SASKATOON, Sask. – The Saskatoon Blades were down a man, and there was a man down.
Darren Dietz knew he needed to bring his penalty killers some reprieve. The sooner he could get the puck out of the zone, the sooner his teammate — his brother — could be tended to with a stoppage in play. Lukas Sutter was laying on the ice, hurt, and was in the firing line of a point shot.
Dietz fearlessly stepped in front of the oncoming shot and muscled his way through two men to get the puck out of the zone, all while doing so holding a stick with a backwards curve.
The play not only represented Dietz’s grit and determination, but was symbolic for the brotherly relationship shared with his teammate.
Dietz and Sutter would have given the shirt off each other’s back for the other. On this play, Sutter had given Dietz his stick after Dietz’s stick broke. Dietz used the stick and made a gutsy play to step up for his teammate.
“That’s extremely talented,” Sutter described the play. “And that’s the way Darren plays.”
Sutter should know. The two have been friends since playing on a spring team together around the age of 10. Dietz, from Medicine Hat, and Sutter, from Lethbridge, instantly clicked. Their bond only grew tighter each summer when Dietz would attend the Sutter hockey school in Coaldale, Alta., which was instructed by Lukas’ dad Rich and uncle Ron.
Their friendship reached new heights when they were 16. Lukas, a Blades draft pick, was invited to Saskatoon’s camp. Rich Sutter talked Blades head coach and general manager Lorne Molleken into taking a look at another kid who went undrafted — Darren Dietz.
Molleken took Sutter’s advice, and Dietz got an invitation to training camp.
“There was something about him that we liked,” Molleken recalls now.
Still, the Blades didn’t add him to their protected player list and Dietz remained a free agent. After turning down an invitation to the Medicine Hat Tigers camp — Dietz admittedly felt snubbed the Tigers didn’t use a draft pick to acquire his rights when he was under their noses all year — he attended the Calgary Hitmen’s camp. Dietz again failed to make Calgary’s list.
Another year went by and Dietz was invited back to Saskatoon’s camp. Not only did the Blades add him to their list immediately, but they considered keeping him in a depth role as a 16-year-old.
The Blades weren’t the only team that wanted him, however. He could play on a more prominent role on a midget team in Lethbridge, alongside Sutter. With Lethbridge and Medicine Hat being separated by approximately 170 kilometers, Dietz would need a place to live. The Sutter’s invited him into their home.
It was exciting, at first. Neither Dietz nor Sutter had a brother, both growing up with sisters. Now they were sharing a room, and the line between friends and brothers was crossed significantly.
“He’s a little bit selfish,” Sutter described Dietz as a roommate. “He doesn’t have too much respect for anyone else’s things… (Dietz would do) little things like borrow your stuff without asking. It wasn’t an invasion of privacy, but you go from having your own room to someone else in your room, it’s different.”
“We had some good battles over the television and things like that,” Dietz said. “It sounds like he’s a little bitter, so I must have won.”
Being together constantly put such a strain on their relationship that they would soon take their own cars to the same high school just to get a break from each other. Sometimes it was due to a slightly different schedule, while other times it was simply designed to get a breather.
“Every little thing that we do got on each other’s nerves,” Dietz explained. “It was better that way, silence in the morning.”
“You go from never having a brother to having a brother like that,” Sutter said. “You can get sick of each other.”
At 17, the two would each make the Blades’ roster. They had just one condition: they didn’t want to billet together.
“They’re two strong-willed people, two strong personalities so I’m sure that they clash,” Molleken said. “But I will tell you what, they’re tight. They’re real tight.”
The distance they created in Saskatoon brought them closer together.
“We wanted to get back to being friends more than brothers,” Sutter said. “It’s been good for us to be apart so we’re back to being friends again.”
“It’s funny how that works,” Dietz added. “When we lived together, you kind of get on each other’s nerves and when you spend some time apart, you miss him.”
Sutter and Dietz haven’t chosen to billet together during their time in Saskatoon, but live on the same side of the city and carpool to practice. And now, in what will likely be their final seasons in junior together, the two are trying to win a MasterCard Memorial Cup as teammates.
“Who’d have thunk when we were playing together as 10-years-old in that peewee or atom tournament, we’d be playing in the Memorial Cup together on the same team,” Dietz said. “It’s pretty special.”
As special as the bond they’ve formed.
“He’s my brother – there’s no way around it,” Sutter said. “I’d do anything for him.”
As Dietz proved with his gutsy effort, the feeling is mutual.