Saunderson goal lifts Blades to 2-1 overtime victory over Red Deer

The Saskatoon Blades will hit the road to Red Deer on Monday with a 2-0 series lead in their pocket.

Defenceman Ben Saunderson scored his second goal of the playoffs on a beautiful feed from captain Trevor Wong at 17:01 of the first overtime period to give the Blades a 2-1 victory Sunday evening at SaskTel Centre in  front of 8,051 fans.

“I didn’t see it go in,” Saunderson said. “I just heard the crossbar and the crowd and it went in.

“I saw Wong go down the far side there and I know he’s always looking for a pass – he’s an incredible playmaker – so I thought I’d jump in and he found me and I found the net,” he added.

Ben Saunderson nets his second of the playoffs in overtime off a beautiful feed from Trevor Wong!

Blades win 2-1 in OT and take a 2-0 series lead heading to Red Deer. pic.twitter.com/crox6fnXvv

— Shane (@ShaneC06) April 15, 2024

Saskatoon won the opening game of the WHL’s Eastern Conference semifinal 4-1 on Friday.

Saunderson’s goal in Game 2 almost didn’t happen, as early in overtime, John Babcock turned the puck over that gave the Rebels a glorious chance. Thankfully for Babcock, he slid in the crease and the puck hit his body and didn’t cross the goal line.

“Unfortunately, I made a bad turnover to cause that, but I’m glad I could kind of save the game there and get a skate on it. I saw the puck over Evan (Gardner’s) shoulder there and just slid on it and hoped for the best,” said Babcock.

Saunderson isn’t known as a goal scorer. He had only six regular-season goals over his four seasons with the Blades. So far in the WHL playoffs, Saunderson already has two, including the overtime winner that he called the biggest goal of his life.

He mentioned it’s an area he had worked on throughout last summer.

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said Saunderson’s hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“What can’t he do? We as a staff have felt like this for a while,” he said. “He’s bright, he’s brainy, he knows his structure, he skates really well, he can make plays, he’s a leader and a great teammate. Him building that (offence) this season and the belief in that I think has been huge for our team.”

Even though Saunderson was the OT hero, Sonne also gave Wong a lot of praise for finding the defenceman wide open on the left side of the ice.

“(Wong) had 101 points for a reason,” Sonne said of Wong’s regular-season output. “I thought the play he made was incredibly poised. He had (Egor) Sidorov and (Brandon) Lisowsky driving and he was looking for them initially on the rush, pulled up and found Saunderson in the soft ice.

“There’s not many guys who can make that play and that’s why he had 101 points.”

Saunderson added an assist in the game. In the second period, he banked a puck off the glass to Fraser Minten, who got a two-on-none out of it. Minten scored five-hole on Debden product Chase Wutzke to give the Blades a 1-0 lead in the second period.

The Blades outshot the Rebels 49-25 on the evening and dominated the first 40 minutes, but were only up 1-0. That’s because Wutzke was sensational for the Rebels and wasn’t giving them many second chances.

In the third period, Shaunavon’s Kalen Lind scored his third of the playoffs on the power play to tie the game 1-1.

Just over a minute later, the tide of the game nearly shifted after Easton Armstrong was given a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct for running into Wutzke after following up on a loose puck close to the crease.

Wutzke was down for several minutes and appeared to be in pain, but somehow was able to stay in the game and prevent affiliate goaltender Taylor Tabashniuk from making his first career WHL appearance.

It’s not known if Armstrong will be suspended or not. Rebels head coach Dave Struch felt the penalty was worth the severity of the hit and didn’t comment further than that.

Sonne didn’t think Armstrong was trying to hurt the Rebels’ goalie.

“I don’t think the intention is there,” Sonne said. “I think he’s trying to make a play at the net and it was an unfortunate collision. I don’t want to see anyone go down — Red Deer or Saskatoon.”

Sonne felt it took his team a little while to get into that desperation mode you typically see during the playoffs, but suggested he really saw his team do that in the third period and overtime.

For Struch, he was pleased with how his team was able to defend a skilled Blades team.

“We say that defence wins championships and I think the first 40 minutes we played really good without the puck against a high-end team,” Struch said. “I know we didn’t get the shot total we needed to win a hockey game, but I thought in the third period and overtime we played a great playoff game.”

Struch had nothing but positive things to say about Wutzke and the way he battled.

“He gave us a chance. That’s something he did for us against Medicine Hat. I look at the second and third opportunities that Saskatoon didn’t get; that goes back to what we did defensively and being at the right place at the right time,” Struch explained. “Overall, for Chase to play the way he did, it was a good bounce-back game for us and he gave us a chance.”

Despite the overtime win, Sonne doesn’t expect any momentum to carry over into Game 3 in Red Deer on Tuesday night.

“I don’t think momentum carries game to game,” he said. “I don’t even think it carries period to period. I think it carries more shift to shift.”

Game 3 is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Game 4 is set for Wednesday, also at 7 p.m.