Blades Overcome Late Stumble to Significantly Reduce Their Magic Number to Clinch a Playoff Spot Over Rebels

While they didn’t get the full amount of points knocked off their Magic Number to clinch a W-H-L playoff spot on Friday night, the Saskatoon Blades did the next best thing as they out-lasted the Rebels 3-2 in Red Deer.

David Lewandowski (pictured) notched the winner with 19 seconds remaining in O-T on a controversial play. The 18-year-old German became entangled with Rebels’ centre Samuel Drancak at the Bridge City Bunch blueline with both dropping to the ice. As both struggled to get back onto their skates, Lewandowski was able to get up and shove Drancak back down, allowing him to join the Blue and Gold rush into the Red Deer end of the ice, eventually finishing off a 3-on-2 passing play. The result meant two points gained by the Blades and one point lost by the Rebels, meaning Saskatoon’s Magic Number over Red Deer to clinch an Eastern Conference post-season berth was reduced from 10 to seven points. With two minutes remaining in the third period, it looked like the Bridge City Bunch would have that Magic Number down to six points as they led 2-0, only to have the Rebels notch two goals 79 seconds apart, both with goaltender Chase Wutzke on the bench for an extra attacker, to force O-T. It was the eighth time this season that the Blue and Gold had scored an overtime winning goal, tying them with Calgary for the league lead. Three of those extra time successes have come against the Rebels with all five games against Red Deer being decided by one goal. The win was the 30th of the season for the Blades, a franchise-record seventh consecutive season that Saskatoon has achieved that mark. Captain Ben Saunderson scored once and assisted on the other two Bridge City Bunch goals while fellow 20-year-old Tanner Scott notched a goal and chipped in a helper, plus Ethan McCallum turned in another stellar goaltending performance with 40 saves for the 30-18-7 Blue and Gold, as they were out-shot 42-29 by the desperate Rebels. Combined with Prince Albert downing Moose Jaw 4-1, Brandon being blanked 5-0 by Calgary and Swift Current losing 4-1 to Regina – the Raiders lead the East Division standings with 68 points, followed by the Blades and Wheat Kings with 67 and the Broncos in fourth with 58 points. Saskatoon’s next action isn’t until a Tuesday home game against Lethbridge. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Saunderson plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) RED DEER PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 15:38  29-3-2 2 3 9 29 72 3 5 15 18 19 3rd 12:43  2-72-29 2 3 29 72 77 6 8 14 18 21 OT 4:41  86-2-25 2 25 86 8 14 17

RED DEER Goals RED DEER PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 3rd 18:14  17-22-21 2 13 17 21 22 23 2 21 29 72 77 3rd 19:33  21-2 2 13 17 21 22 23 3 20 21 23 26