There was arguably no hotter team in the Western Hockey League (WHL) over the past two weeks than the Saskatoon Blades. In their last five games, they dispatched the Kamloops Blazers, Vancouver Giants, Brandon Wheat Kings, Swift Current Broncos, and Red Deer Rebels while scoring 23 goals and allowing seven. Their power play and penalty kill were thriving, their stars shining, and everything pointed to another strong showing against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Unfortunately, the Blades fell apart against their southern rivals. By the end of the first period, Saskatoon was already down 2-0, and it hardly got better as the game progressed. Missed passes, turnovers, and weaker defensive efforts plagued the Blades all game, which had been uncharacteristic of the team as of late. But maybe their record was hiding some underlying issues.
“I think there were a lot of guys that could have shown a bit better tonight (against Moose Jaw),” said head coach Dan DaSilva. “It was OK at times, but it was not nearly the consistent level of work ethic, compete, and just intensity that we normally expect from this group. It’s been brewing for a long time. We’ve masked it with some wins, some good performances by our goaltenders and backend, and tonight we finally got burned.”
The Blades have shown that they can compete for first place in the Eastern Conference this season. They have the experience and skill, but it also seems that complacency has snuck into the lineup during their win streak. Their game against Moose Jaw will no doubt serve as a stern reminder that, if they want to win, they’re going to need to work for it.
On paper, the two games against Swift Current and Kamloops were fantastic for the Blades. Against the Broncos, they scored four goals, all unanswered, and allowed just one. Then, against the Blazers, Evan Gardner posted his first shutout of the season, helping the Blades win 3-0 and surpassing Braden Holtby for the third-most shutouts in franchise history.
But the Blades’ effort wasn’t perfect. After struggling with slow starts at the beginning of the season, they were caught off guard by a quick Broncos team, which opened the scoring early in the first. They were also outshot 32-27 for most of the game against the Blazers, giving up 16 shots in the second period alone. They got away with it in those games, but DaSilva recognized that it wasn’t going to fly much longer.
“At the end of the day, we’re happy with the result, (but) was it an ideal weekend in terms of the way we played? No, it wasn’t,” he said following the 3-0 win over Kamloops. “There are definitely some fixes, and the good thing about the fixes that need to be made is that they’re [easy to fix]. We can fix puck management, we can make better decisions, we can help them with that. Structurally, I thought we were pretty good. We gave up one goal over two games, so we’re doing some good things as well.”
DaSilva wasn’t the only one seeing some problems. “I would say that 40 minutes was the furthest (away) of the year of being Blades hockey, to be honest,” said Gardner regarding the effort against Kamloops. “There was just not a lot going on for us, we were slow to things, but credit to our PK, I think it was 0-5, they did a great job on the kill tonight in front of me, and that stuff wins you games.”
Up to the Blades’ game against Moose Jaw, Saskatoon had one of the better penalty kills in the WHL, sitting comfortably above 80% effectiveness. But against the Warriors, it all came crashing down. DaSilva’s concerns with puck management were rampant, and several intercepted passes became excellent scoring chances for Moose Jaw, including a breakaway for Washington Capitals’ prospect Lynden Lakovic. On the penalty kill, Saskatoon was 1/3 and allowed two shorthanded goals with time winding down, which Gardner warned was a crucial part of winning games. When it lagged, the team couldn’t recover, and the game was lost after the first period.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Blades, though, and there are several reasons to anticipate a quick return to form.
The first is their defence, which played quite well against the Warriors despite the poor result on the scoresheet. Jack Kachkowski, playing in his 100th WHL game, scored the Blades’ first goal, capitalizing on a juicy rebound, and Tristan Doyle’s cannon from the blueline led to Saskatoon’s second after Cooper Williams redirected it with a tip. Newcover Tyrone Sobry also had a solid outing, filling in for the injured shutdown defender Isaac Poll.
Poll’s absence might have been a big reason the penalty kill suffered. “Isaac has taken a huge step for us this year,” said DaSilva. “I don’t think there are many guys in the league who want to play against Isaac Poll right now. He shuts you down, plays you hard. He left the game with an injury … and that’s a big concern for us.” Right now, Poll is listed week-to-week after going down in the game against the Blazers, but so was Williams, who only missed a few games before returning. Putting Sobry and Poll together could result in a devastating shutdown pair.
Some of Saskatoon’s forwards earned praise from their coach, such as Ben Bowtell and Gavin Clark, but most of the team didn’t look like themselves. Dominik Petr, who has been one of the Blades’ forwards recently, looked sluggish and was nearly scratched ahead of the game, but ended up dressing. An illness could have been the cause for the last-minute call, and if one player is sick, there’s a good chance that others are, too. Given that Petr played, it’s unlikely it’s serious, so a quick recovery can be expected.
Finally, there’s the goaltending. There’s no question that Gardner is one of the best goalies in the WHL right now and has the Columbus Blue Jackets salivating at the chance to bring him up to the pro level whenever he’s ready. But backup Ethan McCallum has shown that he can more than handle his own when given the opportunity. Just as Gardner was instrumental in the win against the Blazers, McCallum saved the Blades from being overwhelmed by the Broncos. Not every team is fortunate to have two number-one goalies on their team, but the Blades can rely on them to bail them out when the going gets tough.
Dropping their game against Moose Jaw wasn’t ideal in their race to first place, but it hardly puts them out of the conversation. Ahead of their rematch against the Warriors, they sit tied for third place with the Medicine Hat Tigers with 14 points, just one behind the second-place Prince Albert Raiders and two behind the leading Edmonton Oil Kings. Meanwhile, Moose Jaw is still three points behind Saskatoon in fifth, giving the Blades a little bit of breathing room.
That fight becomes all the more important on Sunday, when the Blades host the Oil Kings at SaskTel Centre. It’s the first of four meetings between the two heavy hitters and could set the tone for the season moving forward. Edmonton also has a strong defence led by Blake Fiddler and a forward corps headlined by Miroslav Holinka, Adam Jecho, Lukas Sawchyn, and 2026 Draft-eligible Joe Iginla, the younger brother of Tij Iginla. It won’t be easy, but no matchups are, and if the Blades can get back down to basics and play Blades hockey, they will remain a top team in the WHL in 2025-26.
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