Blades Crush Raiders in Game 1

It started early, and was over early.

In the end, Saskatoon won the game 8-1.

The Saskatoon Blades led game one last night against the Raiders 3-0 after the first period and never looked back. Matej Stransky got Saskatoon on the board within the first three minutes with his first career WHL playoff goal in his first career WHL playoff game.

Brayden Schenn and Dalton Thrower had the other goals in the first.

Saskatoon continued to put the pedal to the metal in the 2nd period. Todd Fiddler scored for PA at 3:33, and that gave Saskatoon that extra push they need to put the game back out of reach. Stefan Elliott answered less than 2 minutes later to extend the lead to 4-1. Then Saskatoon really laid it on. Darren Dietz, Josh Nicholls and Brent Benson added 3 more goals as the Blades led 7-1 after 40 minutes of play.

That 7th goal also chased Raiders goalie Jamie Tucker. I figured we would see 17 year old Eric Williams in goal for PA eventually, but I didn't think it would be this soon. And a credit to Williams, he looked very good and was pretty much the only bright spot for the Raiders.

Dalton Thrower scored his 2nd goal of the game in the third period to totally ice things, an 8-1 final.

Matej Stransky had 1 goal and 3 assists and was the first star of the game.

Lost in the shuffle was Steven Stanford. The Blades goalie was very solid, making 33 saves to earn the W. And to think that Regina Pats head coach Curtis Hunt said that "the goaltending between Stanford and Tucker was a draw in this series". Yeah, right Curtis.

Over 8,000 fans attended the game and that was great to see. I was between the benches and boy oh boy was it loud down there. It was fun and I look forward to doing it again.

I will get the chance tonight as the rematch goes at CUC. An early puck drop tonight, at 6:05. We will go on the air at 5:00 with the hour long pre-game show.

I will try to post a preview later this morning or early this afternoon, we'll see if I have time. It's been a long 24 hours for myself, and it's only going to get longer in the next few weeks. Atleast I hope so, and I wouldn't have it any other way.