Blades’ Maier equals WHL career wins record

Netminder makes 20 saves in 4-0 victory over Tigers

Nolan Maier tied the WHL regular season career wins record at 120.

It was a terrific Tuesday night in Medicine Hat for Nolan Maier.

The Saskatoon Blades star overage netminder made 20 saves in a 4-0 win over the host Tigers before 1,880 spectators at Co-Op Place. With the win, Maier equals the WHL record for career regular season goaltending victories at 120.

Maier shares the career goaltending wins mark with Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith.

Hirsch picked up his 120 victories playing four seasons with the Kamloops Blazers from 1988 to 1992. Sexsmith collected his 120 wins over five seasons with the Vancouver Giants from 2005 to 2009. He also had one non-decision relief appearance for the Medicine Hat Tigers late in the 2004-05 campaign.

Maier entered Tuesday’s action tied with Jordan Papirny for second on the WHL’s all-time career regular season wins list with 119 victories. Papirny picked up his 119 career regular season wins playing five seasons in the WHL from 2012 to 2017 with the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Swift Current Broncos.

Maier joined the Blades on a full-time basis as a 16-year-old rookie in November of 2017. The Yorkton, Sask., product has appeared in 213 career regular season games with the Blades posting a 120-71-18 record, a 2.90 goals against average, a .905 save percentage and 11 shutouts.

Along with those statistics, Maier has played 12,429 career minutes in goal for the Blades and made 5,702 career saves.

Maier’s career shutout, games played, minutes played and saves totals are all Blades franchise records.

Kyle Crnkovic had a goal and an assist on Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s clash with the Tigers, the Blades netted their first goal with 1:41 remaining in the first period, when defenceman Ryan Nolan and star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic teamed up to spring standout right-winger Brandon Lisowsky on a breakaway.

Lisowsky snapped home his 33^rd goal of the season stick side on Tigers 18-year-old netminder Beckett Langkow for the 1-0 lead.

At the 8:28 mark of the second, Blades rookie import right-winger Egor Sidorov roof home his 22^nd tally of the season to the top right corner of the Medicine Hat net to give the Blades a 2-0 advantage. Sidorov’s scoring chance on his goal came after he collected the rebound from a shot taken by Nolan.

Just 54 seconds later, Blades 19-year-old right-winger Noah Boyko backhanded home a rebound from his own close in first shot to extend Saskatoon’s advantage to 3-0.

Inside the final two minutes of the second, Maier denied Tigers left-winger Oren Shtrom on a drive from the right slot. The rebound went to Shtrom’s linemate in Noah Danielson, but Maier’s sprawling right pad stuffed Danielson’s shot attempt.

Early in the third, Tigers 16-year-old rookie left-winger Andrew Basha wired a shot off the post of the Saskatoon goal. A short time later, Maier denied Tigers 17-year-old rookie left-winger Steven Arp on a backhand shot from the front of the Saskatoon net.

The Blades rounded out the 4-0 final in their favour at the 6:39 mark of the third. Nolan sprang Crnkovic on a breakaway on a long flip stretch pass, and Crnkovic backhanded home his 38^th tally of the season.

Langkow turned away 20 shots to take the setback in goal for the Tigers (11-49-3-1).

Brandon Lisowsky scored for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Tigers are locked into finish last in the entire WHL and will continue to play out the string on Friday, when they travel to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings (7 p.m. local time, Westman Place).

With the win, the Blades improve to 36-25-3-1 to remain in contention to get home ice advantage for a first round playoff series.

They trail the 36-23-3-2 Moose Jaw Warriors by one point for fourth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and the right to have home ice advantage in the first round of the post-season. Moose Jaw has a game in hand on Saskatoon.

The Wheat Kings jumped back into contention for that fourth place spot after winning their third straight game downing the visiting Regina Pats 5-4 at Westman Place on Tuesday night. Brandon improved to 33-25-3-2 to continue to hold sixth place in the conference six points behind Moose Jaw and five points behind Saskatoon.

The Wheat Kings have one game in hand on the Warriors and two games in hand on the Blades.

Saskatoon still has six regulars on the injury list. Defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

Overage star centre Tristen Robins, who is the Blades captain for the rest of the current season, is out day to day with an upper body injury and the same goes for veteran centre Josh Pillar and overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart.

Rookie centre Lukas Hansen is week-to-week with an upper body injury, and utility player Spencer Shugrue was out day to day with a lower body injury.

Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades on Tuesday.

The Blades return to action on Wednesday, when they travel to Lethbridge to take on the 29-30-3-1 Hurricanes (7 p.m. local time, Enmax Centre).

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