Lisowsky hatty powers Blades to 6-4 victory over Raiders

Brandon Lisowsky celebrates his hat trick goal.

Brandon Lisowsky was on fire, and that was a welcome development for the Saskatoon Blades.

On Thursday night, Lisowsky potted three goals to power his Blades to a 6-4 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders to the delight of most of the 2,729 spectators in attendance at the SaskTel Centre.

The hat trick was the second of the season for Lisowsky, who scored three times in a 5-4 overtime victory over the Warriors in Moose Jaw on December 14.

On the season, Lisowsky, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 167 pounds, has 19 goals and seven assists in 32 games.

In Thursday’s clash between the Blades and Raiders, the contest had some jerky ebbs and flows that saw the two sides combine for 10 goals on 37 total shots.

Brandon Lisowsky has two hat tricks for the Blades this season.

Both teams started out kind of playing each other cautious over the opening 15 minutes. The Raiders broke thru on the scoreboard with 4:06 remaining in the first period.

With the Blades working on the power play, the hosts were trying to break out of their own end.

Raiders star center Ozzy Wiesblatt intercepted a pass at the Saskatoon blue-line and broke into the Blades zone on a breakaway. He snapped a short-handed marker past Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier to give the visitors their 1-0 edge.

Ozzy Wiesblatt had the Raiders first goal on Thursday.

The Raiders extended their lead to 2-0 at the 2:18 mark of the second on a goal from defenceman Landon Kosior. Kosior pinched down from the point to the front of the Saskatoon net, received a pass from left-winger Evan Herman and popped home his eighth of the season.

The Blades proceeded to even things up 2-2 heading into the second intermission thanks to Lisowsky scoring his first two goals on the night.

The Port Coquitlam, B.C., product potted his first goal on the power-play banging home a rebound from a shot taken by linemate Jayden Wiens.

Lisowsky bagged his next marker scoring on a shot from close in front of the Blades net after converting a nice setup pass from 17-year-old right-winger Kyren Gronick coming from behind the Prince Albert goal.

The Raiders bench checks out the replay of a disallowed goal.

With under 50 seconds to play in the second, the Raiders thought they went ahead 3-2, when 18-year-old left-winger Sloan Stanick snapped a shot past Blades star overage netminder Nolan Maier.

The Blades coaches challenged that the play was offside, and the officials ruled the play was indeed offside after video review causing the goal to be disallowed.

The replay in the building showed Raiders centre Hayden Pakkala was unable to keep the puck onside while holding it at the Saskatoon blue-line.

Just 34 seconds into the third, the Blades jumped ahead 3-2 on a tally from captain Aiden De La Gorgendiere. De La Gorgendiere received a pass on the Prince Albert zone, skated into the left slot and wired a shot past Raiders netminder Tikhon Chaika.

Sloan Stanick (#23) jets up ice for the Raiders.

Lisowsky proceeded to net his hat trick goal to extend the Blades lead to 4-2 at the 5:59 mark of the third. Working hard on the forecheck in the Prince Albert zone, Lisowsky took the puck from a Raiders player in front of the Prince Albert net and blasted home his 19^th of the season.

Just 46 seconds after that tally, the Blades struck on the power play, when Wiens tipped home a point shot from De La Gorgendiere to the top corner of the Prince Albert goal.

Following that tally, the Raiders pulled Tikhon, who stopped 15 of 20 shots sent his way. He took the setback in goal for the Raiders (12-17-1-1).

Cole Tisdale played the rest of the way in relief stopping one of two shots sent his way.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere had a key goal for the Blades.

Blades star centre Tristen Robins beat Tisdale on a sick deke move to put the hosts up 6-2.

The Raiders attempted to make a comeback as import left-winger Vladislav Shilo scored with 3:06 remaining in the third and 17-year-old left-winger Niall Crocker potted his second marker of the season with 1:23 remaining in the third to cut Saskatoon’s lead to 6-4.

Maier stopped 11 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (17-13-1-1).

The two archrivals have met six times this season with each side claiming three wins. At the moment, these squads aren’t slated to meet again until well into the new year on March 11, 2021.

Since returning from the WHL Christmas break, both the Blades and the Raiders have each played three games in four nights, and overall both teams haven’t looked sharp in the defensive end and in goal resulting in those clubs being involved in high-scoring games.

The Blades celebrate their victory on Thursday.

Both squads would likely welcome at least four consecutive days of practice to be able iron things out on the defensive end and in net. For the moment, the two sides have a fairly quick turnaround before taking the ice again.

The Blades return to action on Saturday when they host their traditional New Year’s Day game against the 23-8-2-1 Edmonton Oil Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders get back at it on Sunday when they host the Oil Kings (6 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

Following those games with the Oil Kings, the Blades and Raiders will get an adequate practice stretch that will allow them to sharpen up on the defensive end and in goal.

Raiders ink Ritchie to WHL player agreement, other notes

The Prince Albert Raiders have both of their first round picks in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft locked up.

On Thursday, the Raiders signed forward Ryder Ritchie to a WHL Standard Player Agreement. The Raiders selected Ritchie in the first round and 14^th overall in the WHL Prospects Draft held on December 9.

Ritchie, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 145 pounds, has a pair of goals and five assists in six games with Kelowna’s Rink Hockey Academy Under-18 prep team. He is the son of former NHLer Byron Ritchie.

The Raiders now have their top four picks from the WHL Prospects Draft held on December 9 signed to WHL Standard Player Agreements including their other first round selection in forward Cole Peardon, who was picked 13^th overall. They also previously signed forward Grady Martin (second round, 32^nd overall) and defenceman Seth Tansem (second round, 43^rd overall).

• On Thursday, the WHL announced that all team activities were paused for the Swift Current Broncos after the number of players on their CHL COVID-19 Protocol List grew to four. The Broncos home game on Thursday against the Winnipeg Ice and their scheduled home contest on Friday against the Regina Pats have been postponed.
• Bailey Peach had a monster game for the Victoria Royals on Thursday night. The 20-year-old left-winger was in on every Royals goal posting a hat trick and four assists as the Royals downed the visiting Vancouver Giants 7-3. The Royals, who have won three straight, improved to 12-13-4, while the Giants fell to 14-16-1.
• Garin Bjorkland, a 19-year-old netminder, made 41 saves on Thursday helping the Medicine Hat Tigers down the visiting Calgary Hitmen 3-2. The Tigers received a pair of goals from 17-year-old left-winger Tyler MacKenzie in improving to 6-19-3-1, while the Hitmen fell to 12-12-3-2.

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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