UNDERMANNED WHEAT KINGS OVERPOWER BLADES.
If there was a time the Eastern Conference- leading Brandon Wheat Kings appeared to be ripe for the picking, it was Saturday night.
The Saskatoon Blades could not take advantage.
The Blades were walloped 7-3 — losing for the fifth time in six games against the WHL’s No. 2-ranked team — despite the Wheat Kings only dressing 16 skaters.
“But the ones that they have are still good,” Blades head coach and general manager Bob Woods said. “They don’t have a weak player. They’re a very strong team.
“They take advantage of you when you make mistakes. We made mistakes early. They made us pay and they probably could have made us pay more.”
Among the regulars missing for the Wheat Kings were Minnesota Wild prospect Reid Duke, potential 2015 NHL first-rounder Ivan Provorov and star rookies Nolan Patrick and Kale Clague.
Blue-liner Mark Taraschuk, forward Braylon Shmyr and former Blades goalie Alex Moodie were also out of the lineup.
The latter omission, due to a long-term upper-body injury, forced the Wheat Kings to dress emergency netminder Justin Holder because thirdstringer Logan Thompson contracted pink eye earlier in the week.
Aside from having to play with 10 forwards, all those absences were barely noticeable for the Wheat Kings (4410-4-2).
“It creates a challenge for your guys and that’s always a good thing,” head coach and general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “We do have good depth.
“Even though it was seven guys in our lineup that we don’t have tonight, we’ve still got a lot of good players playing. Our top two lines are as good as anybody’s top two lines the way we have them.”
They proved it on Saturday.
Five forwards — Peter Quenneville, John Quenneville, Jayce Hawryluk, Rihards Bukarts and Tim McGauley — had multi-point games.
Hawryluk and Bukarts both recorded two goals and a pair of helpers.
McGauley, the former Blades first-rounder in 2010, netted two goals and added an assist. He’s up to 37 goals and 84 points on the season.
Blades winger Ryan Graham actually scored 23 seconds in, earning his second goal in as many games since returning from a back injury. But it was basically all downhill from there once Morgan Klimchuk tied the game two minutes later.
The Wheat Kings carried a 4-1 lead into the intermission and never looked back.
“We got outworked,” said Blades rookie centre Wyatt Sloboshan, who had two assists.
“We didn’t work as hard as we should have. We should have been hard on them all game and they would have tired out by the third. We were too soft on them.”
The Blades (17-39-2-1) were playing their sixth game in nine days. Woods called them a “fatigued group.”
Still, he wasn’t pleased with their effort.
“We know we’re going to make mistakes. We know things aren’t going to go our way all the time,” Woods said. “To me, it’s frustrating tonight because we had a good crowd. I want us to show what we’re capable of. I don’t want them to see this side of us.
“We haven’t had many of these (types of performances) and that’s fortunate. But they’re never easy to take.”
Josh Uhrich and Brycen Martin scored the other Saskatoon goals.
Blades goaltender Nik Amundrud was much busier than his counterpart Jordan Papirny as Brandon had the wide edge in shots, 36-20.
The Wheat Kings could have been in tough given their short-handed roster. Instead, they dominated. That fact wasn’t lost on the Blades.
“I hope to be them one day. That’s our goal. That’s our vision,” Woods said.
“We’re a ways away from that. Tonight showed us that. That’s what a good team looks like.”
The Blades return to action Monday when they host the Regina Pats at 11:30 a.m.
BLADE BITS: Martin played in his 200th WHL game. Captain Brett Stovin played in his 250th.