Saskatoon starts 3-0 with shootout win over
Tigers
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| Blades G Nolan Maier stones Tigers C Henrik Rybinski on a shootout chance. |
Taking on the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Blades trailed
Saturday’s WHL regular season clash at three different times by scores of 1-0,
2-1 and 3-2. On each of those occasions, the Blades managed to tie things up
including a power-play point blast by overage right-winger Max Gerlach that
forced a 3-3 draw and overtime with 3:15 to play in the third period.
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| Riley McKay (#39) celebrates scoring on a shootout chance for the Blades. |
With the Blades shooting first, Saskatoon star sophomore
centre Kirby Dach and Tigers captain James Hamblin traded goals in the first
round.
Blades star netminder Nolan Maier and Tigers Danish import
goalie Mads Sogaard, who was making his first career WHL regular season start,
ensured no one scored through the next seven rounds. During that stretch, the
Blades faithful had to wait nervously on pins and needles as six Tigers
shooters could have potentially won the game for the visitors had it not been
for the work put in by Maier.
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| James Hamblin had two goals and an assist for the Tigers. |
Tigers right-winger Bryan Lockner proceeded to thwart those
hopes scoring after Davidson to force a 2-2 tie and a 10th round in
the tiebreaker.
In round 10, Blades tough guy left-winger Riley McKay
snapped a shot past Sogaard to put the hosts up 3-2 in the shootout.
Maier sealed the win making a pad save on Tigers centre
Henrik Rybinski, who tried to score on a backhand deke.
With that stop, the host side’s fans at the SaskTel Centre
were able to exhale as the Blades skated away with a 3-2 win in the shootout
and a 4-3 overall victory in the contest to improve to 3-0. The Tigers record
moved to 1-3-0-1 with the extra time setback.
The Blades have missed the playoffs for the last five
straight seasons, which included falling out of a playoff position inside of
the final 10 games in each of the past two campaigns.
After posting a 35-33-3-1
record last season playing out of an incredibly tough East Division, hopes are
high the Blades can return to the post-season in the current 2018-19 campaign.
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| Tigers G Mads Sogaard makes a save on a busy first career WHL start. |
Saskatoon won its first two games over the Swift Current
Broncos by a combined score of 10-1. With that performance, the Blades found
themselves rated 10th on the CHL’s Top 10 rankings for this past week.
That marked the first time the Blades have made those rankings since the
2012-13 season, when they hosted the Memorial Cup, finished first in the East
Division and last made the WHL playoffs.
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| Max Gerlach scored to force overtime for the Blades. |
There were glaring times the Blades showed they were in
early season form as well, which is to be expected at this part of the
campaign.
Hamblin gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead at the 3:05 mark of the first
period, when his bad angle shot from the right corner boards found its way past
Maier.
After Blades captain Chase Wouters scored just over seven minutes
later to force a 1-1 tie, the hosts fell behind again on another “oops.”
Blades veteran defenceman Jackson Caller attempted to make a
backhanded pass along his own blue-line and it was picked off by Hamblin.
The
19-year-old product of Edmonton, Alta., sped into the Saskatoon zone on a
breakaway and potted his second of the contest to give the Tigers a 2-1 edge
heading into the first intermission.
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| Captain Chase Wouters scored the Blades first goal of the night. |
After a scoreless second, Blades rookie Norwegian import
left-winger Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen snapped home his first career WHL
regular season goal to knot the score up at 2-2 just 62 seconds into the third.
Medicine Hat appeared to restore order going ahead 3-2
scoring on the power-play at the 8:48 mark of the third, when right-winger
Hayden Ostir wired home a setup pass from Hamblin.
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| Josh Paterson had two assists for the Blades on Saturday. |
Maier made 29 stops over 65 minutes and turned away 8-of-10
shooters in the shootout to pick up the win.
Sogaard turned away 39 shots over 65 minutes and 7-of-10 shooters in the shootout to take the extra time setback for the Tigers.
Blades 19-year-old right-winger Josh Paterson had two assists for the hosts making his debut in the current campaign. Paterson missed Saskatoon’s first two regular season games with an upper body injury.
Sogaard turned away 39 shots over 65 minutes and 7-of-10 shooters in the shootout to take the extra time setback for the Tigers.
Blades 19-year-old right-winger Josh Paterson had two assists for the hosts making his debut in the current campaign. Paterson missed Saskatoon’s first two regular season games with an upper body injury.
Overall, the Blades showed their supporters they could be in
for a fun and enjoyable season.
Like the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Blades gave their fans moments to make them aware the 2018-19 campaign won’t always be a joyride.
Like the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Blades gave their fans moments to make them aware the 2018-19 campaign won’t always be a joyride.
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| The Blades begin to celebrate their victory on Saturday night. |
They might even get that enjoyment following the team on the
road, as the Blades return to action on Sunday traveling to Prince Albert to
take on their archrivals the Raiders (4-0) at 6 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.
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to stankssports@gmail.com.
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