By Scott Fisher /

It took the WHL’s top team to finally stop the Blades.

The Vancouver Giants beat Saskatoon 5-1 in December to snap the Blades’ 12-game road winning streak.

“We had a tremendous trip,” head coach Lorne Molleken told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix after his club went 4-1 through the 
B.C Division.

“We won games in different ways.”

The Blades’ perfect dozen was the second-longest road winning streak in WHL history. The 1999-2000 Calgary Hitmen pieced together an 18-game streak.

Blades defenceman Teigan Zahn wasn’t about to let one loss bring the team down.

“Last year, we went 0-fot-5 in the States and it wasn’t very fun,” Zahn told the Star-Phoenix. “Getting four (wins) on this trip was good and finding ways to win really 
sparked something.”

The Blades entered the second week of December sitting atop the East Division with a 22-8-2-0 record.

The club’s 13-2 mark on the road represented a winning percentage of .867, the best in the WHL.

The Blades, without a player among the league’s top 20 scorers, have been getting the job done with a well-rounded attack.

Only local product and captain Derek Hulak has averaged a point per game through the first 32 games.

But of the club’s top 13 scorers, not a single one has a plus/minus on the negative side of the ledger.

The Blades beat the Chilliwack Bruins 4-3 for their 12th straight road win — thanks, in part, to injured Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Saskatoon goalie Braden Holtby was told he could no longer use his Sher-Wood sticks because the company had filed for bankruptcy and was no longer on the WHL’s list of approved sponsors.

Blades trainer Steve Hildebrand, who spent a season as the equipment manager with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, the Canucks’ farm club, put in a call.

Holtby received one of Luongo’s Reebok sticks in trime to boost his record to 18-7-1.

BLADES BITS:
Left-winger Adam Chorneyko paid tribute to his friend, former Lethbridge Hurricanes teammate Michael Maniago, who died in a car accident Nov. 29 in Calgary.

Chorneyko, who flew to Calgary to attend Maniago’s funeral earlier in the day, scored his club’s lone goal in the 5-1 loss to Vancouver.

After hitting the back of the net, the St. Albert, Alta., product kissed his glove and pointed to the sky in a salute to his friend.