Blades Pull Off Historic, Upset, Game 7 Overtime Victory Over Oil Kings

The only lower-seeded team to beat a higher-seeded team in the opening round of the W-H-L playoffs is the Saskatoon Blades.

The sixth-ranked Bridge City Bunch completed an upset of the third-ranked Edmonton Oil Kings when Rowan Calvert (pictured) deflected David Lewandowski’s power play point shot into the E-O-K net at 7:23 of overtime for a 3-2 victory. The script was flipped from Sunday’s 3-2, double overtime Edmonton victory when the Blue and Gold failed to score on a man advantage in the fifth period, leading to the Oil Kings’ winner that forced Game 7. E-O-K had a chance on the power play before Calvert’s winner, but failed to score. However, it took a series-saving blocked shot by Blades’ defenceman Brayden Klimpke on a point-blank opportunity for Edmonton’s regular-season points leader Lukas Sawchyn to keep the game going. For a second straight game, Cooper Williams scored the tying goal to send the contest to extra time. Instead of waiting until there were seven seconds left in regulation time, as he did on Sunday, Williams tallied just 33 seconds after Oil Kings’ captain Gavin Hodnett gave E-O-K their first lead at 2-1 with just under six minutes remaining in the third period. The teams also exchanged power play goals to open the scoring in the second period as Lewandowski and Aaron Obobaifo tallied two minutes apart. The shots on goal were even at 32-32. It was a series of historic firsts for Saskatoon. It was their first Game 7 victory on the road in franchise history in 12 tries. It was the first series victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings in four tries, in the first post-season meeting in 55 years. It was the first time the Bridge City Bunch w0n a Game 7 in 0vertime in franchise hist0ry in their third try. The series also had the teams alternate wins, which meant the road team won five of the seven games. It’s the second straight year that E-O-K has been eliminated from the playoffs in a seventh game in the opening round after falling to the Prince Albert Raiders in 2025. Monday’s result means the Blue and Gold will meet the Raiders in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final series, beginning Friday in P-A. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Les Lazaruk’s Post-Game Show interviews with head coach Dan Da Silva, Calvert, Klimpke, goaltender Evan Gardner, Edmonton broadcast analyst Guy Flaming, as well as a second intermission chat with Blades’ President and G-M Colin Priestner plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) EDMONTON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 6:46 PP  11-16-27 3rd 14:52  16-23-27 3 4 16 23 27 23 27 47 92 95 OT 7:23 PP  23-11-47

EDMONTON Goals EDMONTON PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 8:46 PP  34-24-43 3rd 14:19  17-34-24 17 27 34 43 55 9 11 26 37 47