Skip to content

Tisdale Trojans face hard fight in semifinals

TISDALE — The Tisdale Trojans are now fighting for a spot in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League finals. The No. 2-seeded Trojans and the No. 3 Saskatoon Blazers started their best-of-five semifinals in Tisdale on Tuesday night.
Skylar Olson Tisdale Trojans
Skylar Olson fights for the puck for the Tisdale Trojans in their final game in the quarter-finals against the Beardys Blackhawks on March 5. The Trojans won five to four, resulting in them winning the best-of-five series against the Blackhawks. Photo by Jessica R. Durling

TISDALE — The Tisdale Trojans are now fighting for a spot in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League finals.

The No. 2-seeded Trojans and the No. 3 Saskatoon Blazers started their best-of-five semifinals in Tisdale on Tuesday night.

In the quarter-finals, Tisdale swept No. 7 Beardy’s 3-0, while the Blazers beat the No. 6 Prince Albert Mintos 3-2.

The Trojans know things don’t get any easier in the semifinal round, which also includes the Pat Canadians playing the No. 4 Notre Dame Hounds.

“In our league, it is hard to make the playoffs,” Tisdale head coach Darrell Mann said. “Everyone is going to be good. I thought Beardy’s gave us all we could handle.”

During the regular season, Tisdale won three of its four contests against the Blazers.

“The Blazers have a highly offensive team,” Mann said. “They are a team that can score some goals.”

Saskatoon is led offensively by the Nagy twins. Cole had 26 goals and 65 points in 44 regular season games. Josh collected 21 goals and 48 points.

Last week the Trojans completed their sweep of Beardy’s with a come-from-behind 5-4 victory at home. The Blackhawks had jumped out to a 3-1 first period lead.

Kalen Ukrainetz scored early on in the second session to cut the Trojans’ deficit to one, 3-2. The Blackhawks answered on a power play, but Ukrainetz’ marker seemed to get the team going, as Jayden Wiens and Luke Arndt also scored in the period to tie things up at 4-4. Wiens scored shorthanded in the third period to give Tisdale the lead, the victory, and the series.

“Last night we got down a couple goals early, but that’s been the case for a couple games in the series and we all just came together and stayed positive and kept lifting each other up – keeping the guys rolling,” Ukrainetz said. “I thought that our work ethic was very good going into the second and third period last night, and a big couple of goals got our momentum back.”

The Trojans, with Tanner Martin in net, shut out the Blackhawks 4-0 in game two.

In the opening contest, Tisdale rallied from a 2-0 first period deficit. In both games one and three, the Trojans had to come from behind to win.

“That shows a lot of character for our guys,” Mann said. “Throughout the season, we’ve always been a team that has been able to battle back.”

Wiens had a hat trick in game three against the Blackhawks. In game one, he recorded three assists.

“Jayden is a big game scorer,” Mann said. “We knew that coming into the season … He has that look in his eyes come playoff time.”

The Tisdale head coach praised the play of the line of Wiens, Mackenzie Carson, and Colby Vranai in the series.

Against the Blackhawks, he said the Trojans were focused.

He noted that ending the quarter-finals series early will hopefully help the team moving forward in the playoffs.