First-place Blades look to return to winning ways
After winning 11 straight, the Saskatoon Blades suddenly find themselves on a two-game losing skid.
They hope to return to their winning ways when they play host to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday night. Game-time is 7 p.m. at Sasktel Centre, where the Blades are 23-3-1.
Saskatoon, which has been outscored 9-1 in its last two games, had not been blanked during a 424-day span prior to a 5-0 loss Tuesday to the visiting Red Deer Rebels.
Prior to that game, the last time the Blades had been shut out was back on Dec. 30, 2022, in Winnipeg.
On Tuesday, former Saskatoon Contacts goalie Chase Wutzke stole the show with a 36-save shutout performance for Red Deer as the Rebels were outshot 36-20.
“You don't learn anything when things are going well. You don't learn anything, in a relationship or anything, when everything 's going perfectly,” Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said.
“You learn when it's not going your way. You learn what people are made of when the chips are down. What I've learned from this group, over the course of the years I've been here, is that we fight. We're fighters. So, while there are areas we need to address — there are areas we need to work at, there are areas that are unacceptable — at the same time, we're not shying away from it. We're going to face it head-on.”
Saskatoon remains first in the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference and first overall with a 42-11-2-3 record.
“Sometimes it's going to happen,” said Sonne about the team's back-to-back losses and recent lack of scoring.
“Sometimes you make your luck, sometimes you don't. I think that, while it's easy to jump on a night like this to shake the leaf, you've got to understand that that's not us. We're a team that has faced adversity before and we're in it right now and we will face it head-on. We're not a team that gets rattled.”
The Blades have 10 games remaining in the regular season, including seven on home ice. Saskatoon has a 13-point lead on the Moose Jaw Warriors in the Eastern Conference.
In Tuesday's game, the only time the Blades were able to get the puck past Wutzke, they were denied by either the crossbar or post.
“I thought we were playing fast at times,” assessed Sonne. “The first couple of periods, I liked our legs and our jump and our (penalty-kill) was excellent.”