Blades drop back-to-back games versus Rebels, down two in series

The Saskatoon Blades could not match the Red Deer Rebels on Sunday afternoon and now find themselves in familiar territory in the WHL playoffs.

Although it’s not a position the Blades want to get used to, the Rebels have taken both games in Saskatoon after a 5-2 victory in Game 2 of a best-of-seven second-round series.

“For me it’s moving on to the next game. (It) doesn’t matter what happened last game; all we can worry about is tomorrow. Obviously I like the results here tonight, but it’s about getting ready. (That’s a) good team over there,” Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk said postgame.

The Blades dropped the opening two games at home against the Regina Pats in the first round of the playoffs. Saskatoon rallied to win that series in seven games.

“We can’t worry about how they’re preparing. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re ready for the next game. And when we get to the rink (Monday), this game’s behind us,” Konowalchuk added.

On Sunday, after a scoreless opening frame in which only eight shots were recorded between the two teams, Red Deer opened the scoring in the second period on the power play.

Ben King scored his fourth goal of the playoffs — on the Rebels’ second power play of the period — getting it by a screened Austin Elliott.

Ben King opens the scoring in Game 2 on the powerplay.

1-0 Rebels. #WHLPlayoffs

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— steve seto (@steveseto) April 16, 2023

“We have a lot of offensive weapons up there in our top six. Honestly, our whole lineup, we’ve got some young offensive guys too. So if one line is not really chipping in offensively, we know another line is going to come up that game,” King said.

King knows a thing or two about scoring goals as he was a 50-goal scorer in the 2021-22 season.

“If my line’s not getting points, we’ve got (Kai) Uchacz’s line (and) we’ve got Ollie (Josephson)’s line so every line can chip in,” King added.

Rebels defenceman Christoffer Sedoff scored his fourth goal of the playoffs after firing a wrist shot past Elliott.

Red Deer put the game out of reach when a scrum in the corner in the Blades’ zone led to the puck leaking out to Jhett Larson, who scored his second goal in as many games to quickly make it a 3-0 Rebels lead.

That also meant the end of the night for Elliott, who was replaced by Ethan Chadwick.

That was almost identical to the first-round series.

Elliott got the nod for Game 1 against Regina and then was replaced by Chadwick in Game 2 after playing 32:31 against the Pats. In the second round, Elliott played all of Game 1 and then was replaced after playing 32:10 in Game 2.

Red Deer made sure there was no comeback attempt from the Blades as Carson Birnie scored the Rebels’ fourth goal of the game through a lot of traffic in front of Chadwick.

Brandon Lisowsky was able to break Kyle Kelsey’s bid for a shutout after scoring on his own rebound on the power play halfway through the third.

But Jayden Grubbe restored the Rebels’ four-goal lead with a highlight-reel goal shortly after.

Jayden Grubbe restores the four-goal lead for Red Deer.

5-1 Rebels. #WHLPlayoffs

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— steve seto (@steveseto) April 17, 2023

Saskatoon’s Charlie Wright was able to score a power-play goal with six seconds left in the game for the final goal of the night.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said after the game that Red Deer is just outworking his team through the first two games.

“I think that right now they want it more than we do,” Sonne said.

Sonne isn’t hitting the panic button, but he knows his team has to step up in Red Deer.

“We do have guys — Justin Lies tonight for example played extremely hard — we do have guys that are going, it’s just not everyone,” he said about his team’s effort.

But there were some positives to take out of it compared to Game 1.

“Honestly, I thought our start was much better. I thought, ‘OK, we’ve got some pace tonight,’ ” Sonne said.

But after a couple of penalties, Sonne felt the Blades lost their mojo after Red Deer scored and continued getting shots on their net. He was expecting a pushback that didn’t come.

While being down 2-0 again in a series, Lisowsky says the Blades learned some lessons last time, but they can’t take anything for granted.

“It’s for sure frustrating. Before going into the series we were like, ‘I think we learned our lesson going down 2-0 at home.’ And here we are again, but I think we know what we need to do. I think we need to play more desperate, we need to have some heart and want it more than they do,” Lisowsky said.

But the Rebels are going to be prepared knowing they will be getting the Blades’ best in Game 3.

“It’s not even about a 2-0 lead for me. It’s all about next game and I hope that’s the message we can get to the players. It doesn’t matter what happened now, so we’ve just got to get focused and get ready to play even better,” Konowalchuk said.

The Blades will also hope to have captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere in the lineup for Game 3 as he was absent for the third period Sunday. Sonne said he was battling an illness but it wasn’t too serious, but did not say if De La Gorgendiere would be ready for Tuesday night.

Game 3 is set for Tuesday in Red Deer.