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The start to the WHL playoffs didn’t go how the Saskatoon Blades and their fans thought it would.
The 6,757 fans at SaskTel Centre on Thursday night saw the No. 1-ranked team in the WHL lose Game 1 of its opening round series 4-3 to the Prince Albert Raiders.
Egor Sidorov netted the Blades’ first goal on the power play with 20 seconds remaining in the first period and Alexander Suzdalev scored early in the second to make it 2-0 for Saskatoon.
Everything was going well for the Blades until it wasn’t.
Despite being outshot 20-6 at one point, the Raiders were able to solve Blades goalie Austin Elliott after a redirected shot from Aiden Oiring found the back of the net.
Just over two minutes later, Easton Kovacs scored to make it 2-2 off another redirection. From there, momentum in the game appeared to change.
After the Raiders’ second goal, the Blades were called for having too many men on the ice. That led to a Raiders power play and Ryder Ritchie scoring to give them a shocking 3-2 lead.
Niall Crocker doubled the lead for the Raiders halfway through the third helping close out the game.
Sidorov scored his second of the night with three minutes remaining, but that proved to be too little too late.
“We stopped doing the things that we need to in order to be a really good hockey team,” Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said when asked about his team’s collapse in the second period. “Specifically our compete habit clips – I felt (the Raiders) broke it out way too easy. We missed blocks, we didn’t manage pucks and we didn’t win nets – so we have to get back to that.”
Despite boasting one of the best penalty kills in the WHL this season, the Blades surrendered two goals when a man down against the Raiders in Game 1.
Sonne didn’t sound too concerned over the struggles on the kill Thursday night.
“It’s going to happen; that’s hockey,” he said. “I mean, they’re making adjustments and we’re making adjustments, so we’re going to go do our job and prepare them for tomorrow.”
He’s looking forward to getting another crack at Prince Albert on Friday.
“It’s a series, right? That’s what you do. Every team makes adjustments and you have focus points. What made us successful in the regular season are those competitive things, so it’s not like it’s a secret recipe. We just have to get back to doing them,” Sonne explained.
At the other end of the rink, Raiders head coach Jeff Truitt couldn’t have been happier to see his team overcome a 2-0 deficit against the WHL’s best regular-season team.
“Being down two, you have to generate some offence somewhere,” Truitt said. “Once we got the traction going and some pucks in the net and get up 3-2 and we get a little daylight, we knew they were going to come back – they are too good of a team. A big second period helped us, plus our goaltending.”
P.A. goaltender Max Hildebrand was sensational, stopping 41 of the 44 shots he faced.
“Whenever we got into trouble, he was standing tall for us and making great plays and great saves. He stood solid and was in control most of the night against some lethal shooters,” Truitt explained. “He was the difference here tonight.”
The Blades might be thankful they get to return to the ice Friday for Game 2 as they try to rewrite what was not an ideal start to what is supposed to be a lengthy playoff run.
Game 2 against Prince Albert is scheduled for 7 p.m. at SaskTel Centre.
