Saskatoon StarPhoenix

BLADES ON THE EDGE

Playoffs in reach at last

- KEVIN MITCHELL kemitchell@postmedia.com twitter.com/ kmitchsp

Early exit piled onto early exit, year by year by year, but now look at them.

The Saskatoon Blades are on the cusp of making the Western Hockey League playoffs, which is a huge deal for a franchise that hasn’t played a post-season game since 2013.

“It’s in the back of everybody’s minds — that there’s an opportunit­y to finally break the playoff hex in Saskatoon,” Blades rookie head coach Mitch Love said Tuesday, while taking a mini-break from the day-to-day hockey bustle.

Blades players haven’t been on ice since dispatchin­g the host Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-2 on Saturday. They’re back in blades for a Wednesday practice; Love figures there could be a long stretch between the Christmas break and season’s end, so no better time for a breather than now.

The Blades have won seven straight games — outscoring opponents 42-16 during that stretch — and can clinch a playoff spot if they beat Brandon Friday on the road. They’re 11-0-2-0 in their last 13 games, and have the WHL’S fourth-best winning percentage.

Their overall record is 37-13-8-0, and they’ve put this season together with a first-time head coach.

“When I was hired here, I knew what the purpose of the organizati­on was in terms of finally getting this team into a playoff position,” said Love, who spent seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Everett Silvertips before landing the Saskatoon job.

“It’s an exciting time for the franchise; it’s an exciting time for the city of Saskatoon, to have an opportunit­y to hopefully see some extra hockey in March and April, and hopefully longer than that. I’m proud of the strides we’ve made as a group, but there’s still a lot of hockey to be played.”

The Blades have 10 games left in their regular season, then playoffs. That five-season stretch without a post-season game looks even worse when you consider that they haven’t won a WHL playoff game since 2011. They were swept in three straight series between then and 2013.

But that’s of little consequenc­e to Love, who wasn’t around during any of this drought, though he is aware of the history.

“It’s my first time being a head coach at any level, so I didn’t know what to expect when I got hired in June,” he says.

“Our guys have embraced the challenges and the process of coming to the rink and putting ourselves in this position. That was the goal at the beginning of the year. There’s lots of hockey to still be played, and we’re just excited the guys are having fun coming to the rink and being successful. We have to keep on top of that.”

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 ?? LIAM RICHARDS ?? Chase Wouters and the Saskatoon Blades have won seven straight and 11 of their last 13 games.
LIAM RICHARDS Chase Wouters and the Saskatoon Blades have won seven straight and 11 of their last 13 games.

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