Mixed results for Blades so far on American swing
For the Saskatoon Blades, there is little or no room for error these days.
“Especially when you’re out here, there isn’t a lot,” confirmed Blades head coach Dean Brockman, whose team continues its U.S. road swing in Everett, Wash., where it plays the Silvertips in Western Hockey League action Saturday night.
After splitting their first two games in Tri-Cities and Spokane, the Blades have games in Everett, Portland and Seattle before returning home next week.
Saskatoon is 10-13-2-1 and two points behind the Prince Albert Raiders for an Eastern Conference wild-card playoff berth.
“For us, it’s finding that consistency,” Brockman said. “We just have to play within our parameters of the game. When we try and do too much, and don’t work hard enough, we get ourselves in trouble. Our big thing is our work ethic. If our work ethic is there and strong, and certainly we’re doing a lot of the right things, we’re OK, but when we get lazy and give up odd-man rushes and turn pucks over, obviously we’re not a very good team.
“Those little things are crucial to our success.”
The Blades opened their U.S. jaunt with an impressive 5-2 victory over the Tri-City Americans in Kennewick, Wash., before dropping a 6-2 decision to the Chiefs the next night in Spokane.
“Our first game, for coming off the bus for that length, I thought we did a pretty good job of keeping in the game and doing a lot of good things,” explained Brockman. “The second game, we were right there with them and then we had a 5-on-3 (early in the second period with the game knotted at 2-2) and didn’t capitalize on that and it just seemed to really turn the momentum of the game and we just couldn’t seem to battle back,” he added.
“We looked a lot more tired in the second half of the second game than the first game and a half.”
The Blades will welcome back forward Logan Christensen into the lineup Saturday against the Silvertips.
However, the Blades have lost forward Caleb Fantillo to a lowerbody injury and he’ll miss the remainder of the U.S. road trip and possibly more after the team returns home next week.
“We’re not sure exactly, but he won’t be playing on this trip anymore,” offered Brockman. “Once we get back, we’ll know exactly what the details of his injury will be.”
The Blades won’t be calling anybody up to fill the spot now that Christensen is ready to go.
“We’re actually OK,” added Brockman. “We’ll run with the guys we have for now.”