Young Blades Battle to the End, But Are Taken Out by Hitmen

The Calgary Hitmen are the first team to advance to the second round of the 2025 W-H-L playoffs, at the expense of the Saskatoon Blades.

Calgary completed a four-game sweep of the Bridge City Bunch with a 6-2 victory Wednesday, before 5,228 fans at SaskTel Centre. N-H-L Draft-eligible forward Ben Kindel scored three times for the Hitmen, his second tally being the back-breaker in Game 4 for the Blue and Gold, coming just 11 seconds after the Blades had rallied from 3-0 down to 3-2 midway through the second period. Zach Olsen and Hayden Harsanyi scored for Saskatoon, who were out-shot 36-29. After a scoreless opening period, the teams combined for six goals in the second frame with Calgary leading 4-2. The combative contest had 14 minor penalties, eight of them whistled against the Hitmen. Yet, there were no power play goals scored. In the end, Calgary had just too much for the Bridge City Bunch to handle. Between having 10, 19-year-old players and seven N-H-L Draft picks, the Hitmen never trailed in the four games. For the Blue and Gold, the experience for the second-youngest team in the W-H-L post-season didn’t last very long, but the future looks good for a team with only the full allotment of three, 20-year-olds and three, 19-year-olds. The end of the 2024-25 season for the Blades meant the end of the major junior careers for defencemen Ben Saunderson and Grayden Siepmann plus left winger Tanner Scott. Training camp for the 2025-26 season is less than five months away. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva and Saunderson and Les Lazaruk’s intermission chat with Blades’ owner Mike Priestner plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

CALGARY Goals CALGARY PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd :38  17-15-26 6 15 16 17 26 4 20 26 27 37 2nd 1:15  11-37-9 8 9 11 24 37 2 3 11 23 32 2nd 6:19  26-15 2 15 16 17 26 20 21 26 27 52 2nd 10:20  11-9 7 9 11 26 37 2 3 9 25 86 3rd 9:26  37 7 8 11 24 37 2 4 20 23 27 3rd 17:58 EN.SH  11-9 2 6 9 11 20 21 23 25 26 27

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) CALGARY PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 9:25  9-86 2 3 9 25 86 8 9 11 24 37 2nd 10:09  26-21-4 4 20 21 26 27 2 6 18 21 38