Tisdale Trojans forward Kalen Ukrainetz, right, emerges from a scrum during his team's 3-2 game one loss to the Saskatoon Blazers (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW).

By Aaron Schulze

Trojans Trail Blazers 1-0

Trojans comeback falls short, drop game one to Blazers 3-2

Mar 13, 2019 | 1:42 PM

If there was a turning point in the Tisdale Trojans’ 3-2 game one loss to the Saskatoon Blazers at the RECplex on Tuesday, March 12, it was their 5-on-3 penalty kill halfway through the first period.

The first few minutes of game one was back and forth play from both teams without one side rolling with momentum. When the Trojans were on the penalty kill 10 minutes in, they prevented the Blazers from setting up and getting scoring chances, until a high sticking penalty over a minute later put them down 5-on-3.

Blazers defenceman Nolan Allan, who lead the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League (SMAAAHL) playoffs in scoring, fed the puck to a wide-open Max Gudnason on the right and Saskatoon had a 1-0 lead.

After being unable to capitalize on a power play of their own, the Trojans’ first period woes continued in the second. Blazers forward Cole Nagy wrist shot went in on a sharp angle and Saskatoon’s lead doubled to 2-0.

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As the Trojans continued to build momentum in the backend of the second period while goaltender Tanner Martin held the deficit to 2-0, penalty problems arose once more.

Forward Kalen Ukrainetz’s trip in the offensive with a little over two minutes to go and a rare spearing penalty by defenceman Zac Robins put the Trojans down 5-on-3, and Blazers’ Carter Stebbings finished Allan’s pass as the first penalty expired.

The Trojans trailed 3-0 after two periods, and head coach Darrell Mann told northeastNOW there were many reasons why.

“We talked about the series before that we haven’t started very well in games,” Mann said. “As coaches we have to be able to get them prepared and ready to go, and for some reason we haven’t been very good in the first periods here throughout the playoffs. If we want to survive playing against Saskatoon, we’re going to have to get that fixed.

“We had numerous selfish penalties tonight. We talked about what we wanted to do and how we had to outwork them, but some of our players just won’t buy in to those little things of chipping pucks and getting by them. Hopefully we can get that changed and be more prepared.”

With a little over eight minutes left in the game, it looked as if the Blazers would cruise to a 3-0 shutout to open the series, until one Trojan helped make things interesting.

David Wiens’ wrist shot off the faceoff beat Blazers goaltender Matthew Pesenti to give the Trojans life. It didn’t go unnoticed by Mann, who sent the grinding forward out late in the game to tie it up.

“I thought David was great, he was winning faceoffs all game long and doing a great job killing penalties for us, he had played so well we had him out there with our goalie pulled,” he said. “Although we need more guys, we can’t have one or two guys playing if we’re going to be able to beat a team like this.”

Wiens rewarded his coach by tipping in Landon Kosior’s shot from the blue line and made it a 3-2 game with 1:43 to go. Unfortunately, the deficit was too large to overcome, and the Trojans dropped their first game of the SMAAAHL playoffs.

However, there is a silver lining for the Trojans going into game two. They outshot the Blazers 19-7 in the third period and outscored them 2-0.

Mann mentioned discipline with penalties and being defensively responsible as things that need to be worked on going forward, but ultimately effort will win them this series.

“If we have the effort, we can play against anybody,” he said. “If we don’t want to compete, we’re not skilled enough to ride on our skills. Unfortunately, we had a lot of guys who weren’t ready to pay the price to win and it definitely showed on the scoreboard.”

The Trojans will travel to Saskatoon for game two against the Blazers in the SMAAAHL semi-final series on Thursday, March 14, as they look to tie the best-of-five series up before they return home at the RECplex for game three on Friday, March 15.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow