidorov) and Wiener (Wiens)
at the net front there. I think we know where each other are and our positions.
.JPG) |
| Egor Sidorov had a goal and an assist for the Blades on Saturday. |
“It is working out right now.”
With 7:09 remaining in the second, Sidorov sniped home his
38th tally of the season from the front of the Lethbridge net to give the
Blades a 4-0 advantage heading into the second period. De La Gorgendiere scored
on a point shot at the 4:39 mark of the third to push the Blades lead out to
5-0.
Hurricanes rookie defenceman Tristen Doyle scored with 64
seconds remaining in the third to spoil the Blades bid to collect a shutout.
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| Ethan Chadwick picked up his 20th win of the season. |
Ethan Chadwick stopped 19 shots to pick up the win in goal
for the Blades, which was his 20th victory of the season. Thomson turned away 29 shots to take the setback in net for the
Hurricanes.
Conner Roulette and Jordan Keller each had a pair of assists for the Blades.
In 2021-22, the Blades were ranked seventh on both the power
play and penalty kill, which was Sonne’s first campaign with the team as head
coach. The Blades went 68-for-283 on the power play for a 24.0 per cent success
rate and went 179-for-223 on the penalty kill for an 80.3 per cent success
rate.
Right-winger Vanghn Watterodt and centre Lukas Hansen had
been the go-to pairing to play forward on the penalty kill for the Blades.
Sonne said Watterodt and Hansen really take ownership in that part of the game
and the rest of the players on the Saskatoon roster look forward to getting
time on special teams.
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| Aidan De La Gorgendiere scored for the Blades on Saturday. |
“(Vaughn) Watterodt and (Lukas) Hansen have the most penalty
kill shifts for forwards, and it is role that they relish,” said Sonne. “As
soon as we get a penalty, both of those guys are looking at me like, ‘Can we go?
Can we block shots?’
“It is the same with the power play. (Egor) Sidorov is
probably going to have to wear a neck brace at some point, because every time
we get a power play he is looking at me. We have good players.
“We have dedicated players that are coachable and they
execute what they need to.”
De La Gorgendiere said the Blades players love the faith the
coaches show in them, and he believe the players prove that faith is well
deserved.
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| Jake Chiasson had a goal and an assist for the Blades on Saturday. |
“I think it shows a good sign of a good hockey team and a
team that is coachable as well,” said De La Gorgendiere. “Our team is really
tight.
“We help each other out if people don’t understand systems
or what not. I think we figure it out, and we get the job done.”
Sidorov leads the Blades with 15 power-play goals, while
Lisowsky sits second on the team with 12 power-play tallies. Chiasson is sitting
with eight power-play goals, and he could join Sidorov, Lisowsky and Wiens as
the fourth player on the club with 10-or-more power-play goals.
 |
| Trevor Wong leads the Blades with 29 power-play assists. |
Wong tops the Blades in power-play assists with 29.
On the statistical front, Sonne said he went to a coach’s
conference about 10 years ago and remembers long time NHL head coach Ken Hitchcock
talking about how he targeted his team’s power play and penalty kill
percentages to add up to 105. The Blades try to shoot for that combined number.
Last season, the Blades special teams percentages added up
to 104.3, and this year they currently sit at 111.8.
“At the same time, we dig deeper than that,” said Sonne. “We’re
digging into scoring chances per penalty kill that we’re allowing, scoring
chances per power play that we’re creating.
 |
| Jordan Keller had a pair of assists for the Blades. |
“If you are not giving up a lot chance wise on your penalty kill,
your percentage by the end of the year will be good. Vice versa with the power
play, if you are creating a good amount of chances per power play you’re your power
play percentage will be really good.”
The Blades work on special teams has allowed them to win
their last four straight and gain standing points in nine straight contests off
eight wins and one overtime time setback. That has allowed the Blades to vault
to third in the WHL’s overall standings with a 41-13-4-1 record.
The Hurricanes fell to 32-22-3-3 to sit fifth overall in the
WHL’s Eastern Conference.
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| Brandon Lisowsky dishes off a pass for the Blades. |
The Blades get back on it Sunday when they travel to Regina
to take on Connor Bedard and the Pats (4 p.m., Brandt Centre).
That contest
concludes a stretch were both teams will have played three games in three
nights.
The Hurricanes return to action on Wednesday when they
travel to Red Deer to take on the Rebels (7 p.m. local time, Peavey Mart
Centrium).
While the Blades will be looking to have another stellar outing
on special teams against the Pats, Sonne said it has been big his club has been
able to roll all four forward line and all three defensive pairs the past two
games with having to play three games in three nights.
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| Tanner Molendyk dives to break up a pass for the Blades. |
He believes that will
benefit his club against the Pats.
“It is really important specifically with our schedule,”
said Sonne. “At the same time when you’re healthy for our group, we are really
deep too.
“We have lines that we trust. We trust all four lines too.
When you have that, it is an asset, because you don’t wear guys out.
“You don’t over tax guys. Everyone has a roll. Everyone
feels they are a part of it, which is really important for us.”
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| The Blades celebrate their win on Saturday. |
NOTES – The Blades
wore special PAW Patrol jerseys on Saturday as part of the team’s Nickelodeon
Night as part of a WHL promotion to raise funds for Children’s Miracle Network.
The funds raised go to support children’s hospitals in Western Canada and the
special Nickelodeon jerseys are auctioned off online. The jersey auction ends
on Sunday, March 12 at 12 p.m. and those looking to take part in the online
action can do so by clicking right here.
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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.JPG)
