Blades had good return to full season play

Injuries prevented Saskatoon from realizing more potential

The Blades celebrate a goal on March 25.

While the injury bug was a big foe, Saskatoon Blades had a respectable campaign playing their first full regular season since 2018-19.

In 2021-22, the Blades finished fifth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 38-26-3-1 regular season record. With one more standings point, the Blades would placed fourth in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and earned home ice advantage for a first round playoff series.

The WHL wasn’t able to play any complete regular seasons or crown league champions in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that gripped the world. The CHL didn’t crown any Memorial Cup champions in either of those campaigns too.

When the WHL Playoffs came around following the completion of the 2021-22 regular season, the Blades found themselves taking on the Moose Jaw Warriors. The Warriors finished fourth overall in the Eastern Conference with a 37-24-4-3 mark to just edge out the Blades with 81 standings points to 80.

Saskatoon won six out of the eight head-to-head meetings between the two sides in the regular season. The Warriors claimed a best-of-seven post-season series 4-1.

Moose Jaw clinched the series with a 6-3 victory at home in Mosaic Place in Game 5 on April 29. The Warriors have to be credited with building a skilled younger roster that played well together in the series against the Blades.

The Blades had a fairly young roster too, and they had some skilled youngsters too that came along way.

Kyle Crnkovic was the Blades leading scorer.

Left-winger Brandon Lisowsky appeared in all 68 of the Blades regular season games in his 17-year-old campaign piling up 33 goals and 25 assists to go with a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department.

Rookie 17-year-old import left-winger Egor Sidorov made noise potting 23 goals and 12 assists appearing in 58 regular season games.

Defenceman Tanner Molendyk skated through his 16-year-old season, and he has potential to be one of the better rearguards on the WHL circuit. He had three goals, 15 assists and a minus-six rating in 55 regular season games, but he showed he could play a high volume of minutes when injuries added up.

When it came to the injury department, Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk calculated the club lost 250 man games due to injury in 2021-22. Blades first-year head coach Brennan Sonne had to lament all the line juggled he had to perform due to necessity.

When playoffs came around, the Blades were without captain and star offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere, who had season ending shoulder surgery. During his 19-year-old season, De La Gorgendiere appeared in 54 regular season games for the Blades posting four goals and 41 assists.

He last played on March 25, when the Blades downed the visiting Regina Pats 3-1 at the SaskTel Centre.

Star overage centre Tristen Robins, who finished the campaign as the Blades captain when De La Gorgendiere wasn’t able to comeback, missed the Blades last four regular season games due to injury and their first two playoff contests.

Robins, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks, suited up for the Blades last three post-season games playing only on the power play with a hobbled ankle. In 62 regular season games, Robins recorded 33 goals, 45 assists and a plus-four rating. He was only a shadow of that type of player in the post-season due to his ankle injury.

Tristen Robins had 33 goals and 45 assists for the Blades.

The Blades came out of the gate with a hot start posting a 9-2-1 record. Struggles took hold of the team at that point.

Following a 4-1 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders on home ice on Dec. 18, 2021, the Blades found themselves heading into the Christmas break with a 15-13-1 mark. At that point, the fact that about two-thirds of the Blades roster had never been through a full 68-game regular season became apparent.

There were a lot of guys that ran out of gas and played on fumes, when the schedule turned to November.

After returning from the Christmas Break, the Blades and the rest of the WHL had their troubles with players, coaches and staff dealing with COVID-19. Most of the WHL was shut down for the first two weeks of January, which included the Blades not playing any games between Jan. 1 and Jan. 14.

Blades rugged overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart found himself on the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List for a short span.

There was a period of time ranging from three-and-a-half to four weeks during the campaign when Blades general manager Colin Priestner was down due to COVID.

Despite the challenges, the Blades rallied on the ice and had a 29-18-2-1 record when February came to a close.

Over the Blades last 18 regular season games, injuries really started to pile up. 

Rhett Rhinehart gave the Blades a physical presence.

By the time a 7-0 loss to the Warriors in Moose Jaw ended on March 26, the Blades were down eight regulars due to injury including all four regular centres in Robins, Jayden Wiens, Trevor Wong and Josh Pillar.

When the playoffs came around, the Blades were relatively healthy outside of the big exceptions that De La Gorgendiere was out and Robins played the club’s last three post-season games being limited physically due to his ankle injury. Besides the injury battles, the campaign had its highlights.

On April 8, Blades overage star netminder Nolan Maier made 20 saves in a 2-0 win over the visiting Prince Albert Raiders to move alone into top spot on the WHL’s all-time career regular season goaltending wins list with his 121^st victory. 

He finished his regular season career with 122 victories.

Maier had a strong final campaign with the Blades posting a 31-23-4 record, a 2.82 goals against average, a .910 save percentage and three shutouts.

Blades star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic, who was skating through his 19-year-old season, finished fifth in the WHL’s regular season scoring race piling up 94 points on 39 goals and 55 assists to go with an even rating. Crnkovic’s goal, assist and point totals were all career highs, and he was the Blades leading scorer.

With the 2021-22 campaign at an end for the Blades, they of course graduate Maier, Robins and Rhinehart due to the fact they age out of the major junior ranks.

The Blades celebrate a win on April 15.

There were some fans that gripped on social media with classic moans about the Blades lack of post-season success that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic caused shutdowns in March of 2020. Those moans are misplaced due to what has happened in the world since March of 2020, but some upset fans will continue their upset fandom no matter what happens in the world, while conveniently forgetting they cried about having no Blades hockey to watch during shutdowns.

The Blades have the potential to return a strong roster for the upcoming 2022-23 campaign and will have a more regular off-season to prepare for the next season.

Going forward, there should be some well-placed optimism about the future looking good for the Blades.

Oil Kings deal Rebels major blow with OT win, other notes

Jake Neighbours scored the OT winner for the Oil Kings.

Captain Jake Neighbours’ overtime goal might be a blow the Red Deer Rebels can’t come back from.

On Monday before 3,506 spectators at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer, Neighbours, who is a star left-winger, scored his first goal of the post-season at the 7:17 mark of overtime to deliver his Edmonton Oil Kings to a 5-4 victory over the Rebels in Game 3 of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series between the two sides.

With the win, the Oil Kings took a stranglehold 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven set. The favoured Oil Kings will try to close out the series against the Rebels in Game 4 on Wednesday set for 7 p.m. local time at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

Luke Prokop, Dylan Guenther, Carter Souch and Justin Sourdif all had singles in regulation for the Oil Kings. Liam Keeler, Kalan Lind, Arshdeep Bains and Jhett Larson replied with singles for the Rebels in regulation.

Edmonton had a 4-2 lead, but Bains scored with 7:10 remaining in the third and Larson potted the equalizer with 6:34 to play in the third to force overtime.

The Rebels comeback wasn’t to be as Neighbours netted the overtime winner.

Sebastian Cossa made 18 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings. Connor Unger turned away 47 shots to take the setback in net for the Rebels despite a valiant effort to steal the game.

On Monday, Cossa was named the WHL’s goaltender of the week for the week ending on Sunday. He captured the weekly award having shutout the Rebels in the first two games of the series.

Last Thursday, Cossa made 18 saves as the Oil Kings downed the Rebels 4-0 in Game 1 of the series at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Cossa followed that up with a 26 save performance last Saturday as the Oil Kings blanked the Rebels 5-0 in Game 2 of the series also played at Rogers Place.

The WHL’s conference semifinal round could potentially be a quick one. In the other Eastern Conference semifinal, the Winnipeg Ice, the WHL’s top club in the regular season, hold a 2-0 series lead over the Moose Jaw Warriors.

In the Western Conference, the favoured Kamloops Blazers lead the Vancouver Giants 2-0 in one semifinal series, and the favoured Portland Winterhawks lead the Seattle Thunderbirds 2-0 in the other semifinal series.

• On Monday, Winnipeg Ice left-winger Owen Pederson was named the WHL’s player of the week for the week ending on May 8. He had a goal and four assists helping the Ice win the first two games of their WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
• On Monday, Kelowna Rockets import right-winger Pavel Novak signed an NHL entry-level contract with the Minnesota Wild. The Wild selected Novak in the fifth round and 146^th overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Novak, who turned 20-years-old on April 16, appeared in 62 regular season games for the Rockets in 2021-22 recording 29 goals, 43 assists and a plus-26 rating in the plus-minus department.
• Last Wednesday, Mitch Love, who is the head coach of the Stockton Heat, was named the AHL’s coach of the year. Love guided the Heat to a first place finish in the Pacific Division with a 46-16-5-2 record. The 46 victories is a regular season record for the Heat along with the team’s 97 standings points. The division title win was a first in Heat franchise history. Before joining the Heat, Love was the head coach of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades for three seasons.
• I put together new content for the Gordie Howe Sports Complex’s Howe Happenings blog that went live on Monday. I created a piece called “Home is where the heart is for Neufeld – O-lineman finds stomping grounds in Sask. and the ’Peg.” It is a catch up piece with Winnipeg Blue Bombers star offensive lineman Patrick Neufeld, who is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Football team from the U Sports ranks. That article can be found by clicking right here. I also created a photo roundup that can be found 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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Blades had closer to normal season with unique challenges

Reflections on campaign, recent years go in many directions

The Blades celebrate a win at the SaskTel Centre on April 15.

While they played a full regular season with playoffs, the Saskatoon Blades admit the 2021-22 campaign was still another season like no other due to factors beyond the team’s control.

Even two days after Saskatoon was eliminated from the WHL Playoffs in a 6-3 loss to the Warriors in Moose Jaw in Game 5 of a best-of-seven first round series, the Blades team members all seem to have their own unique spins on what happened this past season and the past two years. Due to challenges associated with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, there were no WHL Playoffs in 2020 and 2021 for the Blades to take part in.

The Memorial Cup tournament to crown a CHL champion was nixed in both of those years too.

The 2019-20 season was flowing like normal and the Blades had a 34-24-2-3 record in the regular season before all action in the campaign was halted by the league on March 12, 2020. The Blades played an abbreviated 24-game regular season in a bubble environment in Regina against the WHL’s other four Saskatchewan franchises and two Manitoba clubs in March and April of 2021 to account for a 2020-21 campaign.

The Blades posted a 16-5-2-1 record playing in that special situation.

Rhett Rhinehart motors up ice for the Blades.

Going into the 2021-22 season, the Blades were trying to play their first full campaign since 2018-19. They played all 68 of their regular season games finishing fifth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 38-26-3-1 mark before falling to the Warriors 4-1 in a best-of-seven set.

On Sunday, the Blades hosted the local area media for a season ending presser. The standard talk about hockey was there regarding the series against the Warriors, injuries to key players, what the team will look like next year and what the future has in store for the graduating players.

Still, specter of the COVID-19 pandemic was there, and the Blades had to adjust to wrenches that were thrown their way there. That included almost all of the WHL getting put on pause for the first two weeks of January causing games to be rescheduled pushing the end date for the regular season from April 3 to April 17.

“It is a what if year, but it is also a year I’m just honestly grateful for that we got through it,” said Blades general manager Colin Priestner. “I had COVID for three-and-a-half to four weeks where I couldn’t even get out of bed or walk up the stairs.

“Every day, we had one or two new players getting it. It wasn’t like we got it all over with in one weekend. Every week there were the COVID tests over and over and over.

“We had nights with nobody here (in the stands at the SaskTel Centre), because there was COVID going around the city so much. I’m grateful we got a season in.”

Nolan Maier has a WHL record 122 career regular season wins.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said it felt normal from the standpoint the team got a full regular season and playoffs in. On top of missing players due to COVID-19 illness, the Blades dealt with numerous injuries throughout the campaign.

Sonne made the analogy that he saw himself being a circus clown due to the fact he was always juggling the team’s lines due to players being out due to injury or illness.

“That is not easy, because your lineup is different every night,” said Sonne. “It is not ideal to be juggling lines all the time.

“You want guys to get some consistency together, some comradery, to jell and all those words. You kind of want that. When you win a game, you want to kind of just roll the lineup the next night as well, and we really couldn’t do that like ever.”

Sonne said it was an adjustment to play a full 68-game regular season once again after playing two abbreviated campaigns. The Blades carried three overage players and had five players skating in their 19-year-old seasons on their final roster.

Due to the fact any type of hockey season was abbreviated including the under-AAA and junior A campaigns in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sonne had more players than ever on his roster experiencing a full 68-game regular season for the first time.

“Guys wore down,” said Sonne. “Guys wore out.

Tristen Robins is signed by the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.

“It was pretty obvious to us as coaches. It happened at different times with different guys. We knew guys were worn out, because guys coming from (under-18 AAA) where they maybe in COVID they played what 10, 15 games, 20 maybe and they’re 16.

“Now they’re coming into 68 with travel and school.”

As far as the post-season was concerned, Sonne believed nerves got the better of his younger player, and the team had good energy going into their series with the Warriors. Still, the bench boss said the grind during the regular season was a challenge.

“It is grind, and guys definitely got worn out,” said Sonne. “There was no question.”

Blades overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart said he was still mulling over how this past season and everything dating back to March 12, 2020 have played out. 

While he was happy the Blades returned to action, he admits he wondered what might have been in the two post-seasons that were nixed due to COVID-19 and thinks about special moments that could have happened from time to time.

“There are a few ways you can look at it,” said Rhinehart. “For me, one thing I think about was having the shortened season.

“I missed 15 games this year with injuries. I finished with 261 regular season games in the Western Hockey League. You play a full season last year and a little more healthy this year like I would have played over 300 (games).

Blades HC Brennan Sonne, back left, gives direction in a timeout.

“You have those little milestones and things like that you think about. I definitely think there are things we missed out on with COVID there.”

Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier, who holds the WHL’s career regular season goaltending wins record with 122 victories, took the glass half full approach when it came to reflecting on everything that happened since March 12, 2020.

“I think we’re the lucky ones, and we are grateful for even getting to play hockey,” said Maier. “I know a lot of guys who weren’t able to.

“There was no point of being kind of bummed out about some things not happening. I’m just grateful that things did happen.”

Blades overage captain and star centre Tristen Robins said he felt fortunate and had a lot of fun playing the abbreviated 2020-21 campaign in the bubble in Regina. Robins, who was hobbled in the post-season with an injured ankle, said was thankful that his WHL career ended where his team played a full regular season and playoffs.

He thought everyone on the team did their best adjusting to factors beyond their control since March 12, 2020 as far as the COVID-19 pandemic was concerned.

“It happened,” said Robins, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks. “We were all in that together.

Nolan Maier, left, and Tristen Robins hug after a win on Feb. 27.

“It affected everyone differently. At the same time, it was tragic on many people. Fortunately enough, we still got to play the game we love, and you guys (the assembled media) got to do your jobs reporting it as well.”

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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Warriors whack Blades out of WHL Playoffs

Moose Jaw advances with 6-3 victory in Game 5

Jagger Firkus had two goals and an assist for the Warriors on Friday.

The Moose Jaw Warriors put on a performance that would have had the locals partying the night away at the Rocking Royal in the old days of “The Crushed Can.”

On Friday, the Warriors downed the visiting Saskatoon Blades 6-3 in Game 5 of a WHL first round playoff series between the two sides played before 3,364 pumped up spectators at Mosaic Place. The victory allowed the Warriors to claim the best-of-seven series against the Blades 4-1.

The Warriors now wait to see who they will play in an Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Back in the days when the Warriors skated in their old long time the Moose Jaw Civic Centre, which was also known as “The Crushed Can,” a Friday night series win would have had the locals in Moose Jaw scurrying off to the Rocking Royal bar located in the Royal Hotel to celebrate the victory well into the early hours of the next morning.

Both the Civic Centre and the Royal Hotel have long been demolished, but locals can still enjoy Friday’s victory moment in pubs that are in walking distance of the Warriors current downtown rink home.

While the Warriors took the series-clinching contest against the Blades by a comfortable margin on the scoreboard, the Game 5 clash between the two sides was an intense one that had a bit of a rivalry feel to it.

The Warriors came flying out of the gate to start Friday’s game. At the 5:55 mark of the opening frame, Warriors star centre Brayden Yager centred the puck from behind the Saskatoon goal to star right-winger Jagger Firkus, and Firkus blasted home the game’s first goal to give the host side a 1-0 edge.

Denton Mateychuk had the Warriors second goal in Game 5.

At the 9:08 mark, Firkus, who was celebrating his 18^th birthday on Friday, teamed with Warriors star right-winger Ryder Korczak to set up offensive-defenceman Denton Mateychuk for a power-play goal that gave Moose Jaw a 2-0 advantage. Mateychuk wired home his first of the post-season from just above the left faceoff circle in the Saskatoon zone.

Before the opening frame drew to a close, the Blades got a traction moment to get back into the game. While working on the power play, Blades standout left-winger Brandon Lisowsky fired a shot that was deflected by star centre Josh Pillar and then was accidently knocked into the Moose Jaw net by the hand of Warriors left-winger Calder Anderson.

Pillar ultimately got credit for the goal that cut the Warriors lead to 2-1 with 5:58 remaining in the first.

The Warriors restored their two-goal advantage at the 8:52 mark of the second. Mateychuk fired a shot from the point that rebounded out to Firkus at the left side of the Saskatoon goal. Firkus slipped in his second marker to increase the Warriors edge to 3-1.

The rivalry showed up 40 seconds after Firkus’s second tally of the contest as Blades left-winger Josh Paulhus engaged Warriors import left-winger Robert Baco in a fight.

With seven minutes remaining in the second, the Blades were buzzing in the Warriors zone. Blades import left-winger Egor Sidorov made a backhanded pass to Pillar, who was positioned for a midrange shot straight out from the left post of the Moose Jaw goal.

Tristen Robins had an assist for the Blades on Friday.

Pillar blasted a shot through a screen for his second marker of the contest that cut the Warriors lead to 3-2.

At the start of the third, the Blades found themselves on the penalty kill. During that kill, they had a huge chance to score the equalizer as centre Trevor Wong found himself on a short-handed breakaway, but he was stoned trying to shoot the puck between the legs of Warriors overage star netminder Carl Tetachuk.

Moose Jaw then got a goal from rookie right-winger Thomas Tien, who was skating in his first WHL playoff game. Tien corralled a long flip pass to get sprung into the Saskatoon zone on a breakaway.

He snapped home his first career WHL post-season goal at the 5:26 mark of the third to restore the Warriors two-goal edge at 4-2.

Again, the Blades wouldn’t back down. With 7:13 remaining in the third, Blades right-winger Noah Boyko had the puck in the left corner of the Moose Jaw zone. He centred the puck to Wong, who blasted home his first of the post-season to cut the Warriors lead to 4-3.

With 3:38 remaining in the third, the Warriors finally got the dagger goal that put the game away, when centre Atley Calvert knocked home his second of the playoffs from the front of the Saskatoon goal after collecting the rebound from a point shot taken by Mateychuk.

Baco rounded out the 6-3 final scoring a long range empty-net goal for the Warriors from his own blue-line with 1:51 remaining in the third.

Robert Baco scored a long range empty-net goal for the Warriors.

Tempers proceeded to flare up with the issue decided on the scoreboard as a scrum broke out with a minute remaining in the third. Out of that scrum, Wiens and Tien engaged in a fight.

Inside of the final seven seconds of the third, the officials gave Blades overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart a 10-minute misconduct, when he started to get a little testy on the ice.

Tetachuk made 26 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Warriors. Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier turned away 35-of-40 shots to take the setback in net for Saskatoon.

The loss brought an end to the WHL careers of Maier, Rhinehart and Blades overage captain Tristen Robins, who all age out of the major junior ranks. Robins picked up an assist in the Game 5 loss on Friday.

During the regular season, the Warriors collected 81 standings points to finish fourth overall in the Eastern Conference with a 37-24-4-3 mark. They just edged out the Blades, who finished fifth in the Eastern Conference with 80 standings points coming from a 38-26-3-1 record.

Saskatoon had won six of the eight head-to-head meetings in the regular season with Moose Jaw, but that type of result didn’t materialize in the playoffs.

The Warriors seemed to want the post-season series just a touch more than the Blades did, and it was noticeable on the ice. 

Nolan Maier made 35 saves for the Blades on Friday.

That little extra jump has the Warriors advancing onward on the WHL playoff trail.

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Family ties makes Blades career special for Robins

Tristen Robins (#11) eyes up a tribute video standing next to his dad, Trevor.

Growing up in Brandon, Man., Tristen Robins said his father, Trevor, divulged small pieces of his memorable past with the Saskatoon Blades.

“He shared a little bit growing up about his time with the Blades,” said Tristen, whose is the 20-year-old captain of the current Blades team. “It was nothing too in depth.

“It was nothing too crazy. I think it was his last year with the Blades where they went on a really far run and ended up losing in the finals, came up a little short. It is pretty cool to even just play for the same organization that my father did.”

Tristen Robin’s WHL rights were originally held by the Regina Pats, who selected him in the fourth round and 76 overall in what was then known as the WHL Bantam Draft. The skilled centre’s WHL rights were acquired in a blockbuster trade on January 8, 2018, when Robins was in his 16-year-old season.

The Pats were loading up their roster that season due to being the host team for the Memorial Cup tournament that crowns a CHL champion. They acquired Blades 19-year-old import Czech defenceman Libor Hajek, who had a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, in exchange for 19-year-old defenceman Dawson Davidson, Robins, and a first round selection in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft.

Robins suited up in one game before the trade with the Pats and dressed for his first three games as a member of the Blades as the 2017-18 campaign played to a conclusion. He became a full-time member of the team in his 17-year-old season and rose to star status in 2019-20 putting up 33 goals, 40 assists and a plus-16 rating in the plus-minus department appearing in 62 games with the Blades.

Tristen Robins has 200 points in regular season play with the Blades.

Following that season, Robins would be selected in the second round and 56^th overall by the San Jose Sharks in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. He would later sign an NHL entry-level contract with the Sharks.

In total, Robins has played in 211 career regular season games with the Blades posting 85 goals and 115 assists for 200 points.

Robins is skating through his final season as a member of the Blades, and he would like create a lasting post-season memory with the team like his father did.

The younger Robins has one last chance to do that as the Blades (38-26-3-1) begin play in the WHL Playoffs taking on the Warriors (37-24-4-3) in Moose Jaw in Game 1 of a best-of-seven first round series on Friday at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place. 

The Warriors finished fourth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 81 standings points just edging out the fifth-place Blades by a single point.

Robins missed the Blades last four regular season games due to injury but is probable for Game 1 of the playoffs against the Warriors.

“I would love to go as far as we can eventually, you know hopefully, win a championship,” said Tristen Robins. “It is my last kick at the can here, so I’m going to do everything I can here to help lead this team to a championship.”

Tristen Robins had a career high 78 points this season.

Way back at the start of the 1989-90 season, Trevor has been in training camp with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings before being cut. He was quickly picked up by the Blades and made the team as a 17-year-old rookie backing up overager Damon Kustra.

Kustra ultimately was dogged by an abdominal muscle injury, and Trevor found himself in the starting role. Trevor posted a 21-21-1 record, a 4.66 goals against average, a .861 save percentage and one shutout helping the Blades make the playoffs with a record of 33 wins 34 loss and 5 ties.

In the high scoring 1980s and early 1990s, Trevor’s statistics were viewed as being good.

The Blades advanced to the second round to play a best-of-seven series against the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who topped the Eastern Conference with a 51-17-4 record. The Hurricanes took a 3-0 lead in the series, but with Robins in goal outside of a short stretch in Game 5, the Blades rallied to even the series at 3-3.

The Hurricanes claimed Game 7 in overtime 4-3 with the winning tally coming from Neil Hawryluk.

The Blades missed the playoffs in Trevor’s second season in 1990-91, but returned to the post-season with a 38-29-5 record in 1991-92. Trevor was named a first team Eastern Conference all-star posting a 24-23-2 record, a 3.50 goals against average and a .884 save percentage.

Saskatoon advanced to the best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference Championship series against their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders, who finished second overall in the WHL with a 50-20-2 mark. The Blades fell behind 2-1 in the series.

Tristen Robins (#11) smiles after scoring a goal on March 25.

In a critical Game 4, Robins made 29 saves to back the Blades to a 2-1 victory before 9,452 spectators at the SaskTel Centre. The Blades used the momentum from that win to take the next two games of the series for a 4-2 victory in the best-of-seven set to advance to the WHL Final.

In the WHL Final, the Blades faced the Kamloops Blazers, who posted the league’s best record at 51-17-4. The Blades fell in a hard-fought series that went seven games to a Blazers squad that went on to win their first of three Memorial Cup titles in four years as CHL champions.

Trevor completed his major junior career with his hometown Wheat Kings in 1992-92 being once again named a WHL first team Eastern Conference all-star posting a 36-17-4 record, a 3.15 goals against average, a .904 save percentage and two shutouts.

Following that one campaign with the Wheat Kings, Trevor played three seasons in the minor system of the San Jose Sharks after signing a free agent contract with the NHL club. That same Sharks side ultimately drafted and signed Tristen in 2020.

As for Tristen, he has enjoyed his time with the Blades and appreciates hearing old stories from Saskatoon residents about his dad from when he played with the team. The son got a laugh out of hearing how Trevor got kicked out of the Blades Game 5 win in Lethbridge in their 1990 second round playoff series with the Hurricanes.

With the Blades up 6-5 late in the second period, Blades defenceman Mark Wotton was engaged in a fight with Hurricanes rearguard Pat Pylypuik. Trevor got involved in the altercation trying to both break it up and pull Wotton away from the fisticuffs.

Tristen Robins has a signed contract with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.

The officials ruled Trevor was the third man in on the fight booted him from the game, which the Blades would take by a 7-6 final.

Tristen said Trevor talking glowingly of the crowds especially the massive turnouts that came to see the Blades during playoff time that often saw over 10,000 spectators pack into the SaskTel Centre.

“He just said it was crazy back then,” said Robins. “We’re getting glimpses of that this year with the great crowds that we are getting.

“I’m super excited for what is to come.”

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne, who is in his first season with the organization, said Robins has been valuable to the club in many ways both on and off the ice. Sonne has been impressed with how Robins has shouldered the role of becoming captain late in the campaign.

On March 30, the Blades announced offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere, who is the team’s captain, needed season ending shoulder surgery and wouldn’t be available to return to the team until the start of training camp next season. Robins was given the role of captain for the rest of the current campaign.

“Just like anything, your actions much louder than your words,” said Sonne. “I think Robby has internalized that a little bit.

Tristen Robins will be skating in his last post-season with the Blades.

“I thought he led the way in terms of dig in, buy in and all that kind of stuff. It is really unfortunate that we lost De La (Gorgendiere). We wish him the best with his surgery and recovery.

“Again, we still have a group, and we put in a lot of time. Robby has stepped up to be that central leadership figure for the players.”

Robins is having his best season during his final campaign in the major junior ranks. In 62 appearances with the Blades, he has posted 33 goals and 45 assists for 78 points and his assist and point totals were career highs. He also has a plus-four rating.

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world, Robins wasn’t able to skate in any post-season action in 2020 and 2021, because the WHL wasn’t able to hold playoffs due to challenges with the pandemic. The Memorial Cup was cancelled in each of the past two years.

Robins has only been able to experience one post-season in 2019. The Blades finished fourth overall in the WHL in that regular season with a 45-15-8 record but lost a second round series in six games to the eventual WHL champion Raiders, who topped the regular season standings with a 54-10-2-2 record.

The playoff format for that campaign created a bracket that saw the Blades and Raiders meet in the second round.

Robins said it is different to think that the upcoming post-season will be his last in the major junior ranks.

“It is emotional for sure, but at the same time, I’m super grateful for how this organization has treated me after I came from Regina,” said Robins. “It has been nothing but class.

Tristen Robins gives “fives” to his Blades teammates.

“I just want to pass on a legacy of Blades culture and positivity.”

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Blades go Bananas, wipe out Warriors 4-1

Egor Sidorov sets to make a toe-drag move.

Head coach Brennan Sonne said his Saskatoon Blades put together a performance they need to duplicate.

On Friday night playing before 3,743 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the host Blades downed the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 4-1 playing a fairly crisp WHL regular season contest. The win helped ease the sting of recent struggles for the Blades.

Entering Friday’s game, the Blades had won just one of their previous five outings. In their previous three contests, the Blades downed the visiting Regina Pats 3-1 on March 25, got drubbed 7-0 by the Warriors in Moose Jaw one night later and fell 3-2 to the Pats in Regina last Wednesday.

“Regina at home we played really well and really hard,” said Sonne. “We got too high after the win and weren’t ready to play the next night.

Tristen Robins had a goal and an assist on Friday.

“We stink in Moose Jaw and then in Regina we stink again. Tonight, the whole focus was about our competitive nature, our battle and our compete. Without question to a man, every guy in that room brought that tonight.

“I’m very proud of them. Now, we have to learn the lesson we learned last week, where we have to turn the page and be ready for a big one tomorrow.”

The Blades and Warriors are playing lots of big games down the stretch as they are battling for fourth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and home ice advantage in a first round playoff series.

With the win, the Blades improved to 35-24-3-1 to sit one point behind the Warriors, who fell to 35-23-3-2, for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Saskatoon took the season series between the two sides winning six out of eight head-to-head encounters, if that tiebreaker comes into play.

Kyle Crnkovic scored a goal on Friday.

Both the Blades and Warriors have five games remaining on their respective regular season schedules.

The Blades continue their push for that fourth place spot on Saturday when they host the 31-25-3-2 Brandon Wheat Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Warriors resume their quest to hold on to that fourth place position on Saturday when they return home to host the WHL leading Winnipeg Ice (7 p.m., Mosaic Place).

“It would be massive,” said Blades star overage captain Tristen Robins about what it would mean to get home ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. “That is what we are pushing for right now.

“That is really what is on our mind. To get the first two games at home with pretty much a sold out building would make a world of difference compared to a Tuesday or Wednesday game with half the stands full.”

There were some different sights at Friday’s Blades game.

As for Friday’s battle between the Blades and Warriors, the two clubs skated before an upbeat crowd. Since Friday was April Fool’s Day, the Blades made an announcement early in the morning they would have a new team nickname and play Friday’s contest as the Saskatoon Bananas.

The Blades switched out artwork on their team website and social media lines in the very early hours of Friday morning displaying a new Saskatoon Bananas logo. The team ran ads on local radio all day on Friday advertising the game as the Saskatoon Bananas taking on the Moose Jaw Warriors.

When fans arrived at the SaskTel Centre, they discovered the local WHL squad went the extra mile and was playing in special Saskatoon Bananas jerseys. The jerseys were nearly identical to the Blades popular alternate gold Pac-Man jerseys just with the logo changed.

The national anthem was sung by someone in a banana costume.

The team also sported game socks with banana logos on them and banana team decals on the helmets.

All sorts of Saskatoon Bananas merchandise was sold for the game as well as jerseys. During the contest itself, the scoreboard showed off graphics for Saskatoon Bananas cheers.

The young ladies that are part of the Blades Motion Fitness Blue Crew all wore banana costumes.

The changes had the adults in the crowd chuckling and smiling, and the children the age of 12 got excitedly right into everything comparable to a post-Halloween sugar rush with cheers of “Go Bananas Go.”

As for the game itself, the teams played through a tight checking opening frame where the Blades held an 8-5 edge in shots on goal.

The Blades Motion Fitness Blue Crew wore banana costumes.

The Blades had a good scoring chance near the end of the frame thanks to some strong work by left-winger Vaughn Watterodt. Watterodt took the puck off a Warriors defenceman in the right corner of the Moose Jaw zone.

After the steal, Watterodt passed the puck to rookie import right-winger Egor Sidorov, who was alone in front of the Moose Jaw net. Sidorov put a backhand shot wide of the net.

The Blades came out with all sorts of pressure in the second period. Early in the frame, overage captain Tristen Robins had a point chance to try on score on a hard rush to the net, but he was turned away by Warriors overage star netminder Carl Tetachuk.

At the 8:26 mark of the frame, Robins broke through on the scoreboard blasting home a power-play goal from the left slot to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

Eric Alarie had the Warriors lone goal on Friday.

Just under four minutes later, Warriors veteran left-winger Eric Alarie got loose on a breakaway towards the Saskatoon net, and he snapped home the equalizer to tie things up at 1-1.

“We weren’t worried at all,” said Robins. “It was just a little miscommunication that happened there in that period to give them that goal.

“We tightened things up. We stuck to our game plan.”

Near the end of the second, the Blades ended up having a two-man advantage for 1:35, but they weren’t able to net a go-ahead tally.

The Blades held a 19-4 edge in shots on goal for the second period, but the two sides were tied on the scoreboard 1-1.

Warriors G Carl Tetachuk makes one of his 36 saves.

At the 8:04 mark of the third, the Blades jumped back in front 2-1 scoring on a three-on-one break. Blades sophomore defenceman Ben Saunderson had the puck in his own zone, saw the Warriors were making a line change and hit Sidorov on a stretch pass right before the Moose Jaw blue-line to start the three-on-one break.

Sidorov entered the Moose Jaw zone down the right wing, cut across the middle of the ice and sniped home his 20^th goal of the season.

On the scoring play, Warriors defenceman Lucas Brenton drove Watterodt into Tetachuk. A short scrum ensued afterwards.

The officials gave Watterodt a minor infraction for goaltender interference but still allowed Sidorov’s goal ruling Watterodt’s infraction happened after the tally.

Nolan Maier earned his 119th career regular season win.

With 5:24 remaining in the third, Sidorov wired home a shot from the left slot for his second tally of the contest to increase the Blades advantage to 3-1.

Just 22 seconds later, Robins set up star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic for his 37^th goal of the season to round out the 4-1 final in the Blades favour.

Sonne said it is key when players like Sidorov, who is still 17-years-old, can have big games, especially when the injury bug has taken a big bite out of the Blades.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere, who is the Blades regular captain, was lost for the rest of the current campaign due to season ending shoulder surgery. Centres Trevor Wong, Jayden Wiens, Lukas Hansen, right-winger Noah Boyko and defenceman Rhett Rhinehart were all out with upper body injuries. Utility player Spencer Shugrue was recently added to the injury list as being out day to day with a lower body injury.

The Blades celebrate Egor Sidorov’s second goal of the night.

“We are missing a lot of guys,” said Sonne. “Guys are getting more ice time in different roles or bigger expanded roles.

“For him (Sidorov) to step up and get a couple tonight was really important.”

Maier stopped 18 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. Tetachuk turned away 36 shots to take the setback in net for the Warriors.

On a personal front, Maier earned his 119^th career regular season win with the Blades victory on Friday. The Yorkton, Sask., product equals Jordan Papirny for second on the WHL’s all-time regular season career wins list.

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.

Young fans show off a sign to support Blades G Nolan Maier.

Maier needs one more win to equal the WHL record for career regular season victories of 120 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.

Going forward, Sonne said his Blades are gunning for home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and the next step in working towards that spot is having another good game on Saturday, when the Wheat Kings come to town.

“We want it bad,” said Sonne. “At the same time, we can’t get too focused on what this team is doing or that team is doing.

The Blades celebrate their win on Friday.

“We have to take care of what we are doing next, our next shift, which is Brandon tomorrow. We have to turn the page, and the chips will fall where they may so long as we bring what we need to bring.”

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Blades fall to Warriors 7-0 as injuries pile up

Tristen Robins left Saturday’s game with an injury.

The injury bug is taking a large bite out of the Saskatoon Blades at the worst possible time.

On Saturday night, the Blades traveled down to Moose Jaw to face the Warriors in a key regular season contest that could ultimately determine which side had home ice advantage in a head-to-head playoff series. With the way the WHL’s Eastern Conference standings are shaping up, it appears the Blades and Warriors will likely face each other in a first round best-of-seven series.

Playing before 2,867 spectators at Mosaic Place, the Warriors thumped the Blades 7-0. With the win, the Warriors improved to 35-21-3-2 and sit three points ahead of the Blades for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Blades fell to 34-23-3-1 to hold down fifth in the Eastern Conference. Both the Warriors and Blades have seven games remaining on their respective regular season schedules.

Saskatoon has won five out of the seven head-to-head meetings between the two sides this season.

At the moment, the Blades have to be more concerned about their injury situation as opposed to the lopsided loss to the Warriors.

The Blades went into Saturday’s game with the Warriors minus the services of five regulars and three more regulars went down during the contest in Moose Jaw.

Going into that clash with the Warriors, the Blades were without centres Lukas Hansen, Josh Pillar and Trevor Wong along with right-winger Noah Boyko and defencemen Aidan De La Gorgendiere, who is the team’s captain.

Hansen, Wong and Boyko are all listed as week-to-week with upper body injuries. Wong was lost on March 5 after taking an unpenalized cheap shot cross-check from Red Deer Rebels import defenceman Christoffer Sedoff during a 5-2 home ice victory.

Pillar and De La Gorgendiere played in the Blades 3-1 victory at home on Friday against the Regina Pats.

De La Gorgendiere is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury, while Pillar’s injury wasn’t disclosed.

Denton Mateychuk had a goal and three assists on Saturday.

In Saturday’s game with the Warriors, the Blades centres Jayden Wiens and Tristen Robins and defenceman Rhett Rhinehart didn’t finish the contest due to suffering injuries. Going into the third period, the Blades were down 2-0, but had to play most of the third without Wiens, Robins and Rhinehart giving up five goals in the process.

Warriors star centre Ryder Korczak scored at the 3:47 mark of the first period to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Sophomore defenceman Lucas Brenton tallied at the 6:16 mark of the second to increase Moose Jaw’s edge to 2-0.

With 4:34 remaining in the second, Warriors import rookie defenceman Robert Baco hit Wiens from behind into the boards with Moose Jaw killing a penalty. Wiens was helped off the ice and didn’t return.

Baco was giving a major penalty for checking from behind along with a game misconduct. The major penalty will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Blades weren’t able to score on any of their six power-play opportunities on the night including the five-minute major assessed to Baco.

The goals snowballed for the Warriors in the third with Brayden Yager, Eric Alarie and Denton Mateychuk netting singles and Jagger Firkus potting a pair.

Mateychuk had three assists to go along with his goal and posted a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department.

Overage star netminder Carl Tetachuk made 31 saves to pick up his third shutout win of the season for the Warriors. Overage start netminder Nolan Maier turned away 33 shots going the distance taking the setback in goal for the Blades.

Last Wednesday, the Blades added four forwards to their active roster in Rowan Calvert, Jordan Keller, Zach Moore and Smyth Rebman as their respective seasons came to a close with their under-18 AAA clubs and under-18 academy teams. Calvert and Keller played in Saturday’s loss.

Those additions could potentially see even more action depending on the status of the eight regulars the Blades now have on their injured list. The status of Wiens, Robins and Rhinehart was still being determined at game’s end.

On top of fact the Blades have eight regulars injured, the injury list includes high quality players. Robins is one of the top players in the entire WHL having signed an NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks, and he sits second in Blades team scoring with 74 points coming on 32 goals and 42 assists.

Pillar, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild, Wiens and Wong are all high-end players who can put up points.

Rhett Rhinehart left Saturday’s game with an injury.

De La Gorgendiere leads the Blades in defenceman scoring with 45 points coming off four goals and 41 assists, and Rhinehart eats up a tonne of minutes on the blue-line and plays in most key defensive situations.

If these injuries last over a longer team, even the best “next man up” mentality focus may not be enough to help the Blades. There is only so much a team can do when injuries snowball like this.

The Blades will hope to have some injured players back this coming Wednesday, when they travel to Regina to face the 23-31-3-2 Pats (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).

The Warriors return to action on Tuesday, when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Ice (7 p.m. Winnipeg time, Wayne Fleming Arena).

Finley’s hatty helps Ice hammer Raiders 6-2

Jack Finley had a hat trick for the Ice on Saturday.

Power forward Jack Finley is finding his groove with the Winnipeg Ice.

On Saturday, Finley netted a hat trick to power the host Ice to a 6-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders before a sellout crowd of 1,621 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena. Finley had points in five straight games with the Ice collecting six goals and two assists over that span of time.

The Raiders actually got the jump on the Ice as rookie import right-winger Vladislav Shilo scored just 21 seconds into the contest to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Ice answered back with the next six straight goals to go ahead 6-1. Besides Finley’s hat trick, the Ice received singles from Matthew Savoie, Evan Friesen and Cole Muir.

Finley’s first tally sent the teams into the first intermission tied 1-1. The Ice led 3-1 after 40 minutes and built a 6-1 advantage in the third.

Raiders standout defenceman Nolan Allan rounded out the game’s scoring with the final tally for the visitors.

Daniel Hauser made 14 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Ice. Max Hildebrand, who is a 17-year-old rookie, turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders.

Vladislav Shilo gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead for a short time.

With the victory, the Ice extended their winning streak to 10 straight games, and they’ve earned points in the standing in 14 consecutive games posting 12 wins, one overtime loss and one shootout loss over that span of contests.

The Ice improved to 46-9-3-2 to lead the WHL standings with 97 points holding a two-point lead over the Edmonton Oil Kings (46-12-2-1). Winnipeg has a game in hand on Edmonton.

The Raiders fell to 24-31-4-1 to remain ninth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. They trail the 24-31-5-2 Swift Current Broncos by two points for eighth place and the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Prince Albert had two games in hand on Swift Current.

The Raiders and Ice go at it again on Sunday (5 p.m. Winnipeg time, Wayne Fleming Arena).

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