Blades survive elimination again by defeating Rebels to force Game 7

After losing the first three games of a best-of-seven WHL second-round series against the Red Deer Rebels, the Saskatoon Blades have won three straight to force Game 7.

They extended the series with a 5-3 Game 6 victory on Sunday afternoon in Red Deer.

Only two teams in WHL history have been able to overcome an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series: the Spokane Chiefs in 1996 and the Kelowna Rockets in 2013.

The Blades were focused on the task at hand Sunday as Egor Sidorov finished his wraparound shot with only one hand on his stick to give Saskatoon an early lead 34 seconds into the game.

Egor Sidorov gets the @BladesHockey started less than a minute into Game 6!#WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingTheFuture pic.twitter.com/psg0REk6HU

— The WHL (@TheWHL) April 23, 2023

Trevor Wong then doubled the Blades’ lead, putting the puck into a wide-open net after Brandon Lisowsky drew both Red Deer defencemen to him and rang his own shot off the post. That gave the Blades a 2-0 lead going into the second period.

The Rebels were able to cut into the lead in half after Jace Isley scored on a rebound after a shot from the blue line five minutes into the middle frame.

The Blades gave themselves a bit of a cushion after Sidorov’s second of the game, when the line of Sidorov, Wong and Lisowsky were left all alone in the front of the net and completed a nice passing play to restore the two-goal lead.

The @BladesHockey restore their two-goal lead on the WHL version of a pick-six!#WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingTheFuture pic.twitter.com/wTW05ag8aD

— The WHL (@TheWHL) April 23, 2023

Jake Chiasson then made it a 4-1 game for the Blades — scoring his fourth of the playoffs — when defenceman Connor Shugrue intercepted a Rebels clearing attempt and fed Chiasson in the slot.

But Red Deer wasn’t going to roll over.

The Rebels’ Kai Uchacz scored his ninth of the playoffs with only 28 seconds left in the second period. He drove into the Saskatoon end and fired a shot from the slot while Austin Elliott couldn’t see the puck after being slightly screened from Blades captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere.

Isley then potted his second of the game midway through the third period to make it a one-goal game.

Saskatoon was able to secure the win after Jayden Wiens scored into an empty net to push the second-round series to a deciding Game 7.

Frustrations may have boiled over from Red Deer, as there were 11 penalties in the final two minutes from the Rebels. Those included two fighting majors and a 10-minute misconduct. Saskatoon had six penalties in that same timespan, which also included two fighting majors and a 10-minute misconduct.

That will lead to a dramatic finish on Tuesday when a series-deciding seventh game will be played in Saskatoon at SaskTel Centre. Puck drop for Game 7 is at 7 p.m.