The Saskatoon Blades will play eight of their next nine games on the road, but so far they’re proving the naysayers wrong.
The Saskatoon Blades are on a roll with three straight wins and 7-1-1 record to start the new season.
They will play eight of their next nine games on the road, but so far, Saskatoon is proving the naysayers wrong.
“Proving people wrong is a big thing,” said Blades overage forward Brandon Lisowsky, who netted the game-winner Tuesday on a two-on-one at 3:27 of extra time.
“Obviously people don’t think we’re still a good team, but like I’ve been saying in the room, we think we’re still the best team in the league and I think that’s why our record shows that. We’ve had huge guys step up, the young guys stepping up. We have two great goalies and with just the young guys stepping up, the veterans leading the way, and when you put all three of those together you’re going to have good success.”
Rowan Calvert, Ben Riche and Tyler Parr also scored for the Blades, who outshot the Pats 29-26. Parr’s equalizer came with only 33 seconds left in regulation to send the game into OT.
“I’ve been saying this lots: it’s early and it’s a great start to the season, absolutely, but it’s just a start and it’s not about how you start; it’s how you finish,” stressed Blades’ first-year head coach Dan DaSilva, whose team is off to Alberta for games Thursday in Edmonton and Saturday in Calgary.
“We’re very, very happy with our record right now, but make no mistake, there’s lots of work to do here. You play like that most nights and you end up losing. We’re fortunate enough to win in the end, and find a way, but we need to clean up a lot of things and be better in a lot of areas.”
Logan Cunningham made 23 saves for his first win as a Blade.
“The first 40 weren’t our style of play,” noted Lisowsky. “I thought Cunning was solid back there and deserved his first win as a Blades. I thought we played a good third. That tying goal by Parrsy was huge and the last 20-24 minutes were Blades hockey and that’s what we need to move forward.”
Said DaSilva: “There were definitely some highs and lows, some good moments and not-so-good moments, but at the end of the day we were able to get the job done in overtime and tying it up late is always exciting and gets some energy on the bench. Was it our best game? No. It wasn’t even close to Blades hockey, what we’re capable of doing. We’re going to take some lessons out of this one and we know we have to be better.
“This is a resilient group. They’re never going to quit. They’re not going to roll over and die. You see it.”
Import forward David Lewandowski, a native of Germany, recorded an assist in his second game as a Blade.
“(The win) was pretty good because we were down 3-2 and in the last seconds we score,” said Lewandowski. “I think it shows character.”
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