Blades need more than morale victories

Saskatoon enters break with tough loss to Wheat Kings

Blades goalie Logan Flodell guides a shot away from the Saskatoon goal.

    For every heart-stopping victory the Saskatoon Blades earn, it seems like there are two heartbreaking defeats awaiting just around the corner.

    On Saturday, “the Bridge City Bunch” entered the WHL Christmas break dropping a 3-2 decision at the SaskTel Centre to the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings. Locked in a 2-2 tie, Wheat Kings winger Connor Gutenberg banged home the winning goal during a net scramble after an offensive zone faceoff with 66 seconds to play in the third period to mostly disappoint a crowd of 4,319.

    The hosts couldn’t counter with the equalizer and fell to 13-19-3-1 to sit four points back of the Wheat Kings, who improved to 15-14-4, for the final wildcard playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. The Wheat Kings, who are the defending WHL champions, also have three games in hand on Saskatoon.

Wheat Kings winger Connor Gutenberg chases a loose puck.

    After three years of rebuilding under the ownership of Mike Priestner, who bought the franchise after it hosted the Memorial Cup in 2013, this is supposed to be the year the Blades obtain more tangible results – like earning a playoff berth.

    The Blades may still earn that elusive playoff berth. When play resumes after the WHL Christmas break, Saskatoon plays 22 of its remaining 36 games at home. There is the potential to make big gains.

    Since being bombed at home 8-2 by the Medicine Hat Tigers back on Nov. 26, the work ethic has been there for the Blades on most nights they have hit the ice. The highlight of that stretch was a thrilling 2-1 overtime win on Dec. 10 in Regina against the Pats, who are still rated first in the Canadian Hockey League’s top 10 rankings.

    Even on Saturday, the effort was there from the Blades and for the Wheat Kings as well.

Blades winger Braylon Shmyr zips into the offensive zone.

    Both sides have to be given credit for coming out hard, because there are a lot of occasions where the final regular season game before the WHL Christmas break turns into a dud. That sometimes is hard to avoid as players on both sides are looking forward to going home.

    Brandon used one tactic that seemed to catch the Blades off guard, which was to shoot or try and guide the puck on goal off an offensive zone faceoff.

    The Wheat Kings netted their first goal while playing short-handed doing exactly that at the 3:42 mark of the first. Off a draw, Wheat Kings centre Tanner Kaspick drove the puck on goal creating a net scramble, and linemate Meyer Nell potted the rebound to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

    The Blades responded at the 2:13 mark of the second, when winger Braylon Shmyr slipped home a power-play goal on a backhander through a screen to force a 1-1 tie. That tally also ignited the contest’s Teddy Bear Toss promotion, where the spectators threw enough stuffed animals on the ice that they overfilled two half ton trucks and partially filled a third.

    At the 8:55 mark of the second, Brandon went ahead 2-1 off another offensive zone faceoff. Centre Reid Duke drove to the net off the draw and fed linemate Tyler Coulter with a sweet pass across the face of the Saskatoon net. Coulter potted his 11th of the season into an empty cage.

    The Blades showed their resiliency forcing a 2-2 tie at the 3:40 mark of the third on a highlight reel type tally. Breaking into the offensive zone, Shmyr slipped a smart pass past a Wheat Kings defenceman to spring Blades overage centre Jesse Shynkaruk in on a breakaway.

Evan Fiala and Tyler Lees (#16) load up a truck with stuffed animals.

    Shynkaruk went from his forehand to his backhand and slipped home his 11^th of the season past Wheat Kings goalie Jordan Papirny.

    That set the stage for the dramatics in the final 66 seconds.

    Papirny made 22 saves to earn the win in goal for Brandon.

    Logan Flodell, who has been outstanding all season in net for the Blades, turned away 26 shots in the Saskatoon goal.

    With Saturday’s setback, the Blades fall to 6-8 in one-goal games.
    They have earned four points in the standing in four of those losses due to the fact they came in overtime or after a tiebreaking shootout.  
    Saskatoon could really use the points that were lost in the one-goal setbacks that came in either regulation or extra time. Those lost points are making the difference between sitting in a playoff position or on the outside looking in.

    The Blades have been hampered by the fact the injury bug seems to bite their key players. Star centre Cameron Hebig hasn’t played a game due to an upper body injury. Right-winger Mason McCarty has missed the Blades last 10 games due to a severe lower body injury.

The Wheat Kings celebrate victory at the expense of the Blades.

    Shynkaruk and defenceman Jake Kustra, who are both healthy now, both lost significant time due to injury.

    Saskatoon is currently without defenceman Libor Hajek, who is taking part in the selection camp for the Czech Republic’s world junior team.

    The fact the Blades have been competitive and are still in the playoff hunt with their injuries and close setbacks helps the club stack up a big list of morale victories.

    However, the morale victories need to turn into actual victories on the scoreboard, or the Blades will be out of the playoffs for a fourth straight year.
    They are still in position to make a push for the playoffs, but the road to the post-season won’t be an easy one.

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

Shmyr sparks Blades, brings ugly skid to an end

Braylon Shmyr, left, celebrates his winning goal for the Blades.

    Braylon Shmyr sparked and finished things for the Saskatoon Blades.

    On Friday night at the SaskTel Centre, the 19-year-old Calgary product scored 12 seconds into a WHL clash against the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings to give the host side a 1-0 lead. Shmyr also tucked home a gritty winner from the right side of the Brandon goal with 41.9 seconds to play in the third period to break a 2-2 draw and deliver the Blades to a 3-2 victory.

    The win allowed “the Bridge City Bunch” to end an ugly four-game losing skid where they were outscored 24-6.

    “We always talk about having a good start, so that first shift that we had that we scored on, that set the momentum for the game,” said Shmyr, whose team improved to 10-15-1 with the win. “It is always nice getting those game-winning goals.

    “It is just all about battling and finishing right to the end. We had a week of just setting down and having team meetings. We were just figuring out what we could do to win games, and I think it paid off for us.”

    Wearing their classic blue Pac-Man jerseys, the Blades immediately engaged the crowd of 3,929 spectators with Shmyr’s first goal that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Jesse Shynkaruk speeds up the ice for the Blades.

    The hosts then appeared to have total control of the contest after overage centre Jesse Shynkaruk laser beamed his seventh of the season top left corner on Wheat Kings goaltender Logan Thompson. The tally gave the Blades a 2-0 edge at the 7:10 mark of the second.

    The visitors replied with a big push back.

    Just 33 seconds after Shynkaruk’s goal, Wheat Kings left-winger Tyler Coulter wired home his 10^th of the season to cut the Blades lead to 2-1.

    Brandon evened the score up at 2-2 with 3:11 to play in the second, when defenceman Schael Higson floated home a point shot.

    When the second came to a close, the Wheat Kings were carrying the momentum holding an overall 21-17 edge in shots.

    The Blades recovered their footing in the third, where Shmyr came through with the winner. Brandon applied pressure in the final seconds but couldn’t put the puck past Blades netminder Logan Flodell.

Logan Christensen (#41) steals the puck for the Blades.

    Flodell made 31 stops to earn the win in goal. Thompson turned away 25 shots to take the loss for the Wheat Kings, who fell to 12-9-3.

    “It feels good just to win - period,” said Blades head coach Dean Brockman. “I think our group was pretty gutsy in the third.

    “It is good for our club. Hopefully, we can get some confidence going.

    “You could see we were scrambling a little bit in the third period. That is just a team that hasn’t won for a while.”

    Brockman was happy to see Shmyr come through with a nice night against his former team. The Blades acquired Shmyr in a trade with the Wheat Kings shortly before last season’s WHL trade deadline.

    “He has probably been our best player over the last 10 or 12 games,” said Brockman. “Just to see him get rewarded against his old team it is a really good for him.”

The Blades salute the SaskTel Centre crowd.

    The Blades return to action on Saturday, when they host the red hot Medicine Hat Tigers at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
    After pounding the Raiders 7-1 on Friday night in Prince Albert, the Tigers sit first overall in the WHL at 19-5-1 and have won eight straight games.

Hausinger dealt to Rebels

    The Blades were active on the trade front before Friday’s game rolled around.

    Saskatoon dealt 17-year-old right-winger Cameron Hausinger to the Red Deer Rebels in exchange for a seventh round selection in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft and a fifth round pick in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft. 

    In 20 games this season, Hausinger had three assists, 22 penalty minutes and a minus-seven rating in the plus-minus department.

McCarty goes down

    The Blades lost team scoring leader Mason McCarty to injury late in the second period.

    The 19-year-old winger has 14 goals and eight assists in 26 games. His status is uncertain for Saturday’s game against the Tigers.

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

Wheat Kings put Thunderbirds on ropes

Seattle’s mental toughness faces huge test in WHL finals

The Wheat Kings mob Jayce Hawryluk (#8) after his OT winner.

    BRANDON, Man. – Jayce Hawryluk potted one of those ugly overtime winners that drove a dagger through the hearts of the Seattle Thunderbirds.

    With the host Brandon Wheat Kings locked in a 2-2 tie in overtime with the Thunderbirds in Game 2 of the WHL championship series on Saturday night, Hawryluk had the puck in the right corner of the Seattle zone. The Roblin, Man., product tried to hit linemate Nolan Patrick with a backdoor pass for a scoring chance. 

    Hawryluk’s pass banked off the inside of one of the pads of Thunderbirds goaltender Landon Bow and bounced into the Seattle goal 6:56 into extra time. The marker gave the Wheat Kings a 3-2 victory before 5,621 delirious onlookers at Westman Place, which seats 5,102.

Ethan Bear gave Seattle a short-lived lead.

    Brandon takes a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which moves to Seattle for Game 3 on Tuesday. The Thunderbirds aren’t dead as they also host Game 4 on Wednesday and a potential Game 5 on Friday, but they are on the ropes. Saturday’s loss has to be a tough pill to swallow, as even the winning goal scorer himself admitted he wasn’t trying to put the puck in the net with his pass attempt.

    “I was trying to hit Patrick backdoor,” said Hawryluk. “I saw him going in. It caught a fortunate bounce.”

    That positive bounce marked the second straight overtime victory for the Wheat Kings, who took Game 1 a night earlier by a similar 3-2 outcome. Brandon centre Tanner Kaspick netted the winner in the series opener, when he showed great hand-eye coordination in knocking a puck out of the air into the Seattle net.

    Seattle’s mental psyche is being tested like it never has before in the 2016 post-season. Over the first three rounds of the WHL playoffs, the Thunderbirds won 12 out of 13 games. Now, they have lost two straight overtime games in a battle for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, and they drop two contests they could have won, if they had just a couple of breaks go their way.

Jayce Hawryluk finds a way to come through for Brandon.

    On Saturday, the Thunderbirds never trailed until Hawryluk’s winner went in. Seattle led 1-0 and went up 2-1, when a point shot from defenceman Ethan Bear found the back of the Brandon goal. Donovan Neuls scored Seattle’s first marker just a minute into the second period.

    The Wheat Kings, who were swept out of last year’s WHL title series by the Kelowna Rockets, found a way to get it done, and that has ultimately made the difference so far in this year’s league title series.

    Just 81 seconds after Neuls’s goal, Patrick wired home his 12^th of the post-season on a two-on-one break to tie things up at 1-1. Patrick’s goal came when the Thunderbirds were on the power play.

    After Seattle went up 2-1, Wheat Kings left-winger Tyler Coulter netted the equalizer with 5:20 to play in the third to force a 2-2 score.

    Wheat Kings goaltender Jordan Papirny proved to be a Thunderbirds nemesis making 37 stops to earn the win in goal for Brandon. Bow, who had a stellar night outside of Hawryluk’s winner, turned away 36 shots to take the loss in goal for Seattle.

The Thunderbirds couldn't crash in a potential winner late in the third.

    Right now, the Wheat Kings, who have won 14 of their 18 post-season games, have to be feeling they can overcome every obstacle that comes their way. Some doubt has to be creeping in the minds of the Thunderbirds, who don’t have a whole lot of history of recent long playoff runs.

    Game 3 is a must win for the Thunderbirds. If the Thunderbirds fall, a sweep will likely be in the cards for the Wheat Kings.

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