Memorial Cup 2013: Saskatoon Blades in the game after stifling high-skilled Halifax Mooseheads

SASKATOON, Sask. — The Saskatoon Blades are in the game, so stuff your snarking about the Memorial Cup format in a sack.

True to form, it's now a tournament where based on the records, it shouldn't be. The Blades (1-1), riding star efforts from Matej Stransky (2G, +2) and Andrey Makarov (29 saves) and frustrating Halifax's stars at every turn, won 5-2 to get into contention.

"We had nothing to lose — they had all the pressure," Blades defenceman Duncan Siemens said. "They haven't faced any adversity all year long. We threw it all in getting that first goal and took it to them."

Halifax (1-1) came in confident that it would hold up well in the second of its back-to-back games. Nathan MacKinnon had chances galore early, missing an open net over a prone Makarov in the first period. A Stransky out-of-the-penalty-box breakaway goal with 1:15 left in the second period broke it open.

"They wanted it more than us," Halifax co-captain Trey Lewis, who took two costly third-period penalties, said. "They were playing a do-or-die game and I don't think we were at that intensity. I'm not sure. I guess we weren't prepared the way we should have been.

"We weren't putting them home and we were getting frustrated," the 19-year-old defenceman added. "That got us off our game and they started outplaying us. They came out and they were physical on us and I guess we didn't handle it the way we planned."

The expression "getting a monkey of your back" actually refers to ending a dependency, not breaking a losing streak. Regardless, the Blades broke a 13-game playoff streak. So go ahead and say the 800-pound gorilla can sit wherever he wants now that he's not draped across Saskatoon coach Lorne Molleken's shoulders. The tenor of the tournament has changed, just like it did 364 days ago when Shawinigan got its first win during the Sunday game.

"No question they were an extra man, the energy in both games has been tremendous," Molleken said of the 8,934 clapper-wielding fans who littered the ice with the noisemakers after Saskatoon's empty-netter. "They're great fans in Saskatoon, they're starving for a championship team. We're going to do everything in our power to achieve that."

On with the post-game questions:

What were the defining moments for the Blades, whose last win was some time in March? Even the "robot hockey" — winger Josh Nicholls' phrasing — Saskatoon has to commit to have a shot at the Memorial Cup requires some emotion. The Blades were up 1-0 in the second when Halifax was making rumblings of an outburst.

On one strong Mooseheads push, a 5-on-4 became a 5-on-3 after Lukas Sutter was shaken up. But Montreal Canadiens fifth-rounder Darren Dietz, who's been the Blades' best blueliner all season, came up with a critical clear.

"The biggest play that Darren Dietz made was we were killing a penalty and Lukas Sutter was hurt and he went down and blocked a shot," Molleken said. "He's been one of our leaders all year. He's a hard guy to play against."

Minutes later, the Blades made their own luck. A blocked shot ricocheted high out of the D-zone and went directly to Stransky, who buried on the breakaway.

"It was a huge lift," Siemens said. "I thought our penalty kill was great tonight. They have a really potent power play and we were able to get into lanes. We were able to limit them all over the ice and when they did get through, Mackie was there."

"What we preach is doing the right things," Dietz put in. "If you don't get down to block that shot, who knows what happens."

That, on top of the home-ice advantage provided by 8,934 clapper-wielding fans, is where one sees the favours that come to the host team. The Blades have had so much more practice time to tighten up their penalty kill, although Halifax would have done well to expend more effort trying to break it down.

"We were really able to go over what it would take to win," Siemens added. "It was a big gut check, those five weeks.

"That was a full 60 minutes, you saw guys fighting through pain, diving headfirst. We're going to need that effort Wednesday [on the final night of the round-robin against the Portland Winterhawks] and see where it goes from there."

Did the Mooseheads take the Blades lightly? "I'm not going to say it exactly like that because we knew they were a good team," Halifax co-captain Stefan Fournier said. "The first 40 minutes wasn't what we wanted."

People will point to Saskatoon's layoff, but one could wonder if seasoning came to the fore. Eighteen of the Blades are in their 19-year-old or overage seasons. Halifax is a significantly younger team. Whatever the reason, it didn't respond well.

Plus the Blades simply kept a tight perimeter and relied on Makarov. His 29-save effort evoked memories of how he almost stole a world junior gold medal for Russia 16 months ago in Calgary.

"When there was a save to be made, Andrey made it at key times of the game," Dietz said. "He created momentum, got the fans into it, changed the game."

So that's all it was, Halifax didn't play desperate? From afar, the Mooseheads certainly struggled below the dots at each end of the ice with the older Blades. Saskatoon, which was much more physical than the Portland Winterhawks were against Halifax on Saturday, outworked the Mooseheads.

"You look at their goals, three of them were battles in front of the net for loose pucks and rebounds," Halifax coach Dominique Ducharme said. "Early in the game, we were getting the shots but we weren't getting the second touch. That's a sign of battle level.

"[Saturday] night, everyone said we got those bounces," Ducharme added. "There was a reason why we got those bounces. We were battling, we were on the puck. Tonight, we did not get the bounce because we were not as sharp on the battles."

"The chances were there. Nathan misses an open net [in the first period], a rebound that's just getting by, sometimes when you're not as mentally sharp."

Halifax was alight after two goals in a 1:41 span cut a four-goal Blades in half. A Lewis charging penalty fewer than two minutes after MacKinnon scored stanched the Mooseheads' momentum.

That’s been my game all year is to try to be physical and I was just trying to step up and I guess Nicholls didn’t get the puck in time," Lewis said. "That was my fault. That was a bad play by me."

Will the Blades be able to sidetrack and stymie Portland on Wednesday? Saskatoon has fooled 'em once, which is enough to ensure a place in a tiebreaker game on Thursday. This group has evidently opted in to thinking there is no alternative over the next 4-7 days but to check, defend and hope Makorov, who had issues with inconsistency earlier in his development arc, keeps running at peak level.

In any event, there's a lot more belief in the Blades now that they have their first post-season victory since the first-round series clincher against Prince Albert in 2011.

"Tonight, and obviously the Memorial Cup has been in the back of everyone's mind for a year and a half, it was just playing a simple game, playing to our strengths," Molleken said. "Which is important. If we play an east-west game, that's when we ask for a bunch of trouble. We've got a group that is willing to work in the tough areas. We got two or three goals from the crease area.

"They did a real good job staying above the puck and making sure that they weren't being outnumbered through the neutral zone and they had to go through a couple lines of defence."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.