Blades face elimination Wednesday after 4-1 loss against Calgary in game three

The Saskatoon Blades’ season will be on the line at home Wednesday night.

The Blades dropped game three of their first-round WHL playoff series 4-1 against the Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday, to fall behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.

After a back-and-forth first period, the Hitmen opened the scoring with 53 seconds remaining in the first off a tip from David Adaszynski.

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Trailing 1-0 heading into the second, Blades forward David Lewandowski netted his first goal of the playoffs from the top right circle on the power play to beat Calgary goalie Anders Miller and tie the game at 1-1.

The Blades continued to press after Lewandowski’s goal, but a big save by Miller midway through the second period shifted the momentum for the Hitmen.

Prince Albert’s Tanner Howe put the Hitmen up 2-1 on a broken play in front of the Blades’ net, and followed that up with a beautiful pass to Ben Kindel, who beat Blades goaltender Evan Gardner to make it 3-1.

In the third, the Hitmen shut things down and prevented the Blades from doing much of anything.

Tisdale’s Connor Hvidston put the game on ice, scoring with 11:33 remaining in the third to make it 4-1 for Calgary.

The two points from Howe added to his team-leading total of six so far through the first three games.

Despite the bounces going his way, Howe credited his team for helping get him off to an explosive start in the playoffs.

“It’s a team effort. I think our team’s playing how we got to play. I think that helps a lot,” Howe said.

Howe’s coach, Paul McFarland, credited his team’s ability to weather a flurry of opportunities in the first 40 minutes from the Blades, saying that’s the reason his team was able to come away with the victory.

“We knew we were gonna have to weather it. We figured they were going to have a lot of jump coming home,” McFarland said.

“I thought we got better as the game went on, which is most important for us, and the third period was our best. I know we want to be a team that plays our best when the game’s on the line. I thought we did that tonight.”

Blades’ backs up against the wall

Despite being down 3-0 in the series, Blades head coach Dan Da Silva said he felt his players did a lot of things well in game three.

“I saw our team show up and work. I saw them show up and compete and I saw them give everything they have. I thought that we deserved better through 40 minutes,” Da Silva explained.

“I thought that if we get one in the second period there, and a couple of those opportunities, it’s a different hockey game,” he added. “You have to give them credit. They’re hard to play against. They don’t give you many opportunities, so when you get them you’ve got to make the most of them, and we were unable to do that tonight.”

Da Silva said his group is working to get better every single day, and he thinks his team will be ready to go on Wednesday, despite facing an uphill climb.

“We got to play for each other tomorrow. We got to play for the 20-year-olds in that room that potentially could be playing in their last hockey game, and we don’t want that to happen. We got to take it one shift at a time and just empty the tank,” Da Silva said.

“It’s not over,” Da Silva added. “Fat lady hasn’t sung yet.”

Game four is scheduled for 7 p.m. at SaskTel Centre.