For those not familiar with the Minnesota Blades, they are a AAA organization based in Minnesota that play mostly summer hockey fielding teams by year from 2004 up.  In the past three years they have strengthened their fall season focused on U16 and U18 teams.  For the months of September and October, those Blades have played a regular game schedule and have expanded the number of games from eight in 2011 to 22 games this year.

The Blades may have found a wedge in Minnesota’s busy year round hockey, a wedge that marries Minnesota High School hockey to USA Midget Tier I hockey.

The Blades have played well this season.

Three weeks ago, the Minnesota Blades played at the NAHL Showcase in the High Performance Hockey League’s U16 tourney.  They were competitive in pool play beating the Fairbanks Arctic Lions 6-1, losing to currently ranked #5 in the nation, Team Wisconsin 2-1.  The Blades lost to the #9 ranked Chicago Mission 4-2 and lost to #2 ranked Chicago Young Americans 5-1.

Team Wisconsin, the Mission, and the Young Americans all advanced to the semifinal round of that tourney with the Badgers beating the Mission in the championship game 6-3.

The Blades season runs from September 1 to November 1 (approximately) and has ended the past few years playing in the U16 Supreme Bauer World Invite tourney held in Chicago the first weekend in November.

They will end their season again this year in Chicago.  At the Bauer Tourney the first weekend in November, the Blades have pool play games scheduled with the San Diego Jr. Gulls (currently 5-7-1), the Pittsburgh Esmark Stars (10-6-1), and the Red Army CSKA (that is the same Moscow based hockey club that eventually become the Russian National team).  Placing first or second in the pool qualifies a team to play in a 16 team bracket showdown for the title.

The Blades are the only Minnesota team in the U16 elite or supreme tourney but are not the only Minnesota teams in the Bauer tourney.  U16 Lakeville South AA team plays in Bauer’s AAA Vapor tourney; Elk River plays in Bauer’s AAA Nexus tourney; and the Minneapolis Storm play in the 99 AAA tourney.

The 2013 fall season will be the third season the Blades have played Shattuck-St. Mary’s U16 team.  They won the three game series in 2011 and lost last year.  Tuesday night’s game at Shattuck was the first of the 2013 season’s three game series.

Shattuck’s U16 team, going into to last night’s game, were coming of a tough three game series playing #5 ranked Team Wisconsin at Green Bay.  The Sabres lost the two opening games 4-3 and 5-1, but managed a Sunday game tie 2-2.  Team Wisconsin has been a tough team and, as hosts to USA’s U14, U16, and U18 tourneys in April, 2014, the Bagers and Sabres will be likely meeting again in Green Bay in that tourney.

When two good teams are playing hockey, it becomes a fun game to watch as the game flows.  Last night, Shattuck came out with some early pressure, drew a penalty, and killed the penalty.  The Sabres’ holding call came at the 12 minute mark.

For the next five minutes, the two teams played through the penalty, transitioned to a 5-on-5 game, and proceeded to attack the other’s goal in an up and down fashion.  It was a well skated game.  Both teams threw everything they had at each other in the first period.

The first stoppage came at the 7 minute mark.  In the remaining seven minutes of the first period, there were few stops.  Both teams had good scoring opportunities; both teams were beaten by the goalies.

The first period ended in a 0-0 tie, the 17 minute period flew by.

The first four minutes of the second period was a continuation of the first, both teams playing great hockey, both teams have good scoring opportunities, and both goalies stonewalling at the nets.

At the 13 minute mark, Shattuck started to play more physical and it worked for a couple of minutes.  They trapped the Blades in the Blades’ zone and pressured the Blades’ goal eventually drawing a Blades penalty.

The Sabres’ power play went to work and pummeled Rasmussen in the net.  Twice during that power play, the Sabres worked the puck to the high weak side (a spot they favor) and blistered a high shot on net forcing Rasmussen to move from the strong side a make a save in an upright position.  He did.

The Sabre pressure continued in waves for the next five minutes with no stoppages.  Shattuck’s forwards were having success beating the Blades defense low resulting in multiple shots from within 5 feet of the net.  More than once Rasmussen was put into a butterfly position with multiple Sabre attackers in front of him.  He countered by “walking his pads” toward the attackers during the rebounds and smothering their shots on net without giving up a slider under his pads.

It was a remarkable performance.  Rasmussen ended up with 23 saves in the second period (YHH count, but we missed some).
With under 2 minutes to go in the second period the Blades scored.  The goal was scored at the end of a power play.

This time Sabre’s goalie, Ryan Edquist was tested.  He had made some big stops in the first two periods.  Late in the second period, with no break between the first and second periods, both teams slowed and it opened up the ice and the game creating more frequent rushes with forwards beating the defense to the outside.

On a rush, a Blades forward picked up the puck along the end boards behind the Sabres’ goal and fed a pass to a Blades forward in the slot.  The first shot rebounded back into the slot to Casey Dornbach/Edina, MN.  Dornbach beat Edquist attempted poke check, sliding the puck from right to left and lifting the puck with a high shot over Edquist.  The unassisted goal put the Blades up 1-0 at the end of the second period.

Shattuck’s frustration was beginning to show as the first period ended.

The Sabre goalie, Ryan Edquist, came through for Shattuck in the third period.  Edquist had played well all game, but had to come up big in the third.

Shattuck shook their frustrations in the locker room and returned to the ice with a solid attack.  The period started with the Blades leading 1-0, but lead lasted less than two minutes.  One minute into the period, the Blades were called for interference.  At the 15 minute mark, the Sabre’s Jacob Paganelli found himself alone on the weak side left of the Blades’ net.  Paganelli, sensing a possible pass coming from the right lower face off circle, drifted back about five feet opening the net and giving himself time to get the stick on the puck.

It worked.  The pass came to him. He one-timed the puck into the net barely beating Rasmussen’s attempted save with his blocker.  A great play by all.

But the winning goal was a killer (or a kicker).  It was earned through hustle and sometimes that is how hockey games are won.  In this case, the Sabre “hustler” was Mitch Dolter.  Dolter picked up the puck in the left corner of the Blades’ zone and held on to make a sweeping hard backhand pass towards a breaking Sabre in the slot.  Rasmussen reacted by moving right just enough to open the 5-hole.  The fast moving puck hit a Blades defender’s left skate and caromed through the five hole into the net for the winner.  Shattuck led 2-1.

Edquist stepped up after that and shut down the Blades.  The Blades defense developed some great scoring opportunities particularly in the closing minutes, but could not beat Edquist.  The game ended 2-1.
 
The Blades play North Dakota at St. Louis Park this Sunday at 8:45 PM.  One final point to this post, only an old goalie can understand what it means to have pads that “can walk”.  Such is modern “technology”.