Blades Find “Special” Ways to Overcome Hard-Working Rebels

It doesn’t seem to matter who the head coach is, the Red Deer Rebels always seem to play the same way – an aggressive, physical and hard-working style of hockey that is tough to win against. But, the Saskatoon Blades found a way – sending most of the 8,387 fans at SaskTel Centre home happy with a 4-2 triumph over Red Deer.

Special teams were the difference as the Bridge City Bunch scored twice on four power play chances and killed off both Rebels’ man advantages – chances that overlapped each other, giving Red Deer 31 seconds of 5-on-3 advantage with the score tied 1-1 in the second period. Hunter Laing and Rowan Calvert notched the power play goals in the second period for the Blue and Gold, now 3-2-0 for the season, with Zach Olsen and Triston Mitchell-McElhone adding the others in the third period. German import forward Dustin Willhoft chipped in two assists. For a third straight game, the Blades allowed the opening goal – but were able to come-from-behind for a Friday night triumph. Saskatoon out-shot Red Deer, now 1-3-0 to start the season, by a 33-24 count. The large crowd, fuelled by $5 tickets, $5 burgers and $5 beers, means 18,291 tickets have been sold for the first two home games of the 2025-26 season. The Rebels move on to Prince Albert Saturday as Marc Habscheid returns to where he led the Raiders to a W-H-L championship in 2019. Habscheid also played for the Bridge City Bunch for three seasons between 1979 and 82, potting 100 goals amongst 253 points in 142 games. The Blue and Gold’s next action is Sunday in Brandon. Game time is 3 o’clock with CJWW’s broadcast at 2:45. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, as well as Post-Game Show comments from head coach Dan Da Silva, Laing and Olsen, plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L website…..

RED DEER Goals RED DEER PLAYERS (plus) SASKATOON PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 1st 17:38  22-21-7 7 14 17 21 22 9 17 41 47 71 3rd 5:38  21-8-4 4 8 14 21 22 3 4 20 23 26

SASKATOON Goals SASKATOON PLAYERS (plus) RED DEER PLAYERS (minus) Per. Time  G-As1-As2 2nd 4:36 PP  27-4-11 2nd 17:45 PP  23-17-47 3rd 4:46  9-17-71 9 17 41 47 71 7 8 16 17 24 3rd 8:59  25-77-18 3 18 25 47 77 7 8 11 16 24