Blades Shut-out Rebels.....

Tonight the bridge city bunch welcomed back 3 veteran players to their line-up...Teigan Zahn,Curtis Hamilton and Jyri Niemi all played tonight. It was a big boost. Also Curt Gogol returned to action after his suspension that made him miss the last 3 out of 4 games to end the regular season.

The Rebels had a decent amount of puck possession in the 1st period. The Blades on the other hand played disciplined hockey(something I was worried about) The Blades took 3 penalties in the game compared to Red Deer's 7 penalties.

The Blades out shot the Rebels through 1 period 14-8.

All of the damage was done in the 1st period by the Blades.

The Blades were hitting and this is good,it must continue if the Blades want to wear the Rebels down.

Steven Stanford played well but credit his defence core as well.

As usual rookie forward Brent Benson was doing everything in his power to create something positive for the Blades and he made a hit or attempted a hit and got the worst of it... He was favoring his shoulder,and would later attempt to test it out,see if he could return.... He did not. He may sit out Sunday's game #2.

The Blades pretty much coasted along the rest of the way,but with 4:00 left in the 3rd period Red Deer pulled their goalie..... I could hear from people around me "why are they doing it now"
They were trying to get back into the game and the best way to do that is to have an extra man out there,like a power play. The Rebels did a great job of keeping the puck in the Blades end while their goalie was on the bench.

The Blades take the 1st game 3-0. Curt Gogol was the 3rd star, Steven Stanford was the 2nd star, Gaelan Patterson was the 1st star.

The hit of the game was made by Charles Inglis.

I think we will see Jeremy Boyer take Brent Benson`s place in the line-up (that is if Benson`s shoulder is not 100%.)

Moose Jaw has a 2-0 series lead over the Calgary Hitmen.... I hope the Warriors can take out the Hitmen...that would be awesome.

Anything can happen in the playoffs........

Something that I thought was very creative... Their were white cardboard banner type signs with a handful of players last names,and so those were spotted all around the arena, I think those props will be joining the booster club in Red Deer next week... A trip that I am VERY excited to make!!!!!!!!!!!!

Game 2 goes Sunday...same place,same time.