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| Goalie Nolan Maier watches the puck land on the crossbar. |
On Tuesday night before 3,379 spectators at the SaskTel
Centre, the Blades took a 3-0 lead on the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings, who sit
last in the entire WHL. It seemed the Blades were in position to romp to
victory, but the Oil Kings had other plans.
The visitors roared back to force a 3-3 tie. The Blades went
ahead 5-3, saw their edge shrink to 5-4 before going ahead 6-4 late in the
third. After Oil Kings overage captain Colton Kehler scored with exactly 17
seconds remaining in the third, the Blades managed to close out the final seconds
to hold on to a 6-5 victory.
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| Braylon Shmyr netted the winning goal for the Blades. |
The victory allowed the Blades to improve to 32-31-2-1 to
sit two points behind the Prince Albert Raiders (29-25-9-2) for the second
wildcard spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. The Raiders have a game in hand
on the Blades and will make that up by hosting the Oil Kings in Prince Albert
on Wednesday.
Blades head coach Dean Brockman was pleased his team found a
way to pull out Tuesday’s game.
“A win is a win,” said Brockman. “When you haven’t won for a
while, every win matters.
“We’re pretty fragile after losing four in a row. When that
happens, guys tend to grip things a little bit more.
 |
| Dawson Davidson gets set to drive a shot from the point for the Blades. |
One of the big keys to Tuesday’s victory for the Blades was
the fact they went 4-for-7 on the power play. The Oil Kings cashed in on 1-of-5
power-play chances.
Saskatoon’s biggest power-play goal came while working on a
two-man advantage with 7:21 remaining in the third period. Blades star overage
left-winger Braylon Shmyr corralled the rebound from a shot by defenceman
Dawson Davidson in front of the Edmonton net and roofed home a goal over fallen
Oil Kings netminder Boston Bilous.
 |
| Blades LW Michael Farren zips past Oil Kings D Conner McDonald. |
“We’ve been struggling on the power play, but tonight we did
an excellent job,” said Shmyr. “We’ve been working on it in practice.
“We just thought that we have to keep it simple and try not
to do too much. That is exactly what we did. We have to just carry that on to
the next game.”
With his goal, Shmyr matched his career high for goals in
one season at 35, which was a feat he managed to do last season.
“It feels great to do that,” said Shmyr. “It is definitely a
good accomplishment.
 |
| Brett Kemp had a goal for the Oil Kings on Tuesday night. |
The Blades went ahead to 2-0 in the first with power-play
goals coming from the sticks of Michael Farren and Eric Florchuk. Just 56
seconds into the second period, Davidson potted his 10th goal of the campaign
off an individual rush into the offensive zone.
Before the second period hit the halfway point, the Oil
Kings tied things up at 3-3 with singles coming from Kobe Mohr, Carter Souch
and Brett Kemp.
“We realized that we had to get back on our horse and get
going,” said Shmyr. “That was exactly what we did.
“Throughout the game, we kind of let the foot off the pedal
there. We battled hard towards the end to get the win.”
The Blades restored order going into the second intermission
with a 5-3 lead off a power-play goal from Max Gerlach and the 29th
goal of the year coming from the stick of Josh Paterson to go ahead 5-3. Centre
Kirby Dach drew assists on three of the Blades goals.
 |
| The Blades celebrate their win over the Oil Kings. |
Nolan Maier made 26 stops to pick up the win in goal for the
Blades. Bilous turned away 30 shots to take the setback in goal for the Oil
Kings (19-39-6-2).
The Blades have six games remaining on their regular season
schedule and return to action hosting the Calgary Hitmen on Friday at 7 p.m. at
the SaskTel Centre.
Brockman wants his side to keep pushing for a playoff berth.
The Blades last made the playoffs in 2013.
“For us, we are running out of time,” said Brockman. “We
have to find ways to win games.
“It doesn’t matter who we are playing. It is great to get
the win.”
Back in the Express with Shirley
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| Grace Shirley had a spectacular season with the Stars. |
Shirley is a 16-year-old star centre with the Saskatoon
Stars of the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League. She had a stellar
year appearing in 23 regular season games collecting career highs in goals (30)
and assists (18).
The skilled forward is one of two players in the history of
the Stars to score 30-or-more goals in one regular season.
With Shirley putting up big numbers, the Stars topped the
SFMAAAHL standings with a 24-3-1 record to earn a bye into the semifinal round
of the league playoffs. The Stars will face the Regina Rebels (17-8-3) in a
best-of-five SFMAAAHL semifinal series. Game 1 is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. at
the Agriplace Arena.
Game 2 is slated for this coming Monday in Regina, and Game
3 is scheduled for Tuesday, March 13 at 7 p.m. at the Agriplace Arena.
The Rebels claimed a best-of-five SFMAAAHL quarter-final
series 3-1 against the Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats.
Besides putting up big offensive totals with the Stars,
Shirley played for Canada at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s under-18
women’s world championship, which ran Jan. 6 to 13 in Dmitrov, Russia. She
helped Canada win a bronze medal at that event.
The story on Shirley can be round right here.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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