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Blades 3, Warriors 2 (OT)
Fraser Minten clearly came to play Saturday.
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It was Minten who converted on a two-on-one break at 13:06 of overtime to give his Saskatoon Blades a 3-2 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors and even up their Western Hockey League Eastern Conference final at one game apiece.
Minten finished off a centering pass from Lukas Hansen to beat Warriors netminder Jackson Unger for what he says was his biggest goal of his young hockey career.
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“In playoffs like that, that’s a new level for me,” said Minten, who started the season with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs before being acquired by the Blades from the Kamloops Blazers in late November.
“I just saw space up that left side. I just tried to get up as quick as I could. Hanny made a great pass and I just tried to get it on net.”
What was a best-of-seven series is now a best-of-five.
“It’s great,” said Minten. “It’s why you play all year, for opportunities and moments like that. It’s an unreal feeling.”
Tanner Molendyk and Brandon Lisowsky also scored for Saskatoon, which bounced back from a 2-nothing deficit after the opening period.
“The series has come as advertised, hasn’t it?” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “It’s close. It’s elite. It’s fast. It’s competitive. I’m proud of the guys for sticking with it. You don’t go anywhere by not digging in and you have to stick with it.”
Moose Jaw was 0-for-2 with the man-advantage but stuck it to the Blades in the first period.
“Our first wasn’t our best,” admitted Minten. “You don’t want to go down 2-0 to a team like this going back to their rink. We kind of dug in the dressing room after the first and ‘we’re not going to be denied’ — that was our mindset, doing everything we could. From the start of the second on, I thought it was our game.”
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Indeed, the Blades’ fortunes changed in the second as they scored a pair of goals to knot the score at 2-2.
“They just came out a little harder than us,” said Warriors D-man Denton Mateychuk. “They beat us to pucks. They were a bit quicker to jump and I think that’s kind of what killed us in the second there.”
Atley Calvert and Clavet product Kalem Parker had given the Warriors a 2-0 lead after the first period.
“They can score a lot of goals,” said Lisowsky, “but I think we never lost our belief or hope. We just believed in each other. We were positive on the bench. We were saying it, but we were also doing it and I’m proud of the boys for just sticking with it and tying the series up.”
Saskatoon outshot Moose Jaw 37-27.
Rookie Evan Gardner made 25 saves for the win. Unger stopped 34 shots in the loss.
“There are going to be a lot of swings and you’ve got to ride those waves,” said Mateychuk.
“You’ve got to be ready for that, adapt and overcome.”
The Blades went 1-for-4 on the power play.
Molendyk’s power-play goal got his team rolling in the second period to spark the comeback, capped off in the end by Minten’s OT winner.
“I thought it was a pretty even game and it’s an unfortunate way for the game to end,” said Moose Jaw coach Mark O’Leary.
“It’s an unfortunate way for us to lose the game.”
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