Two longtime linemates with the Saskatoon Blades now stand alongside legends of the franchise after the team’s final game of the regular season Saturday.
Captain Trevor Wong entered the team’s history books first with a goal six seconds into the third period against the Prince Albert Raiders, becoming the first Blades player to record 100 points in a season in 29 years.
That was followed up by an Egor Sidorov floater from the point in the game’s final minute to reach 50 goals on the year, marks not seen since the days of Frank Banham and Mark Deyell in Saskatoon.
With Saskatoon’s pair of victories over Prince Albert to close out the regular season, the Blades earned their fifth Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy in franchise history finishing with a Western Hockey League best 105 points and a 50-13-2-3 record.
That has given the Blades the top seed in the Eastern Conference for playoffs and now will begin their chase for the Ed Chynoweth Cup with a first-round series against the Raiders locked in.
That sets up the first meeting between Saskatoon and Prince Albert in the WHL post-season since 2019.
“I haven’t played them in the playoffs in my career yet,” said Blades alternate captain Charlie Wright. “So it’s kind of cool to get that opportunity to play against the number one rivals, a team that I’ve competed against really hard for the last five years.”
Prince Albert claimed the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 31-32-2-3 record, fending off the Calgary Hitmen to mark their return to the post-season.
The Blades have been dominant since the fall, ranked first in the Canadian Hockey League for almost the entire month of February and setting the WHL record for fewest goals allowed on the penalty kill with 29 goals against all season.
That included a strong season series result against Prince Albert, with the Blades taking eight of the 10 meetings between the bitter rivals this year.
Head coach Brennan Sonne said the team has been tenacious in their preparation and expects that to carry over into their first-round series.
“We view ourselves as a wolf pack,” said Sonne. “We’re just going to keep coming, and coming, and coming. We’re going to run, and hunt, and chase, and run, and hunt, and chase, and we’re just going to keep coming.
“You do that between the whistles, it has nothing to do with ego or the war of words. There’s no Conor McGregors in here, we’re just a wolf pack that are going to run, and chase, and hunt, and bite, and keep going.”
Game 1 will be pivotal for the Blades on Thursday, after the team fell behind early in all three of their playoff series last spring against the Regina Pats, Red Deer Rebels and Winnipeg Ice.
While the Blades were able to overcome those early deficits against Regina and Red Deer to win in seven games each, they had little to no gas in the tank left for when the Eastern Conference finals rolled around.
As part of the team’s ascent into contender status, the Blades pulled off a series of blockbuster trades to shore up their roster, including the addition of top NHL prospects Fraser Minten and Alexander Suzdalev to the forward core.
Minten, who played in the Memorial Cup with the Kamloops Blazers last year, said it’s a process when it comes to transferring over regular-season success into the post-season.
“For us it’s been the next game up,” said Minten. “We haven’t been too far ahead. This is one of our goals; we want to win in the playoffs and Game 1 is the first step.”
In net, the Blades will have a choice to make when it comes to who will be getting the start for Game 1 against Prince Albert.
Austin Elliott split time with Ethan Chadwick in last year’s playoff run and played the majority of games this season with a .904 save percentage in 43 games. However, rookie star Evan Gardner burst onto the scene in 30 games and led the WHL with a sparkling 1.91 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
Sonne was non-committal over whether he’d use the same philosophy this spring as he did last year when it came to a consistent rotation with his goaltender deployment.
“I think you’re just going to have to see how it plays out,” said Sonne. “I’m not going to get into that right now, so just see what happens.”
Saskatoon has been starved of a WHL championship since the franchise’s creation in 1964, with their last appearance in the league finals coming three decades ago in the 1993-94 season.
The Blades will embark on a journey to end that streak on Thursday night for Game 1 against Prince Albert, assembling a roster with their best shot at claiming that elusive first WHL title in years.
“I think ever since the deadline we’ve just been looking forward to this moment right here,” said Wong. “We’ve added these guys for these moments for the playoffs, these guys are big time players and we’ve got this good core in here from last year.
“We’re really pumped about it. It’s the best time of year and we’ll be ready for Thursday.”
Game 1 will be played at SaskTel Centre on Thursday at 7:00 pm between the Blades and Raiders, followed up by Game 2 of the series on Friday night.
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