Blades shake Royals 5-4 in OT on Lisowsky’s winner

Brandon Lisowsky (#8) celebrates his OT winner on Saturday.

Brandon Lisowsky delivered the blow in overtime that allowed the Saskatoon Blades to finally knockout the Victoria Royals.

In a WHL regular season clash on Saturday night, the Blades and Royals were locked in a 4-4 tie early in overtime at the SaskTel Centre. On a faceoff in the Royals zone, Blades star centre Fraser Minten won a draw clean getting the puck to Lisowsky at the top of the faceoff circle.

On a set play, Lisowsky quickly wired home his 22^nd goal of the season to deliver the Blades to a 5-4 victory to the delight of the 5,794 spectators in attendance on a frigid night in Saskatoon. The temperature outside the Blades home rink was -36 C.

Fraser Minten set up the OT winner for the Blades on a faceoff win.

Lisowsky’s goal, which was his fifth winner of the season and came 20 seconds into overtime, allowed the Blades to put away a Royals team that seemingly wouldn’t go away. The Royals, who were closing out a five-game road trip against foes from the WHL’s East Division, trailed 4-1 at one point in the second period and cut the gap to 4-3 before the second intermission.

The Blades dominated play in the third period allowing the Royals to have only one shot on net. The Victoria side made that shot count.

With 35 seconds remaining in the third period, the Royals had netminder Ryan Tamelin pulled for an extra attacker, and they got the equalizer. Royals recently acquired 20-year-old right-winger Tyson Laventure centred a pass from behind the Saskatoon net to rookie centre Logan Pickford, who was positioned in front of the goal.

Logan Pickford celebrates scoring an equalizer for the Royals.

Pickford, who turned 18-years-old this past Monday, fired home his second tally of the contest and seventh of the season to even the score at 4-4 and force overtime. For a moment, it looked like Pickford, who is a Saskatoon product, was going to write a special homecoming story for himself.

His equalizer set the stage for Lisowsky to play the role of hero for the Blades in overtime.

The win allowed the Blades, who are rated second in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, to improve to 28-8-2-2 to sit alone in first place in the overall WHL standings. The Royals, who have gone into extra time in six of their last seven games, remained second in the B.C. Division as their record moved to 23-14-3-3.

Alexander Suzdalev score the Blades first goal on Saturday.

Saturday’s game marked the first time the Blades hit the ice with their potential regular roster since passing of last Wednesday’s WHL trade deadline. The Blades entered the contest with just two defencemen out with upper body injuries in 18-year-old veteran Carter Herman (week-to-week) and rookie Morgan Tastad (day-to-day), who turned 18-years-old last Wednesday.

The Blades healthy scratches were a trio of rookies in 16-year-old defenceman Brayden Klimpke, 16-year-old right-winger Hudson Kibblewhite and 17-year-old right-winger William James.

Saskatoon’s roster got a big boost with the return of 18-year-old star offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk. Before Saturday’s clash with the Royals, Molendyk last suited up for the Blades in a 4-2 victory at home against the Red Deer Rebels on December 8, 2023.

Tanner Molendyk returned from injury to score for the Blades.

Following that win against the Rebels, Molendyk joined Canada’s world junior team, but never got to play in the main tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden. He suffered a fractured wrist in Canada’s 6-2 win over Switzerland in a pre-tournament game on December 22, 2023.

In Saturday’s outing with the Blades, Molendyk, who was selected in the first round and 24^th overall by the Nashville Predators in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and has a signed entry-level contract with the Predators, looked sound. He posted a goal and a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department.

The Blades looked like they were poised to potentially roll the Royals jumping out to a 2-0 lead and holding a 14-7 edge in shots on goal after the game’s opening 20 minutes.

Tanner Scott had a goal for the Royals on Saturday.

At the 8:07 mark of the first, Royals 17-year-old right-winger Escalus Burlock gave the puck away in his own zone to Blades star import left-winger Alexander Suzdalev. Suzdalev promptly buried the gift into the back of the Victoria net to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

With 5:34 remaining in the first, Molendyk recorded his tally one-timing home a setup pass from defensive partner Ben Saunderson to push the Blades lead out to 2-0.

Just 95 seconds into the second, Pickford scored his first goal of the contest by golf chipping home a loose puck in front of the Saskatoon net to cut the Blades lead to 2-1.

Dawson Pasternak scored for the Royals on Saturday.

At the 6:15 mark of the second, the Blades pushed their advantage out to 3-1 lead thanks to a power-play goal from 20-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright on a mid-range shot. Just 71 seconds later, Blades star 20-year-old left-winger Easton Armstrong showed some sweet hands tucking home his 21^st goal of the season to give a host side a 4-1 advantage.

The Royals proceeded to counter with a push back. Star 20-year-old right-winger Dawson Pasternak scored with an off-speed shot on the power play and 19-year-old left-winger Tanner Scott popped home a loose puck in the crease of the Saskatoon net to cut the Blades lead to 4-3 heading into the second intermission.

From there, Pickford netted his equalizer for the Royals with 35 seconds remaining in the third and Lisowsky recorded the winner for the Blades just 20 seconds into overtime.

Charlie Wright scored on the power play for the Blades.

Austin Elliott stopped 14 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. Ryan Tamelin turned away 33 shots to take the setback in net for the Royals. Tamelin, who stands 6-foot-8 and is 17-years-old, was making his first career WHL start having spent most of the 2023-24 campaign with the Okanagan Hockey Academy’s Under-18 Prep Team.

Import right-winger Egor Sidorov had a pair of assists for the Blades in the win.

The Blades return to action on Sunday, when they host the 15-20-4-2 Regina Pats (4 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Royals, who have four extra time losses and a regulation setback to show from their five-game road trip through the East Division, get back at it this coming Saturday when they host the Kamloops Blazers (4 p.m. local time, Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena).

The Blades celebrate their OT win on Saturday.

In the coming weeks, the Blades could potentially juggle their lines and defensive pairs in order to find the combinations that have the best chemistry production. Still as was seen on Saturday, it is a good sign they are able to find ways to win even when a foe grudging doesn’t want to give up a knockout blow.

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

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Wild focus on reload as WHL trade deadline draws near

Conor Geekie in action for the Winnipeg Ice in 2023.

So who would have had Kenta Isogai being the face of the Wenatchee Wild a year ago on their bingo card as being a thing in the WHL?

The 19-year-old left-winger Nagano, Japan, is playing through his first year in the WHL leading the Wild in scoring with 56 points coming off 20 goals and 36 assists to go with a plus-23 rating in the plus-minus department. Entering play on Tuesday, he sat ninth in the overall scoring race for the circuit.

Isogai is not a rookie junior. He played the last nine seasons with the Youngstown Phantoms of the United States Hockey League helping the Phantoms win the USHL title last season.

The Wild claimed Isogai’s CHL rights by selecting him in the first round and 60^th overall in the CHL Import Draft held on July 5, 2023. The Phantoms proceeded to allow Isogai to be released to the Wild.

Of course, the Wild franchise in the WHL was formerly the Winnipeg Ice, who fell in last year’s WHL Championship Series to the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Ice were sold to David and Lisa White of the Shoot the Puck Foundation, who owned the junior A Wenatchee Wild franchise that has played in the British Columbia Hockey League since 2015.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

PWHL buzz heartwarming

A PWHL post on Platform-X.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League is hot.

The new professional women’s hockey circuit had an outstanding first six days, which has created a lot of buzz. On New Year’s Day this past Monday, the first PWHL regular season contest was played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. The host Toronto side dropped a 4-0 decision to New York before a sellout crowd of 2,537 spectators.

On Saturday at the Xcel Energy Centre in Saint Paul, Minn., the host Minnesota side drew a professional women’s hockey record crowd of 13,316 spectators to a 3-0 home opening win over Montreal. That broke the mark of 8,318 spectators that turned out Tuesday at TD Place in Ottawa to see the host side fall 3-2 in overtime to Montreal in the PWHL’s second ever contest.

It would be safe to say that women’s hockey has had a strong following since the sport made its debut in the Winter Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. The United States 3-1 victory over Canada in the gold medal game of that women’s hockey tournament cemented the rivalry between those squads as real.

Since that tournament, the rivalry in women’s hockey between Canada and the United States is one of the greatest in all sports.

Women’s hockey has flourished since that time. Numerous elite level women’s hockey programs exist in the university and college ranks in Canada and the United States.

With those elements present, there shouldn’t have been any doubt an appetite would exist for professional women’s hockey specifically in North America. A year ago at this time, the women’s game at the professional level in North America was broken into two groups in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association and the Premier Hockey Federation – formerly the National Women’s Hockey League.

Kaitlin Willoughby in action for the Huskies in 2017-18.

That all changed on June 30, 2023. In the 14 months leading up to that date, the PWHPA had been working with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises in a bid to launch its own league. Walter’s firm purchased the assets of the PHF on June 30, 2023.

That started the unified group down the road to hitting the ice with the six-team PWHL.

After the circuit hosted its first five games over six days starting on January 1, it feels like the honeymoon period is on. At this point, the PWHL keeps hitting homer after homer and everything is great.

On the media front, I’ve covered the women’s game since 1997 spanning the gamut going up and down of casual follower to heavily involved follower. 

Since moving to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014, I covered the women’s game especially in Saskatchewan fairly heavily until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic gripped the world causing shutdowns and stoppages in the world in North America starting on March 11, 2020.

When all sports in North America started to proceed more regularly in August of 2021, life took me away from covering women’s hockey like I did before the pandemic shutdowns happened. I’ve covered the sport only casually since that time.

Still, I am happy for everyone involved with the PWHL. I wanted to highlight a handful of those involved with the circuit, and the names might not be ones you would be expecting. For those that have followed my work, some of these names will come as no surprise.

Emily Clark meets a group of youngster in November 2018.

First, I was happy for New York head coach Howie Draper. When New York blanked Toronto 4-0 on New Year’s Day, Draper became the first person to collect a head coaching win in the history of the PWHL.

The 56-year-old put a tonne of time into the women’s game being hired as the inaugural head coach of the University of Alberta Pandas Women’s Hockey Team on September 1, 1997, and he was the only head coach the team had known until joining New York’s PWHL club on September 15, 2023.

Draper guided the Pandas to eight U Sports championships and 14 Canada West Championships. No program has won more U Sports or Canada West titles in women’s hockey than the Pandas.

He piled up 667 career wins as Pandas head coach and got to serve in various roles with Hockey Canada’s women’s program.

U Sports women’s hockey is often overshadowed by women’s hockey in the NCAA Division I ranks. In my opinion across each of those circuits as a whole, the coaches on the U Sports teams are as good or a step better than the coaches on the NCAA Division I squads.

Draper getting the first PWHL head coaching win feels like it validates that opinion.

Sophie Shirley in action for the Stars in 2014-15.

I’m happy for Toronto forward Kaitlin Willoughby. Willoughby is one of the all-time greats for the Prince Albert Northern Bears under-18 AAA team and the U of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey Team. She played for Canada twice at the FISU Winter Universiade.

As rookie pro who turned 24-years-old in the 2018-19 campaign, Willoughby helped the Calgary Inferno win the Clarkson Cup as champions of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.  

While Willoughby received rookie minutes, it was said that she did really well that season and needed to be elevated up the roster to play more minutes.

The CWHL folded after the 2018-19 campaign, and the PWHPA was formed in the aftermath. Willoughby hung in with the PWHPA for the next four seasons, and it would have been easy at any point during that time for her to focus on her nursing career and play the game at the recreational level.

She kept at it and is playing in the PWHL’s inaugural season at age 28.

I’m happy for Toronto forward Emily Clark. Clark grew up in Saskatoon as a hockey star, and she is an alumna of the Saskatoon Stars under-18 AAA team.

Jaime Bourbonnais in action in November 2018.

She is a well-known veteran on Canada’s Senior National Women’s Team. She is idolized by many young female players in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan and dare I say across Canada. Clark holds her hockey roots in her heart and enjoys when she can give back to the game in her hometown.

I’m happy for Boston forward Sophie Shirley. She was one of the greatest hockey discoveries I ever made when I saw her piling up points as the 15-year-old sophomore star with her hometown Stars.

Shirley has put up points everywhere she has gone in hockey and owns three NCAA Division I championship rings playing for the U of Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Hockey Team. 

She is still 24-years-old, and I can still see her reaching new heights in the game with this avenue.

I’m happy for New York offensive-defender Jaime Bourbonnais. I first met her at the 4 Nations Cup when it was held in Saskatoon in November of 2018. 

She was 20-years-old at that time and then one of the youngest players on Canada’s Senior National Women’s team.

Bourbonnais’s positivity was infectious, and the mood of any room she stepped into got a whole lot better. When it comes to hockey, I have a soft spot for offensive-defenders, and Bourbonnais plays that role so well it is easy to drift into just being a fan.

I’m happy for New York offensive-defender Brooke Hobson. As captain of her hometown Bears squad that won the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League title and advanced to the Esso Cup national championship tournament in 2016-17, Hobson was both confident and kick ass.

Brooke Hobson for the Bears in action in 2017.

When the Bears swept the Hartney, Man., based Westman Wildcats 2-0 in a best-of-three female under-18 AAA Western regional playdown series at the Art Hauser Centre, the spotlight fit Hobson just fine. 

With the Bears trailing Game 2 of that series 6-3 in the third period, Hobson potted a pair of goals that started a 7-6 comeback win.

She has a rocket shot from the point that seemed gifted to her by a Higher Power. Hobson worked hard to get all the good things that have come her way in hockey.

I’m happy for TSN broadcaster Claire Hanna. Hanna has always been a strong advocate for women’s sports.

She also has street cred having been a star libero with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Women’s Volleyball Team winning three U Sports titles. 

Hanna was once a player in Canada’s national team program for volleyball.

Covering a circuit like the PWHL has been one of Hanna’s dreams. If she had Taylor Swift’s bank account, Hanna would be one of the owners of the circuit.

I’m happy for play-by-play broadcaster Daniella Ponticelli. The former play-by-play voice of the Huskies Women’s Hockey Team, Ponticelli was on the call for the PWHL’s first two games.

Ponticelli is best known for calling both hockey and football at a high level as a play-by-play voice, and it feels she was born for the moment to call PWHL games.

Howie Draper works the Pandas bench as head coach in Jan. 2023.

Again, everything about PWHL’s first six days was sensational. Here is a cheers to the continued success of the newest women’s professional hockey league.

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

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Huskies good enough when they need to be in 3-0 win

Drever makes 30 saves in victory over Cougars

Goalie Camryn Drever dives on a loose puck during a net scramble.

Some good moments and a stellar outing by star netminder Camryn Drever allowed the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey Team to overcome some holiday season rust.

On Friday playing before 511 spectators at Merlis Belsher Place, the Huskies blanked their provincial rivals the University of Regina Cougars 3-0 in the first U Sports regular season contest for both sides since returning from their respective Christmas breaks. Drever made 30 saves to pick up her 12^th career U Sports regular season shutout.

The fifth-year’s performance allowed the Huskies to overcome a determined Cougars side that carried play for a good two thirds of the contest.

Camryn Drever made 30 saves to pick up a shutout win on Friday.

“It wasn’t a very good game for us,” said Huskies head coach Steve Kook, whose team improved to 11-4-1-1. “It was a good thing that Cam was on her game tonight.

“We fought the puck the whole night. The plays were there. We just didn’t pull the trigger.

“We were lucky that we got a couple early, and I thought that we played the right way for about eight or nine minutes there. We took some stupid penalties – undisciplined stuff that we didn’t need to. We almost killed ourselves there tonight.”

The two sides started out Friday’s game playing fairly even. The Huskies, who are rated 10^th in the U Sports Top 10 rankings, appeared to break things open scoring two goals 73 seconds apart inside the final four minutes of the opening frame.

Mallory Dyer scored the Huskies first goal on Friday.

With 3:58 remaining in the first, Huskies third-year centre Mallory Dyer potted her sixth goal of the season to give the host side a 1-0 lead. Positioned at the right side of the Cougars net, Dyer got her stick on a rebound from a shot taken by linemate Kara Kondrat and quickly popped the puck into an empty cage.

Just 73 seconds later, the Cougars turned the puck over in their own zone. The puck came to Huskies rookie defender Jacquelyne Chief, who wired home her second goal of the campaign to put the Huskies up 2-0.

When it seemed the Huskies had all the momentum after Chief’s goal, the Cougars found another gear. The visitors closed out the first period with a flurry of five shots to hold a 12-8 edge in shots on goal after 20 minutes.

Jacquelyne Chief had the Huskies second goal on Friday.

With 10.1 seconds remaining in the first, Drever made a key glove save off Cougars winger Lauren Focht to keep the visitors off the scoreboard.

“I think it is tough maybe coming back from the break,” said Huskies third-year centre Desmarais. “It was our first game we got under our belt.

“It was a little rough off the start, but I think we got our legs under us just jumping back into it.”

The Cougars controlled play throughout the second period holding a 16-10 edge in shots on goal for the frame, which was a total that seemed to flatter the host side.

The Huskies had a huge chance to expand their lead, when star fifth-year centre Kennedy Brown, who is the squad’s captain, had a short-handed breakaway. Brown was denied by Cougars standout netminder Arden Kliewer.

Lauren Focht had a big first period chance to score for the Cougars.

A short time later, the Cougars had a huge chance to crack on to the scoreboard. Winger Makena Kushniruk centred the puck from behind the Huskies goal to linemate Paige Hubbard, who was positioned right in front of the home side’s net. Hubbard quickly fired a shot on goal, but the puck was swallowed up by Drever.

“Most of the first and just about all of the second, it was the Cam (Drever) show,” said Kook. “The thing about Cam’s game that is so good is that they get one (shot), but they don’t often get a second or a third.

“When we’re fighting the puck, it is important that Cam doesn’t give them that second or third, and that is what she does so well.”

Makena Kushniruk controls the puck in the offensive zone.

The Huskies proceeded to play a fairly strong shutdown style third period, where they outshot the Cougars 6-2. One of the two Cougars chances came on a Hubbard breakaway late in the frame, but Drever stoned the fourth-year winger keeping the visitors off the scoreboard.

Kondrat finished out the game’s scoring firing the puck into an empty net with 1:45 remaining in the third to round out the 3-0 win for the host side.

“I think we kind of noticed, yeah, that we did a little bit better in the third,” said Huskies fourth-year centre Kate Ball. “(It was) a rough start, but at least we got the win.”

Kara Kondrat had a goal and an assist for the Huskies.

Desmarais said her squad started to focus on playing more of a shutdown game in the third due to holding a two-goal advantage for most of the frame before Kondrat added her empty-net tally.

“I know when we are up in the third we like to focus on getting the pucks deep and getting fresh legs out there,” said Desmarais. “I think rather than getting a bunch of pucks on net like we want to in the first and second I think focused on getting the puck deep.”

Kliewer turned away 21-of-23 shots to take the setback in net for the Cougars, who fell to 5-12-1-1.

The Huskies and Cougars will go at it again on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Brandt Centre in Regina.

The Huskies begin to celebrate their win on Friday.

“I think moving forward it will be a little bit better now,” said Desmarais. “We had to get that one out of the way.”

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

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Covering sports in 2023 was a grind but still fun

Connor Bedard jets past a checker from the Blades in April.

Boxing Day proved to be a perfect day to repair drawers on a dresser that sat broken since the first week of October.

Often, these types of projects break into a four hour or even a total day ordeal. The repair in this instance went easy and only took an hour.

Next brings the question of why it took so long to get to that repair?

Welcome to life when you are involved in the sports world in Canada.

The schedule was so busy on that front the repairs to the dresser kept always being dropped on the priority list. I finally got to the repair on Boxing Day.

This isn’t a new phenomenon in the sports world. I’ve got friends involved in that world who have had like a load of lumber and sheets of drywall sitting in their basements for three years waiting to be used for renovations that never seem to get done.

You start to wonder if there were any regrets about buying the building materials in the first place.

When you are involved in sports in Canada, it becomes a life consuming thing. Schedules are never normal with that world either outside of the fact there are set phases to the seasons in sports.

When pressures build to focus more on aspects outside of life in the sports world when you are involved in the sports world, it can make being in the sports world a grind.

For me, 2023 was a grind being in the sports world. I still enjoyed it, but it was a grind.

Things were going smoothly for the first two and a half months of 2023. About eight days into March, I ended up getting COVID-19, and it spread to the whole household. I missed covering the last two weeks of the 2022-23 WHL regular season.

The Blades enjoy a Game 7 series winner from Spencer Shugrue (#26).

The best part for my household and myself was the fact the COVID-19 battle was like dealing with a bad flu with extreme fatigue at the start. For the first five days after getting COVID-19, I slept 19 hours each day, and I had never felt that exhausted in my life.

Unfortunately, that seemed to set an ominous tone that prevailed for the rest of the year.

After the battle with COVID-19 wrapped up, I was ready to cover the WHL Playoffs, and I was ready to go when the post-season arrived. When I am covering WHL games, I am in my happy place.

The 2023 playoffs were memorable. I worked the exciting seven game series between the Saskatoon Blades and at the time 17-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats.

The Blades claimed the series deciding Game 7 at home 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 14,768 spectators at the SaskTel Centre. Bedard was outstanding in the series recording 10 goals, 10 assists and a plus-eight rating.

In the second round of the post-season, the Blades dropped the first three games of their series with the Red Deer Rebels and proceeded to rally back to take the set 4-3. They took Game 7 of the series at home by a 5-2 score before 9,489 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

In the process, the Blades became the third team in the history of the WHL to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven series only to rally back and take it 4-3. The Spokane Chiefs, who were guided by Mike Babcock as head coach, trailed the Portland Winterhawks 3-0 before rallying to take a first round series 4-3 in 1996. The Kelowna Rockets fell behind the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-0 in 2013 before rallying back to claim that series 4-3.

Utility player Spencer Shugrue became “Mr. Game 7” for the Blades collecting three goals and an assist in Saskatoon’s two series deciding Game 7 wins.

The Blades would be swept by Winnipeg Ice 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Championship Series. In the WHL Championship Series, the Ice fell 4-1 to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Spencer Shugrue (#26) became “Mr. Game 7” for the Blades.

The Thunderbirds made it to the title game of the Memorial Cup tournament that determines a CHL champion, which was held in Kamloops, B.C. Seattle was blanked 5-0 in the championship game by the QMJHL champion Quebec Remparts, who were guided head coach, general manager and hockey legend Patrick Roy.

I piled up the road kilometres working games in Regina, Red Deer and Winnipeg. In working the first two games of the WHL final in person in Winnipeg, I saw the Ice win their final game as the Winnipeg Ice. They beat the Thunderbirds 3-2 in the opening game of the WHL Championship Series held before 5,531 spectators at the Canada Life Centre, and the Ice weren’t able to get another win for the rest of that set.

That was the first time I was in the building to work games in the WHL Championship Series since 2019. It was also the first time I’ve been in the building to work games in the WHL Championship Series since the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the sports schedules in 2020 and the first half of 2021 and hung ominously over the sports world for the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022.

When I was in Regina, Red Deer and Winnipeg in the 2023 WHL Playoffs, it felt great, because the focus was on hockey. I also got good extended family time in during my stay in Winnipeg.

When I got off the road, it seemed there would be a mini-crisis in my life away from the sports world. There were times I was asking myself if I should have even left Saskatoon for the road. Looking back, the road was a reprieve.

After returning home from Regina covering Games 3 and 4 of the series between the Pats and Blades, I was immediately jumped with something after getting off the road in my life away from the sports world.

My reaction was, “I was only gone two days! How can life be so terrible?”

The Blades attracted massive home crowds during 2023 WHL Playoffs. 

The best part was all these mini-crisis would pass after two days and seem like nothing two weeks later, but going through those day after day with those around you freaking out was draining.

The football front was fun as the Saskatoon Valkyries won their eighth WWCFL title in June and the Saskatoon Hilltops claimed their 23^rd CJFL championship in November.

The Valkyries blanked the Calgary Rage 40-0 in the WWCFL title game played at Griffiths Stadium to conclude the campaign with a perfect 8-0 record. The pressures of life outside the sports world seemed to subside during the Valkyries season. The Valkyries have a great bunch, and I enjoyed being around that bunch.

Shortly after Hilltops season got going in August, it seemed the uncontrollable pressures from outside the sports world cranked up again. The Hilltops as always were outstanding to deal with. I’ve covered them and the Valkyries regularly since moving to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014.

The Hilltops posted a perfect 12-0 campaign and won the Canadian Bowl contest that determines a CJFL champion 17-10 over the host Westshore Rebels at Starlight Stadium in Langford, B.C., which is a suburb of Victoria. The contest was played in rains that fell in Biblical proportions.

The Hilltops had a historic campaign. In 12 games, they gave up just 76 points, which was their lowest total overall for a season dating back to 1949.

Hilltops defensive end Riece Kack had a memorable performance in the CJFL semifinal win over the OFC champion St. Clair Saints, who are from Windsor, Ont., in October at SMF Field. Kack pile up six sacks to set a new record for a CJFL playoff game. He actually became the first player to register six sacks in any CJFL contest be it regular season, playoffs or CJFL championship game.

Emmarae Dale (#45) makes a big hit on defence for the Valkyries

Still in the department of being honest, the pressures from life outside the sports world affected the fun I had covering the Hilltops during their season. If felt like a greater grind than covering the WHL Playoffs. The factors that were there had nothing to do with the team and were out of my control.

I know there were at least three times for me covering games I actually drifted to looking forward to the season being over. That had never happened to me in any time in my life when I was dealing with football. It did happen in the first full WHL season in 2021-22 with regular play after navigating the wrenches of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that came from mental fatigue from the pandemic.

Anyways, I just gutted and grinded all that out.

When the Hilltops played the Rebels for the 2023 CJFL title, I covered that contest remotely watching it online at the home office. I knew the Hilltops were going to come back that night, and I was hoping to go to the social function to celebrate that night when they got home.

The best I felt for that season was the 30 minutes after the Hilltops won the CJFL title. The pumped up elation of a championship win was there.

Unfortunately, technical problems with the computer, social media and the Internet threw a bucket of water on my joy. All of that was out of my control, and I was ready to punch a few computer screens.

I got a short write thru up before midnight that the Hilltops had won. By the time I posted the finished version of my column on the Hilltops winning their 23^rd CJFL title, it was 8 a.m. the next morning. I gutted and grinded through getting that done, but enjoying the Hilltops accomplishment lasted for 30 minutes after the CJFL title game wrapped up.

The Valkyries raise the WWCFL championship trophy.

Life away from the sport world saw the stress become much lower starting a week after the Hilltops season ended and has continued as I write this piece.

Trigger warning: politics

The next part of this column I have to throw up the trigger warning as I will be talking about politics.

Living in Canada these days, talking politics can get you fired from jobs and has gotten people fired from jobs.

Be it world, national, provincial or civic politics, I have never talked more about politics in my life away from the sports world as I have in this past year. To be honest, I don’t like the political world, and I don’t like the extremes on both the right and the left that seem to dominate that world. I see myself as the “common sense” Canadian that appears to no longer have a place and is no longer wanted in that world.

The Government of Canada has gotten their hands into tinkering with the sports and media worlds that have both been my life since 1996. That actually hasn’t bothered me that much in the grand scheme of things, and I find you just adjust to things as they come up like with the various government policies that came up in the COVID-19 pandemic.

I believe the next election federally and elections on the provincial and civic levels will be one issue referendums. 

To me, that referendum will be do you believe issues with the environment are bad enough that elected governments must be given basically a blank cheque to run up deficits as big as they want to handle this issue.

Homes and gasoline vehicles in Canada are way more efficient than they were in the 1970s and 1980s. I know for those on the extreme left that will never be enough, and they would like to see the elimination of gasoline vehicles of all sorts and gas in general in Canada.

The Government of Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his minister of environment and climate change in Steven Guilbeault are in my judgment “all in” on tackling the environment issue to the point they should be allowed to do everything and anything on that front.

Riece Kack (#47) makes a record sack for the Hilltops.

According to Statista, Canada had the 10^th highest carbon tax rate in the world as of March 31, 2023 among the 25 countries at that time that were listed with carbon taxes with Iceland having two rates. The United States, India, Russia and China were not listed as having any carbon taxes at that time. China runs a Chinese national carbon trading scheme.

Guilbeault has been a climate activist since age five and was a member of Greenpeace Canada from 1997 to 2007. In 2001, Guilbeault and British activist Chris Holden scaled Toronto’s CN Tower.

After getting to a height of 340 metres, the pair unfurled a banner that read, “Canada and Bush Climate Killers.”

Guilbeault and Holden were arrested and charged with mischief. The stunt cost the CN Tower Corporation an estimated $50,000, and Guilbeault was sentenced to one year’s probation and the court ordered him to pay a portion of the costs.

To me, Guilbeault is an activist with an agenda, and I doubt very much he would or will consider anyone with a viewpoint that is opposite his. Anyone with an opposing view would be dismissed as being wrong.

In my view, the city government in Saskatoon views the environment issue as being the big issue.

In the end, I believe all this will add up to continuing inflation and putting lots of financial pressures on everyone in Canada in 2024. I don’t see the political world getting better in 2024, and if you don’t believe me, just search any political issue on Platform-X formerly known as Twitter to see the nasty keyboard fights.

Even if you don’t have an interest in the political world, the decisions made in that world will influence and change the worlds you interact in.

Getting pictured with the Canadian Bowl was a highlight in 2023.

For myself as I have done since March of 2020, the goal will be to try and adjust the best I can and stay as healthy physically and mentally as I can. There is only so much I can control, and everything else is going to play out as it is going to be.

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

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Wright strides into hero’s spotlight in Blades 6-3 win

Saskatoon downs archrival Raiders in crazy clash

Charlie Wright (#47) roofs home the winning goal for the Blades.

Charlie Wright found the perfect timing to find his inner Bobby Orr.

On Wednesday night, Wrights’ Saskatoon Blades were locked in a 3-3 tie with the Prince Albert Raiders late in the third period of a WHL regular season clash at the SaskTel Centre between the archrival clubs. When the Blades went on the power play with 2:31 remaining in the frame, the 20-year-old defenceman skated into the spotlight.

After getting possession of the puck, Wright skated down the right wing of the Prince Albert zone, cut across the front of the visitor’s set and roofed home a power play goal to put the host side up 4-3 with 2:09 remaining in the third. Wright’s power-play tally held up as the winner as left-winger Tyler Parr and centre Lukas Hansen added empty-net goals to deliver the Blades to a 6-3 victory before a season high crowd of 7,920 spectators.

The Blades celebrate Charlie Wright’s power-play winning goal.

Wright’s winning goal was his fourth tally of the season to go along with 17 assists and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department. While the Blades often relay on Wright to be a shutdown defensive-defenceman in his own zone, he has shown this season and last season he can deliver offensively when the Blades need him too.

Last season, Wright posted eight goals, 32 assists and a plus-33 rating appearing 66 regular season games for the Blades.

Wednesday’s encounter between the Blades and Raiders was the first game for both sides since returning from their respective Christmas breaks. It was a crazy one that was full of momentum swings and some irregular occurrences.

Charlie Wright has four goals and 17 assists this season.

The contest was also the Teddy Bear Toss game for the Blades, so that provided sites that are only seen for one home date a season.

Both teams had some key players missing out of their respective lineups, so you got to see how the Blades and Raiders persevered through that development too. The Blades were without star centre Fraser Minten, who is serving as the captain of Canada’s team for the world juniors going on right now in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Blades star 18-year-old defenceman Tanner Molendyk was originally on Canada’s roster for world juniors. Molendyk suffered a fractured wrist in Canada’s 6-2 win over Switzerland in a pre-tournament game this past Friday and is currently unavailable to play for Canada or the Blades.

Easton Armstrong (#27) scored the Teddy Bear goal for the Blades.

Saskatoon’s other scratches due to injury included defenceman Carter Herman (upper body, week-to-week), and left-wingers Misha Volotovskii (upper body, day-to-day) and Vaughn Watterodt (upper body, week-to-week). Associate player call up Colten Worthington was a healthy scratch.

The Raiders were without star 17-year-old left-winger Ryder Ritchie who is listed as week-to-week after taking a knee-to-knee hit by Kelowna Rockets 19-year-old left-winger Max Graham. That hit occurred in the Raiders 4-3 home loss to the Rockets on Dec. 15 at the Art Hauser Centre.

A member of the Blue Crew helps with the stuffed animal clean up.

Raiders 17-year-old import rookie right-winger Matej Kusiesa is out week-to-week with an upper body injury.

In a game that had a lot of back-and-forth play, the Blades broke through on the scoreboard scoring the Teddy Bear goal with 2:42 remaining in the opening frame.

Blades right-winger Rowan Calvert had the puck right beside the ride side of the Prince Albert net. He put a backhand pass out to star 20-year-old left-winger Easton Armstrong, who was set up in perfect shooting position by the right side of the Raiders goal.

A truck is stuffed with stuffed animals for Saskatoon are charities.

Armstrong wired home his 18^th of the season to give the Blades a 1-0. After Armstrong scored, seemingly a whole tonne of Teddy Bears rained downed from the 7,920 fans in the building.

The fans in attendance did such an outstanding job littering the ice with stuffed animals that will be distributed to various Saskatoon area charities it took about 32 minutes in real time to complete the clean up and the first intermission. The teams were sent to the dressing room for an early first intermission after the clean up and the remaining 2:42 of the opening frame was completed after the intermission.

Sloan Stanick had two goals and an assist for the Raiders.

The two pickup trucks that were brought out on the ice to haul away the stuffed animals were filled up to the point that they were overflowing. Blades players and Blades and SaskTel Centre staffers had to push the stuffed animals into a couple of different corner exits to get them off the ice in as speedy a fashion as possible.

When the teams returned to the ice, Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov extended Saskatoon’s advantage to 2-0 with 1:33 remaining in the third. Sidorov roofed home his 33^rd goal of the season on a backhand shot to give the hosts their two-goal edge.

The Raiders proceeded to get some traction scoring 61 seconds into the second period. Star 20-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick scored on a wraparound on a fallen Blades netminder Evan Gardner to cut the Saskatoon lead to 2-1.

Eric Johnston had an assist for the Raiders on Wednesday.

The visitors pressed hard for the rest of the frame searching for the equalizer, but they weren’t able to even the score when the second period expired.

At the 8:48 mark of the third, the Raiders evened the score at 2-2 after scoring a goal off a positive bounce. 

While applying pressure in the Saskatoon zone, Raiders centre Harrison Lodewyk fired a shot that miss the Saskatoon net, but the puck deflected off the back boards behind the net right to Stanick, who was alone at the left side of the Blades net.

Stanick popped his second goal of the contest to put his Raiders on even terms with the Blades on the scoreboard.

Tyler Parr had two goals and an assist for the Blades on Wednesday.

With 9:18 remaining in the third, the Raiders jumped in front 3-2 on a power-play goal from centre Hayden Pakkala, who deflected home a point shot from Prince Albert captain Eric Johnston.

The Blades didn’t go away and pulled even on the scoreboard just under three minutes later on a strange tally.

While applying pressure in the Prince Albert zone, Parr fired a shot on net past a fallen Raiders netminder Max Hildebrand, and the shot appeared to be kept out of the goal and cleared away by Raiders right-winger Brayden Dube. 

Egor Sidorov scored his 33rd goal of the season on Wednesday.

Dube cleared the puck right on to the stick of Blades veteran defenceman Ben Saunderson. Saunderson quickly popped home the gift for the apparent equalizer.

The officials checked the play out on video review and discovered that Parr’s initial shot indeed crossed the goal-line of the Raiders net to allow the Blades to even the score at 3-3. 

Parr was credited with the equalizer about three seconds before Saunderson put the puck in the net on the original continuation of the play.

That set the stage for Wright to come through with the winner on the power play and for the Blades to round out the scoring with two empty-net goals.

Lukas Hansen scored an empty-net goal for the Blades.

Gardner stopped 29 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades, who sit first overall in the WHL with a 24-8-2 mark. Hildebrand turned away 31-of-35 shots in net for the Raiders, who fell to 17-16-0-2 to sit seventh overall in the Eastern Conference.

Parr had an assist to go along with his two goals. Armstrong had a pair of assists to go with his Teddy Bear tally. Stanick had an assist to go along with his two markers.

The Blades, who are rated sixth in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, return to action on Friday when they travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings (7 p.m., Westoba Place).

The Blades celebrate their win on Wednesday.

The Raiders get back at it on Saturday when they return home to host the Moose Jaw Warriors (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

So far this season, the Blades have won all four of their head-to-head matchups with the Raiders. Even during stretches were one side is collecting all the wins, Wednesday’s contest showed that rivalry clashes between the Blades and Raiders are still must watch encounters.

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

-------

If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

Current Raiders/Blades rivalry in good spot for P.A. fans

The Raiders celebrate a goal during a game on October 20.

For the Prince Albert Raiders faithful, some of the best victories against the archrival Saskatoon Blades are underdog victories.

As the story of the 2023-24 WHL season plays out, the tale of the Raiders rivalry with the Blades appears to be clear for the current campaign. The Blades are the front runners sitting first overall in the Eastern Conference with a 23-8-2 record and are jockeying for top spot in the entire league with the Prince George Cougars. The Raiders are the underdogs currently holding a playoff spot sitting sixth overall in the Eastern Conference with a 17-15-0-2 mark.

For Raiders fans, this can be a sweet scenario. When the Blades are doing well, the Raiders followers have a tendency to see their Saskatoon rivals like the Dallas Cowboys and their owner Jerry Jones, when they were winning with their early 1990s swagger in the NFL.

When the Raiders beat the Blades in that situation, Raiders fans see that as a moment to remind the Blades and their supporters they might not be as good as their record says they are. For Raiders fans, the only other time victories over the Blades are sweeter is when they happen in the post-season.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.