A roller coaster season for the Saskatoon Blades ended with a thud.
(Click here for the full Memorial Cup Blog)
The host Blades have come under fire all season and went out in decisive fashion losing 6-1 to London in the tie-breaker game. The loss didn't reflect how competitive the Blades had been in their previous three games in the tournament.
“We ran out of gas,” said Blades Coach and GM Lorne Molleken. “That plain and simple. The mistakes that we made London took full advantage.”
It's a season that saw the Blades start slowly and appear at risk of not making the playoffs before an 18-game winning streak that vaulted them into 2nd spot in the Eastern Conference by the end of the regular season.
It appeared the Blades had righted the ship before another of a recent string of playoff meltdowns. After being swept in the first round by the 7th seeded Medicine Hat Tigers, Saskatoon faced 51 days worth of questions about how much they deserved to be in the tournament they were hosting.
In the end those questions appeared to have been justified as the Blades looked out of their league in the first elimination game of this year's Memorial Cup.
“Our players have nothing to be ashamed about,” Molleken said. “After 51 days of hard practice they left it on the ice.”
Saskatoon appeared game early in the tournament. They battled London hard in a 3-2 loss to open things up last week and managed to beat an excellent Halifax team 5-2 in front of a very enthusiastic crowd on Sunday. Saskatoon also went toe-to-toe with Portland before letting things slip away in the third period of a 4-2 loss on Wednesday.
“Tough year for all of us and we fought through it as one,” said Blades defenceman Matt Pufahl. “It's a group I'm never going to forget. Going through everything together, that five weeks of hell together... we came out and competed against these teams and that's what we wanted to do.”
So what happened against London? Give the Knights credit. They played very strong defensive hockey after two games of struggles in their goal and in their zone.
“I thought we did a good job on the PK,” said Knights Coach Dale Hunter. “We kept them to the outside, they got some shots, we were strong in front. You've got to clear rebounds and you've got to block shots. The kids did that tonight.”
The Blades had fire right off the puck drop and got the puck to the net immediately. They drew a power play and seemed to have some decent early momentum. That got blown quickly as Bo Horvat got behind the Blades and forced Nicholls to interfere with him. Horvat converted the penalty shot and London sucked all the wind out of Saskatoon's sails to take a 1-0 early lead.
“That's a big goal to give up,” said Blades Captain Brenden Walker. “It's over... it's over. We can answer all these questions all we want... it's just a tough way...”
The Blades seemed tentative and nervous with the puck for the rest of the first period. While London's goaltending had been shaky in the tournament, Saskatoon didn't really test Jake Patterson. The Knights outshot them 11-8 and neither team showed much fire. It was surprising that Saskatoon didn't try and test Patterson more even with some outside shots after London's goaltending really struggled in their last two games.
A double-minor power play early in the second period could have been a huge opportunity to tie the game. Instead the Blades managed only one shot and no scoring chances, while London actually got the puck to the Saskatoon net three times and had a couple of decent opportunities to score in the process. The lifeless power play actually drew some boos from the frustrated home fans.
Missing out on that power play would come back to haunt the Blades pretty quickly as London scored on their next man advantage. Seth Griffith made a nifty move around Valcourt and ripped a shot Makarov to give London a 2-0 lead. The Blades lost themselves a bit giving up all sorts of space to London for a one-time goal by Tierney shortly after and Valcourt took a bad unsportsmanlike penalty they had to kill off.
The game unraveled in the third period as London scored three quick goals to take a 6-0 lead and just held on the rest of the way. Nathan Burns put Saskatoon on the board, but that's as close as they would get.
It was tough to watch the most senior Blade, veteran Josh Nicholls try to compose himself after his junior career game to an end like that that.
“Saskatoon's been a great city for myself and for my family,” Nicholls struggled through tears to say. “I have a lot to thank the Blades for. They've helped me out with so much. I love it here and call this city my home. It's a tough way to end things... I'll move on with my career and hope for the best.”
Nicholls quickly left the media scrum saying he couldn't do it. The New York Rangers prospect had maybe been the best Blade in the tournament and certainly left the fans that watched him grow up with a strong final showing over the four games.
There are many questions left to ask about the Blades. What went wrong? Will Lorne Molleken be back? Should this example change the way host teams are selected or change the format of the Memorial Cup?
For now a group of young men are heart broken while another lives to play another day.
London faces Portland on Friday night for the right to play Halifax in Sunday's Memorial Cup championship game. Puck drop is 6pm from Saskatoon.
Click here for the boxsore
(Uploaded audio posted later tonight)
Sat, Apr 27, 10:00 AM
Agriculture, Transport
Featured
