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SASKATOON — The players were toeing the line with politically correct answers, careful not to provide much bulletin-board material.

Sure, there’s a natural rivalry thanks to five meetings already this season — all wins by the Saskatchewan Rush — in addition to a playoff hatred that has carried over from meeting the past two seasons in the exact same West Division finals series while it was still the Battle of Alberta, they said.

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Bad blood?

Calgary Roughnecks captain Mike Carnegie, defender Dan MacRae and goaltender Mike Poulin all say it comes along with a healthy amount of mutual respect.

Same with Rush veterans such as defender Nik Bilic.

“We’re in a new province, but it’s the same old bad blood,” said Bilic, carefully choosing his words.

Curt Malawsky did the exact opposite.

“I think, after last game, yeah, we don’t like them,” the Roughnecks bench boss said inside a muggy SaskTel Centre on Friday night, as both teams were going through final preparations for Saturday’s Game 2 and potential mini-game tiebreaker. “I thought some of the things that they did were absolutely disrespectful and I know our guys are pissed off and we’re going to take it out in the game.”