With a rich history that stretches back to 1964, the Saskatoon Blades have been an integral part of hockey in Western Canada. They joined the WCHL in 1966 and have been the longest standing continual member of the WCHL/WHL.
We will take this time to look back on a piece of their history, the era from 1997 to today as it was told on this day, March 24.
1998 – Round 1, Game 4 against the Calgary Hitmen
Calgary had the lead in the opening round series at 2-1. Saskatoon was hosting Game 4 in front of 3231 fans.
The game got off to a great start for the blue and yellow as they scored twice in the opening period. Garrett Prosofsky and Derek Holldorson set the tone with the goals to give the Blades a 2-0 lead after 20.
Calgary responded early in the second period, cutting Saskatoon’s lead to one goal. A power play a few minutes later helped the Blades restore the two-goal cushion when Tyler Shybunka scored. Four minutes later the Blades had a three-goal lead courtesy of Ryan Johnston. The Blades lead was 4-1 with 20 minutes to play in regulation.
Just after the midway point of the third period, Prosofsky struck again and the game was all but over. Saskatoon added another goal with about seven minutes to play, this time Nathan Remple scored on the power play and made it 6-1, that was also the final.
Jeff Blair made 24 saves in the win, tying the series at 2-2.
2000 – Second last game of the season
The Blades had already secured home-ice advantage in the first round against the Regina Pats, so the final few games of the season were in preparation for the post-season run. Saskatoon took on the Prince Albert Raiders in the first game of a home-and-home series to close out the season.
The first period featured a lot of pushing and shoving and coincidental minor penalties and no goals. The teams remained tied until the midway point of the second period when Martin Erat scored his 27th goal of the season giving the Blades a 1-0 lead.
It didn’t take them long to extend the lead as David Cameron scored his 18th goal of the season with the man-advantage. Then as the period was closing, the Blades added a third goal, this one from Garrett Bembridge, his 26th of the season.
Prince Albert was unable to claw back into this game, scoring just one goal early in the third period to break the shutout bid for Cam Ondrik. He had 31 saves in the win.
2002 – Round 1, Game 2 against the Brandon Wheat Kings
Saskatoon took advantage of the fact Brandon usually hosts the Royal Manitoba Fair in the early part of the playoffs by hosting the first two games of the series. They won Game 1 in overtime to take the series lead.
Unfortunately for the Blades, the Wheat Kings had plans to win Game 2 and did so by shutting the door on the Blades’ offense. Robert McVicar made 25 saves preserving a shutout win for the black and gold.
Brandon scored late in the first and early in the third, skating their way to a 2-0 win in a penalty-filled affair. 88 minutes in penalties were dolled out in the contest.
Michael Garnett made 32 saves in the loss.
2006 – Round 1, Game 1 against the Regina Pats
The division rivals met in the first round for the first time in the “internet era”. They were separated by just three points in the regular-season standings. Saskatoon took home-ice advantage in the first round by winning one more game and having one more overtime loss than Regina.
The similarities between the two teams continued in Game 1 as the teams swapped goals back and forth and sent the game to overtime after a thrilling 60 minutes couldn’t solve anything.
Saskatoon had goals from Devin Setoguchi and Chad Klassen, both on the man-advantage while Regina had markers from Petr Kalus and Kyle Ross.
It was future NHLer Devin Setoguchi that scored the game’s winner, 7:32 into the extra period. It was also the 52nd shot from the Blades. David Reekie made 49 saves in the loss.
Russian import Anton Khudobin made 28 saves in the victory.
2009 – Round 1, Game 3 against the Lethbridge Hurricanes
With the series tied at a game each, the Blades and Hurricanes prepared for battle in Lethbridge.
Lethbridge got out to an early lead while holding Saskatoon to just two first period shots. In the second period, Saskatoon turned the tide, scoring twice on goals from Milan Kytnar and Derek Hulak.
The third period saw Lethbridge return to applying pressure on Saskatoon’s net but future NHL goalie Braden Holtby made 12 saves and Adam Chorneyko added an insurance marker with 13 minutes to play.
Overall Holtby finished with 27 saves and an assist on the game-winning goal as the Blades took a 2-1 series lead.
2010 – Round 1, Game 3 against the Red Deer Rebels
Saskatoon had already won both games at home and looked to put a stranglehold on the series with a win in Red Deer.
Steven Stanford had been excellent in the first two games stopping all 57 shots that came his way. This game was slightly different as he did allow his first goal of the series at 10:52 of the second period.
Stefan Elliot had given the Blades the lead nearly two minutes earlier on the power play, it was Elliot’s first goal of the series.
With a run and gun third period in the books, the teams headed to overtime deadlocked at one.
Marek Viedensky became the team’s hero at 5:03 of extra time when he scored unassisted on Rebels netminder Kraymer Barnstable.
Stanford finished the game with 37 saves on 38 shots and the Blades had a 3-0 grip on their opening-round series.
2012 – Round 1, Game 2 against the Medicine Hat Tigers
Having already fallen behind 1-0 in their series with Medicine Hat, the Saskatoon Blades needed to work hard to tie the series up at one.
Unfortunately, early penalties cost the Blades badly. Medicine Hat capitalized on a penalty that was taken just nine seconds into the game. Then capitalized again in the first period on another power play. It was 2-0 0 for Medicine Hat before the Blades could answer back.
Two minutes after the Tigers’ second goal, Matt Pufahl got the Blades on the board. The first period ended with the Tigers up 2-1.
Then it was the Blades’ turn to score a couple of goals and take the lead. Brett Stovin scored his first of the playoffs 2:52 into the middle frame. Four minutes later Josh Nichols scored his second of the series and the Blades led 3-2.
Medicine Hat was able to settle things down in the latter part of the second period and tied the game before the end of the second period.
The Tigers proved too much in this game for the Blades as they outshot them 14-5 and added two goals in the last five and a half minutes. Hunter Shinkaruk scored the eventual game-winner for Medicine Hat. Andrey Makarov had 35 saves in the loss.
