An important day for the Blades on Saturday.  Going “1-1″ the first day made every game a do or die affair.  With a goalie who arrived at 2:00 am that morning in Detroit, the Blades were going to have to be on their game in order to win their final pool play game and their subsequent Quarterfinal game.

Game 3: The Blades played the London Jr. Knights and won 6-0 in a bit of a mismatch. The Knights could only muster 5 shots on goal and close to 70 penalty minutes in classy Canadian fashion.

Quarterfinal: The Blades took on Team Illinois winners of their first three Pool Play games and a hefty goal differential.  With members from the ’12 Brick team, Hank Kempf and Luke Bader, this was potentially the toughest game on the Blades schedule all weekend.  The Illini had great speed, moved the puck well and great goaltending.

The Blades won 3-1.  Saturday’s scoring star was Joey Miller.  The Minneapolis kid had two goals.  One assisted by Luke Kron from Andover and the other by Carson Bantle on the Power Play. Mitchell Kohner is having a great tournament.  Playing at a level that is noticeably higher than most kids in the field.  He had a pretty backhander to give the Blades the lead for good.

The Blades will face the Syracuse Nationals in the morning for a berth in the finals.  The Nationals were 2-0-1 in Pool Play (tying Little Caesars 2-2) and beating Islanders Hockey 4-2 to advance to Sunday.

In other games: Little Caesars beat Chicago Young Americans 4-3 in double overtime to advance to play the Chicago Mission who beat the Anaheim Jr. Ducks 5-4.