Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
After an exhilarating first round series for the Saskatoon Blades that went the distance against the Regina Pats, the Blue and Gold began its best-of-seven second round series against the Red Deer Rebels on Friday night.
But just like against the Pats, the Blades dropped Game 1 to a 3-1 final at SaskTel Centre.
“We knew it would be a tough game and it was a tough game and it goes right to the end. It’s sure nice to get the first win, but back to work here,” Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk said.
The last time the Blades and Rebels met was March 1 where Saskatoon came away with the victory — which was its third win out of four meetings during the regular season.
Konowalchuk though said those games don’t matter anymore and they came into Game 1 with a clean slate as they know it’s not going to be an easy series.
“Playoffs are different, regular season is one thing. Nothing surprised us they came out and they played a hard game and they played a tight checking game they’re a fast hockey team, so nothing surprised us. It was kind of the team we expected to play against,” Konowalchuk said.
The first period remained scoreless as both teams were getting used to their new opponents and they had plenty of time to think about it.
Halfway through the opening frame when one of the linesman brought a potential high stick to the referees during a stoppage. That led to a delay of around 10 minutes to where no penalty ended up getting called.
“When they reviewed it, they couldn’t find it. What I was told from the ref was their own guy cut their own player or something like that. At the end of the day I guess they got the right call,” the Rebels coach said.
After meeting again for the first time in just over a month it was a Jhett Larson goal that gave the Rebels a 1-0 series lead after a nice feed in front of the from Christoffer Sedoff in the second period.
Red Deer strikes first as Jhett Larson scores his second of the #WHLPlayoffs
1-0 Rebels.
— steve seto (@steveseto) April 15, 2023
The Blades tried creating some energy in the third, but couldn’t find the back of the net on a number of chances on their only powerplay opportunity of the period — Saskatoon went 0-for-3 on the night.
Red Deer took advantage of that and a lucky bounce as Jace Isley drove to the net and was stopped by Austin Elliott, but Ben Saunderson accidentally banked it off his own goalie while trying to clear it from the goal line.
After the Blades pulled Elliott with just over two minutes remaining Jake Chiasson broke Kyle Kelsey’s bid for a shutout to cut the lead in half. But Sedoff was able to secure the win by scoring on the empty net with four seconds left.
Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said he didn’t like the start his team had, but there were some bright spots.
“(I) didn’t like our start, I didn’t like the first period. We had good spurts in the second and third. Not consistent enough however and not enough guys really raising their level tonight,” Sonne said.
But it was a better start compared to the first round.
“Game 1 (versus) Regina was really really poor. We weren’t in the battle at all, I thought there were times tonight we were in the battle,” Sonne added it was tough to compare the two games.
Going into Game 2, Sonne knows his team can step up.
“Everyone’s got to pull the rope here, and we just have a lot better,” he said.
After coming away with the victory, Konowalchuk said his team has to focus on the next game.
“We got to reset, that would be the message. ‘You know what, let’s go back to work, put this one behind us and it’s going to be tougher next game,’” he added.
Game 2 goes on Sunday at SaskTel Centre with a 4 p.m. puckdrop before the series shifts to Red Deer next week.
