By Scott Fisher /

Throw out that 1-4 start and an inexcusable overtime loss on home ice to the lowly Portland Winter Hawks, and the Blades would be the talk of the WHL.

Since stumbling out of the blocks, the Blades won nine of 10 — the lone loss being that aforementioned setback to the Hawks — and were 13-2-1-0 in their next 16 games.

And, thanks to a few injuries, they’ve done it with a young lineup.

Three different rookies scored in the Blades’ 5-3 victory over Moose Jaw in early November.

Burke Gallimore’s team-leading 11th of the campaign stood up as the winner that night while fellow freshmen Josh Nicholls and Charles Inglis also lit the lamp.

“When some lines aren’t going, we can always count on another line to pick up the slack and score some goals,” Gallimore told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.

“We’ve got confidence in our teammates and trust that we’re all going to be there to put pucks in the net.”

With long-term injuries to top-six forwards Travis Toomey (collarbone) and Curtis Hamilton (knee), GM/head coach Lorne Molleken has been getting the most out of his youngsters.

“The biggest thing with our team has been the composure we played with,” Molleken told the Star Phoenix.

“And everybody has contributed offensively.”

Imagine how good the Blades (14-6-1-0) would be if they could get their powerplay sortted out. Despite the Blades’ record, the club owns the league’s 17th best powerplay at just 14.8 per cent.

And Molleken said it all needs to start on the back end with his defencemen finding a way to put some rubber on net.

“You look at the teams in our league that have good records and their defencemen do a real good job of getting pucks to the net — not only on powerplays, but also 5-on-5,” Molleken told the Star Phoenix.

“We need to find a way to open things up for our defence and allow them to get pucks to the net. Teams have done a real good job of shutting us down because we’re not getting enough pucks to the net from up top with people in front.

BLADES BITS
After a six-game road trip — during which the Blades won all six games — in early October, the team is enjoying an 11-game homestand ... Left-winger Derek Hulak led the team with 21 points in as many games. D-man Stefan Elliott was next at 16 points ... Sixteen of the 20 Blades players who had played more than five games had a plus/minus rating of zero or better.