It was do or die for the Saskatoon Blades Thursday night, and they chose the latter.
Going into the game against London in the 2013 MasterCard Memorial Cup, the hometown Blades had every reason to believe this was a winnable game. They lost by a single goal to the Knights in the first game of the tournament, and ignoring the third period against Portland, improved their level of play drastically since then.
The team never seemed to show up for this one, and the 6-1 score reflected that.
"Tonight we just ran out of gas, that plain and simple," said Lorne Molleken, Blades head coach.
Not only did Thursday's game mark the end of the season, it was also the end of junior hockey for the likes of Josh Nicholls, Brenden Walker, Michael Ferland and most likely Duncan Siemens.
"Away from this game, I think Saskatoon's been a great city from myself, and for my family, for my hockey career. I have a lot to thank the Blades for and they've helped me out with so much," said Nicholls, fighting back tears. "I love it here, and I call this city my home, so it's just a tough way to end things. I'll move on with my career and hope for the best."
He answered just one question before having to leave, dealing with the emotion of playing the final game of his five-year Blades career.
Saskatoon seemed to lack intensity, and when the team did try to get some energy, it resulted in bad penalties. It wasn't a game anyone on the team was happy about.
"Disappointment. This organization's done so much for me I don't know what to say, just disappointed obviously. With an opportunity like this you want to go out with a win and anything less than that was going to be a true disappointment," said Siemens.
Playing at home for the tournament was a big boost through the first three games. Especially against Halifax when the crowd was deafening. Thursday, you could hear a pin drop in Credit Union Centre for most of the game, not something to be expected during such a crucial game. Much of that can be credited to the London Knights, who gave Saskatoon fans nothing to cheer about.
"We got a nice little burst of offence there. Then we started capitalizing on opportunities, which we haven't been able to do very much lately, and that's huge for us," said Knights forward Max Domi.
Even bigger than the victory for London was the questions it answered about their goaltending, as Jake Patterson stopped 32 of the 33 shots he faced.
"I don't think there has ever been a lack of confidence in our goaltending, I think our goalies have been awesome all year for us," said Knights captain Scott Harrington.
After a long OHL playoff run, capped off by a dramatic game seven win over Barrie on a final second goal by Bo Horvat, some were wondering if fatigue might set in for the Knights.
"It's the Memorial Cup and if you can't get up for this kind of stuff you shouldn't be playing the sport of hockey, this is what it's all about," said Domi.
The game was a lopsided one, with the Blades down 3-0 going into the third period, but things only got worse from there. The Knights stormed out of the gate after the intermission scoring three times in under four minutes to start the period, killing any chance Saskatoon had at a comeback. Halfway through Nathan Burns would score, but it was for nothing more than statistics at that point.
The Knights got goals from Bo Horvat, Seth Griffith, Chris Tierney, Ryan Rupert, Kyle Platzer and Nikita Zadorov.
London takes on Portland Saturday night with Halifax waiting to face the winner for the championship Sunday.
