Thursday turned out to be a long day of travel for the Saskatoon Blades, and they didn’t reach their destination!

A combination of freezing rain, snow and gusty north winds turned the Trans-Canada Highway east of Regina into a surface more suitable for playing hockey on, rather than driving, eventually forcing the Blades’ traveling party to hunker down for the night in Moosomin. The Bridge City Bunch are hopeful of continuing their journey Friday morning, getting to Brandon by noon, then make final preparations to play the Wheat Kings in the first of nine consecutive road games over the next month on the road. The first sign of a problem came around 3:30 Thursday afternoon when the Blue and Gold’s bus, piloted by Cal Loeppky, was forced to stop just east of Broadview while tow trucks rescued jack-knifed semi-trailer units out of the ditch. After a 45-minute stop, traffic moved again, but at an average speed of 30 kilometres-per-hour. Following an unplanned supper stop at the Red Barn Restaurant in Moosomin, the Blades were informed there were more vehicles in the ditch about 10 kilometres east of Moosomin, waiting to be removed from the ditch and that there would be a lengthy delay before they could get through. At that point, the decision was made to find hotel rooms in Moosomin and try again Friday morning. Should that happen successfully, Saskatoon and their 10-4-and-1 record will take on the 6-9-0 Wheaties at 7 p.m. with CJWW’s broadcast starting at 6:30. Following are comments from Blades’ defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, blue-liner Ben Saunderson and head coach Brennan Sonne about playing Brandon, starting a long stretch of road games and playing three games-in-three-nights this weekend…..