'Scrambling, rejigging lines': Saskatoon Blades battled locker room illness, yet still dug deep for historic win

The adversity the Saskatoon Blades had to overcome to win their seven-game series against Red Deer may have been tougher than fans know.

Not only did the team rally from being down 0-3 in the series to win game seven, but they did it while battling illness in the locker room according to the team's play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk.

“There has been illness going through the locker room. A lot of guys have had different issues with illness. Last night apparently, we were told that there were guys puking on the bench and some not able to play because of illness,” Lazaruk said during an interview on CTV News at Five.

He says the team was re-jigging lines and defence pairings throughout their seventh and deciding game against Red Deer.

The Blades have played 14 games in 26 days through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

When asked if fatigue could be a factor moving forward, Lazaruk says it’s more about handling emotional fatigue than physical.

“The emotional fatigue and trying to come back and get yourself re-amped up to play another series against a different team in a short period of time,” said Lazaruk.

Lazaruk says the Rebels presented a different style of opponent than Regina and Winnipeg has played more similarly to the Pats than Red Deer.

They’re very fast, and they’ll get three, four people into the rush right away. So if you're not careful, you will get a whole bunch of Winnipeg Ice members in your zone”

Lazaruk has been the play-by-play announcer for the Blades since the 1994-95 season. The last time the Blades reached the conference final was the season before he got the job.

When asked how he personally feels about the historic playoff run and the chance to call a conference final, Lazaruk says he’s happy to see fans supporting and believing in the team after some difficult seasons.

“The big deal is for me, I’m seeing the city rally around this team again. It happened back in the 80s I understand, that’s before my time” said Lazaruk who adds for a number of years fans didn’t appear to have as much hope for the team to go deep into the playoffs.

“This year's team, a lot of people didn’t take seriously, and yet there was a quiet confidence in the Blades office that getting to this point, getting to the third round of the playoffs was something that they could do. And low and behold, here they are”.

The blades are only the third team win WHL history to come back from a 0-3 deficit in the playoffs and win the series 4-3.

Game one of the conference final goes on Friday in Winnipeg.

Saskatoon will host games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday.