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A stagnant power play came alive for the Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday night, powering a game-three victory in comeback fashion over the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings.
Seated at the same podium where he had addressed questions about the team’s one-for-11 power play a day earlier, Blades forward Rowan Calvert reflected on a breakthrough night on special teams for his group.
“How about that power play, you know?” Calvert said.
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The Blades weathered a back-and-forth affair at SaskTel Centre, rallying from a 3-1 deficit late in the second period to score three unanswered goals to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven opening-round series with a 4-3 victory.
According to Blades head coach Dan DaSilva, it was his team’s push to respond which impressed him the most.
“I loved our effort in that third period,” DaSilva said.
“We weren’t going to be denied, and we just kept believing. The energy on the bench was great. The guys were talking and into it. We just got contributions from everyone.”
Coming off a 4-3 overtime loss in the second game of the series on Sunday in Edmonton, the Blades drew three penalties in the first period and were unable to convert on their first two, with several missed chances at open nets.
That was until Blades forward David Lewandowski fired home his second goal of the post-season to break Saskatoon’s drought on the man advantage with 6:44 left in the opening frame.
Throughout the period, Saskatoon managed to out-shoot the Oil Kings 14-5 and control possession.
“We had some good looks in the first couple power plays,” DaSilva said. “It was like, ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ The guys again just sticking with it. That’s the messaging: just stick with it.”
The tide quickly turned out of the first intermission, however, with Edmonton defenceman Noa Ta’amu scoring just 55 seconds into the second period.
Both Ryan Gower and Miroslav Holinka found the back of the net for the Oil Kings over the next six minutes of play to extend their lead to 3-1 and silence SaskTel Centre in the process.
Out-shot by a 17-5 margin in the second period, Saskatoon struggled to gain momentum until a rush chance with 2:10 left before the buzzer.
Receiving a pass from Hunter Laing, who was cleared to play after leaving with an injury in game two, Calvert sniped the puck bar-down on Oil Kings goaltender Ethan Simcoe to drag Saskatoon back to within a single goal after the middle frame.
“It was a little quiet on our bench,” Calvert said.
“We were kind of feeling it. Fatigue starts to set in here as these games go on and there’s not a lot of time in between. We just believed. I mean, it’s big to get the goal there late in the second.”
According to DaSilva, that goal helped spark some added confidence in the Blades during the intermission, which translated to success in the final 20 minutes of play.
“It came from the players, honestly,” DaSilva said.
“They said, ‘We’re just going to push back.’”
Nearing the midway mark of the third period and still trailing 3-2, Blades captain Tyler Parr crashed the net off a Jack Kachkowski point shot and cleaned up the rebound for the game-tying goal.
Four minutes after Parr’s equalizer, Saskatoon was sent to its fourth power play of the night off a Ta’amu high-sticking call, which the Blades made the most of.
Picking the puck up at the point, Blades defenceman Tristen Doyle let a wrist shot fly, which carried its way through traffic to mark his first goal scored since Feb. 21.
“To be honest, I blacked out a little bit,” Doyle said. “It felt pretty good.”
The Blades survived a late Oil Kings push with the goaltender pulled to secure the win and re-take the lead in the first-round series.
For Edmonton, it was a tough night to find consistency, with several key players out of the lineup, including playoff starting goaltender Parker Snell, star defenceman Blake Fiddler and centreman Aaron Obobaifo.
Oil Kings head coach Jason Smith said the team didn’t come out the way he wanted in the third period.
“We were on our heels a little bit, and kind of sat back,” Smith said.
“We didn’t execute well with the puck and created some turnovers, which created momentum for them. They came out hard and physical, and we didn’t really counter it and react to it properly.”
Tuesday’s win means Saskatoon will have a shot at going up 3-1 in the series with a victory in game four on Wednesday, a task Calvert believes his team is up to.
“We got some dogs in that room,” Calvert said.
“You see it. We’re physical. We’re hard. We want to be that team. We want to make it hard on teams every night. It’s just clicking right now, and it doesn’t surprise me, honestly.”
Game four of the series goes Wednesday night at SaskTel Centre, with a 7 p.m. puck drop.
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