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Blades 7, Rebels 0
One year after completing a so-called “reverse sweep” over the Red Deer Rebels, the Saskatoon Blades have swept the Rebels in four straight.
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For the second straight night, Egor Sidorov notched a hat-trick to lead Saskatoon’s attack as the Blades blanked the Rebels 7-0 Wednesday night at Red Deer to move on to the next round of playoffs.
For the second straight year, Saskatoon advances to the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference final after eliminating Red Deer.
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The Blades will meet either the Moose Jaw Warriors or Swift Current Broncos in this year’s Eastern final. That series will begin next week.
On Wednesday, the Blades put the pedal to the metal in the first period and never looked back.
“I loved the work,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne in a post-game CJWW Radio interview with play-by-play broadcaster Les Lazaruk.
“After the first period, we were just really happy with the work part. That’s what we asked for today. We made little adjustments on breakouts and things like that, but the main part is you’ve got to work and I thought we did in the first period.”
Rowan Calvert, Brandon Lisowsky, Fraser Minten and Alexander Suzdalev also scored Wednesday for Saskatoon, which led 4-0 and 6-0 by periods.
Sidorov collected a pair of assists for a five-point night.
Rookie Evan Gardner — who was pulled in Game 3 after allowing four goals — made 26 saves for the shutout win for the Blades, who outshot the Rebels 31-26.
“He played phenomenal.” said Sonne. “I kind of expected it to be that way. I’m very happy with him that he predictably responds to a challenge.”
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Saskatoon went 1-for-3 on the power play. Red Deer was 0-for-2.
“By in large, the guys were into hit and I was happy with the work,” said Sonne.
Affiliate player Taylor Tabashniuk, who was called up from the Regina Pat Canadians after their season was done, once again got the start in net for the Rebels, replacing the injured Chase Wutzke.
Wutzke got hurt in a collision with Blades forward Easton Armstrong in Game 2. Armstrong, who was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct, was also slapped with a four-game suspension and will miss the first two games of the Eastern final.
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