OCTOBER 21, 2016 - The Steele County Blades will face off tonight against the Blaine Energy for the second time in a week. The puck will drop at 7:30 PM at Four Seasons Centre. Tickets for tonight's game are still available.
The Blades won the first match-up of the year last Friday, outscoring the Energy 5-2. One key area that the Blades are looking to improve on after playing the Energy is their breakout. “After seeing Blaine’s forecheck last week, we have been working a lot on our breakout so far this week in practice," said Blades defensemen Koy Payne. "We know what to expect to see and we plan on countering it. Our communication from forwards, to defensemen, and even goalies, is going to be key entering Friday night. We want to make sure to beat them out of our zone and head up ice on the rush to create scoring chances."
Blades Head Coach Nick Adamek added to Payne’s thoughts. “Although we like the way we played last weekend, we are not looking past our opponent; they are a young team looking for a win. We, as a staff, thought that they outplayed us in the second period last weekend, and that gives us a reason to not take them lightly. They have some good players that can make plays in open space. Our goal is to shut those type of players down and maintain possession of the puck for as long as we can. We are looking forward to building off of what we’ve done so far this year.”
The 5-1-1 Blades saw production from the special teams units dip over the course of the three game weekend. The Blades power play dropped from around 32% to a still respectable 26.8%. The Energy were the first team to tarnish the Blades 100% penalty kill success rate, when they converted on a second period man advantage. The Blades kill is now sitting at 86.4% and hopes to get back on track Friday night.
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