OT hero: D-man Ben Saunderson nets winner as Blades take 2-0 series lead over Rebels (2024)

Blades 2, Rebels 1 (OT)

Ben Saunderson has scored no bigger goal than this.

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It was the defenceman Saunderson who netted the game-winner at 17:01 of overtime Sunday as the Saskatoon Blades edged the Red Deer Rebels 2-1 to take a 2-0 series lead in their best-of-seven Western Hockey League Eastern Conference semifinal.

Biggest goal of his career?

“For sure,” said Saunderson, who scored five goals during the regular season. “A goal like that is definitely something I’ll remember for a while. To be honest, I didn’t see it in; I just heard the crowd.”

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The SaskTel crowd of 8,051 fans cheered on as Saunderson jumped into the slot area, found the puck on his stick on a centering pass from Trevor Wong. He then rifled a shot past Rebels goalie Chase Wutzke.

“I know he (Wong) is always looking to pass — he’s such an incredible playmaker,” said Sauderson. “I decided to jump in and he found me and I found the net.

“It’s something you dream of when you’re playing mini-sticks in the basem*nt as a little kid, counting down the clock or in overtime, and you score a goal like that and have everybody go crazy, it’s an amazing feeling.”

The series now switches to Red Deer for the third and fourth games of the series Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Very relieved,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “It couldn’t be a better young man, leader (to net the winner). I’m just happy to get the win.”

Fraser Minten had the other goal for Saskatoon, which outshot Red Deer 49-25.

The Blades, who at one point held a 17-3 edge in shots, led 1-0 going into the third period before former Saskatoon Contact forward Kalan Lind knotted the score at 1-1, on the power play, at 4:10 of the third.

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That’s the way the score stayed until Saunderson’s heroics.

Earlier in overtime, the former Saskatoon Contacts goalie Wutzke had denied Alexander Suzdalev on a spin-around backhander and Egor Sidorov from in close.

However, it was Blades defenceman John Babco*ck who maybe made the biggest save of the game — his best save of his career — when he got his skate on a loose puck behind Saskatoon goalie Evan Gardner later in OT.

The puck went over top of the rookie goalie’s shoulder after he had initially stopped a shot by Lind, with both Lind and Frantisek Formanek on the doorstep.

“I unfortunately made a bad turnover to cause that (scoring chance) but I’m glad I could kind of save the game there and get a skate on it,” said Babco*ck. “I just slid on it and hoped for the best.”

The Blades lost winger Easton Armstrong with 14:01 left in the third period following a major collision with Rebels goalie Wutzke. Armstrong was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct.

Wutzke went on to nearly steal a road game for the Rebels as he made 47 saves on the night.

“He was fantastic,” said Rebels interim head coach Dave Struch. “He gave us a chance. It’s something he did for us against Medicine Hat as well.

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“You’ve got to give them (Blades) credit. They’ve got a real good team and some high-end players that create those shots, but, overall, for Chase to play the way that he did in a bounce-back game for us, he gave us a chance.”

A year ago, Red Deer built up a 3-0 series lead on Saskatoon before the Blades rallied for four straight wins.

Under the direction of a new coach, Struch, the Rebels will be looking to get back in this series. Struch saw some encouraging signs Sunday after a somewhat uninspired and emotionless effort in Game 1.

Struch was much happier with his team’s physical play in Game 2.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think (Game 1) from the other night was like a regular-season game played in the first month of the year. Tonight was a playoff game played against a good team.”

It was a tight-checking affair with the final outcome in doubt until the final shot.

“We say that defence wins championships and I think that, for the first 40 minutes, we played really good without the puck against a high-end team, the way we wanted to play,” said Struch.

“I know we didn’t get the shot total that we needed to win a hockey game, but the third period and overtime, I thought we played a great playoff game. We could have won the game; we didn’t. Saskatoon could have won the game and they did. We move on.”

dzary@postmedia.com

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