Cosentino: Blades earn long-awaited win

Saskatoon Blades right winger Matej Stransky (14) is congratulated by teammates after scoring against the Halifax Mooseheads. (CP/Liam Richards)

Saskatoon gets on the board

    • The Saskatoon Blades won for the first time in the post-season since beating Prince Albert 2-1 on April 3, 2011.
    • The Blades’ conditioning really helped against a team playing back-to-back games.
    • Saskatoon earned every bit of the win.
    • Duncan Siemens and Darren Dietz were up against Nathan MacKinnon all night long.
    • Good on the Credit Union Centre crowd — now the rest of the city can go get tickets, because we have a tournament.
    • Matej Stansky looked a lot more like the player I saw in his draft year.
    • Jonathan Drouin has yet to get going in this tournament, but he’s due.
    • Trey Lewis took aim at Josh Nicholls on two occasions, both leading to penalties.
    • MacKinnon is just a treat to watch. He took a beating Sunday night, but just kept on battling.
    • The Mooseheads didn’t feel as mentally prepared as they should’ve been for Saskatoon.
    • The Mooseheads did not take to the ice Monday.


Watch London take on Portland Monday at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific, or view an alternate boradcast on sportsnet.ca.

Other stuff

    • Once again, the Knights’ optional skate featured several London players on the ice in shorts.
    • Congrats to Jim Donlevy, who was given the Governors Award, the WHL’s top honour, for his work on the education side of the league.
    • There is still a lot of venom from opposing teams in regards to the Portland Winterhawks.
    • Banished general manager and head coach Mike Johnston is expected in Saskatoon at some point over the course of the event.
    • Stefan Fournier of Halifax is a media member’s dream.
    • Nice soiree put on by the WHL’s governors at the Saskatoon Club last night.
    • Tie Domi and Kevin “Killer” Kaminski have finally met. They scrapped each other in the 1989 MasterCard Memorial Cup and hadn’t met until this tournament started.
    • All four thousand of the Hunters are in town to watch brothers Dale and Mark do their thing.
    • Great job by the Saskatoon Blades alumni committee. Over the course of the tournament, they were expecting as many as 500 former Blades players to return.

For more on the MasterCard Memorial Cup, be sure to check out the latest from Patrick King.

The tournament continues Monday with Portland and London set to square off.  Here’s where you can find broadcast times.

For all official information, check out the MasterCard Memorial Cup website.

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