Murray Wood: Of Easter bunny bells and Juicy Fruit gum
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The Saskatoon Blades were able to survive a furious effort from the Prince Albert Raiders as time expired in Game 3 of their second round series against the Prince Albert Raiders Tuesday at Sasktel Centre for a 1-0 win.
The ending could have been very different as a barrage of incoming shots in the game’s final 20 seconds were all stopped by Blades goaltender Nolan Maier, allowing Saskatoon and the 7,641 people in attendance to take a deep breath in relief and celebrate.
“That’s why I’m bald at 34,” Blades head coach Mitch Love said of the nerve-wracking end to the game. “I thought we could have had a little bit more composure with the puck and found a way to get it out in the neutral zone.”
The best-of-seven series now sits at 2-1 in favour of the Raiders. Game 4 goes on Wednesday in Saskatoon.
Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid liked the effort following his team’s first loss of the playoffs and doesn’t see a need to change the approach for Wednesday.
“I thought we deserved the win,” Habscheid said following the game. “Their goalie played real good. He made some key saves, and then it’s one of those games where we had a puck bounce over our stick from rebounds.”
“We didn’t think we were going to go undefeated the whole playoff season, so tomorrow’s another day.”
Hard work from Riley McKay resulted in the game’s only goal as the hard-nosed forward worked the puck to the blue line, where Nolan Kneen sent a shot towards the Raiders net that settled in the crease in time for Kirby Dach to lift the puck to the back of the net and elate the crowd at Sasktel Centre less than five minutes into the first period.
It was Dach’s fifth goal of the series, and it only seemed to ignite the Blades star that seemingly had the puck glued to his stick for many stretches of play.
“I love playing in these big games, in the big moments. Any player that can find that extra gear and keep pushing forward will be a difference-maker in the series and that’s what I want to be,” Dach said about his play in the series.
Nolan Maier was forced into a handful of saves every period to keep the lead for his team. His most impressive of which was on a 3-on-1 save from the slot on Dante Hannoun. Aliaksei Protas was the other Raider stymied by Maier, as he was refused from close distances twice in the third period.
“The final scores haven’t gone our way in all games, but I’ve been feeling pretty confident.” Maier said after his first WHL playoff shutout, and second 1-0 shutout against the Raiders this season.
Habscheid said the game would have been different if it weren’t for some untimely bounces, but gave a lot of credit to Maier.
“Puck wouldn’t find its way in. It’s the way it is,” Habscheid said of the offensive goose egg.
Game Notes
Maier made 26 saves for the shutout. Ian Scott saved 26 of 27 shots in the loss.
After a war of words about embellishment from both coaches, the Blades went 0-for-2 on the power play, while Prince Albert didn’t convert it’s only opportunity with the extra attacker.
A large contingent of Raiders fans made the trip to Saskatoon and did their best to drown out any crowd noise from the Blades faithful. More is expected for Wednesday.
Reece Harsch was out for a second straight game. Love said “he is definitely questionable” to play on Wednesday. Majid Kaddoura took his spot on the Blades’ blue line for both games.
The Blades relied heavily on Brandon Schuldhaus for Game 3. The 21-year-old defenceman rarely seemed to leave the ice and is expected to see an equal amount of playing time on Wednesday.
