Riders to wear Indigenous-designed logo during Saturday's game
11h ago
The logo was designed by Chris Chipak, a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation.
It was mission accomplished for the Saskatoon Blades over the weekend.
The Blades won both games of a home-and-home series against the second-last place Moose Jaw Warriors, ending a Sunday matinee with a 4-3 overtime win at SaskTel Centre.
Sunday’s game ended in a much closer fashion than Love was hoping for, considering his team outshot the Warriors 48-22 and led 3-1 on the scoreboard entering the third period.
“We find a way to do it to ourselves a lot of nights,” Love said about his team’s penchant for close games this season.
“We make life a lot harder on ourselves than we need to sometimes… at the end of the day we found a way to get the two points.”
Two goals in a 1:20 span – one goal from a Logan Doust one-timer in close to the net and another on a breakaway from Ryder Korczak – wiped away the Blades lead less than seven minutes into the third period.
Tristen Robins rescued the victory for the Blades to cap a three point night with one goal and two assists on top of his two goals and two assists in an 8-2 win in Moose Jaw on Saturday.
“It’s a little more dramatic getting (the winning goal) in the last minute (of overtime),” Robins said. “It was for sure quite a rush.”
The Blades, now with 16 games remaining in the schedule, are looking to make up some much needed ground in the East Division standings as the team continues to cling to the final wild card position in the Eastern Conference.
Up next are the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday. Saskatoon is tied with Brandon for third in the East Division, but still holds on to the final wildcard spot due to playing one more game than its division rivals.
“It’s more four points than two points,” Robins said of the potential point swing in the standings with another game against the Wheat Kings happening in Brandon on Friday.
“We’re trying to catch them in the division and these next two games against them are huge. It’s really going to decide where we stack up against them and what we’re in for the rest of the year.”
Love couldn’t understate the importance of making up ground in the standings with a rival-laden schedule remaining the rest of the season.
“We’ve got our biggest game and toughest game of the season Wednesday against Brandon,” Love said.
“We’ve had a lot of good games this year against teams above us in the standings. We’ve come to the rink motivated, ready to play – we’re going to need to be dialed up to play a very good Brandon team.”