Blades live a dream night in Prince Albert

Raiders suffer nightmare 9-0 loss to archrivals

The Blades celebrate Brandon Lisowsky’s hat trick goal.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – The Saskatoon Blades owned the Art Hauser Centre.

“The Bridge City Bunch” lived through a dream Saturday night downing their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders 9-0 in a WHL regular season clash in front of 2,149 stunned spectators in the storied home rink for the “Hockey Town North” side. The Blades, who are rated fifth in the CHL Top 10 Rankings, had a dominant performance on all fronts winning their sixth straight to improve to 21-5, while the Raiders looked outclassed by their rivals and were sent back to the drawing board losing their fifth straight to fall to 10-18-2.

It took just 51 seconds into the contest for the Blades to open the scoring in Saturday’s clash. Blades star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky picked off a Raiders pass in the centre ice zone to spring himself into the Prince Albert zone on a breakaway.

Egor Sidorov had two goals and an assist on Saturday.

Lisowsky snapped home a shot to the low left side of the Prince Albert net give the Blades a 1-0 edge. Saskatoon proceeded to keep the goals coming in a frequent manner from that point.

At the 12:38 mark of the first, Blades import right-winger Egor Sidorov snapped home a midrange power-play goal from just off to the right of the centre from the Prince Albert net to give the visitors a 2-0 edge.

Just under two minutes later, the Blades went ahead 3-0, when 17-year-old centre Lukas Hansen snapped home a shot from the left faceoff circle.

With 68 seconds remaining in the opening frame, the Blades struck again on the power play to go up 4-0. Saskatoon skilled centre Trevor Wong had the puck at the left side of the Prince Albert zone and hit Sidorov with a backdoor pass at the right side of the goal. Sidorov quickly potted his second of the contest and 14^th of the season into an empty cage to give the Blades their four goal advantage.

Lukas Hansen fires home a first period goal for the Blades.

After 20 minutes were complete, the Blades were ahead 4-0 and held a 20-6 edge in shots on goal. The Raiders faithful at the Art Hauser Centre usually anticipate encounters with the Blades with gleeful excitement looking to pounce with heckles on their hated rivals from Saskatoon. When the first period wrapped up, it was so quiet in the Raiders home barn you could almost hear a pin drop.

The Raiders attempted to make a push back at the start of the second and had the Blades pinned in their own zone for some stretches. Blades standout right-winger Conner Roulette scored at the 8:03 mark of the second on the power play to allow the visitors to resume their domination going up 5-0.

Conner Roulette (#34) fires a shot on goal for the Blades.

Just over five minutes later, Lisowsky netted his second of the contest to put the Blades up 6-0 and chase Raiders starting import goaltender Tikhon Chaika from the game. Chaika was pulled after Saskatoon’s sixth goal and took the loss for the Prince Albert side turning away 22-of-28 shots fired his way.

Max Hildebrand played the rest of the way in relief turning away 10-of-13 shots sent in his direction.

With 1:31 remaining in the second, Hansen notched his second goal of the contest deflected home a point shot from 20-year-old defenceman Blake Gustafson to put the Blades up 7-0.

In the third, Blades hard-working right-winger Vaughn Watterodt netted his ninth goal of the season to put the Blades up 8-0, and Lisowsky completed his first hat trick of the season scoring on the power play to round out the 9-0 final in favour of the visitors.

Trevor Wong had three assists for the Blades on Saturday.

Lisowsky had an assist to go with his three goals for a four point night, and he posted a plus-two rating in the plus-minus department. Sidorov had an assist to go with his two tallies, and he was a plus-two.

Wong and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere each recorded three assists for the Blades. Watterodt had an assist to go with his goal.

Austin Elliott, who is the Blades 18-year-old rookie netminder, made 25 stops to pick up his second shutout of the season, and his side held a 41-25 edge in shots on goal.

With 4.6 seconds remaining in the third, frustration boiled over on the Raiders side and a massive scrum ensued around the Saskatoon goal. Out of that scrum, a feisty fight ensued between Raiders 18-year-old left-winger Carter Anderson and Blades 16-year-old rookie left-winger Smyth Rebman. Both traded solid shots before the officials jumped in to break things up.

Austin Elliott made 25 saves to earn a shutout win.

The fight did bring a short rise out of the crowd at the Art Hauser Centre, but that quickly faded away as the final seconds of the contest ticked away. The Blades began their celebration as the Raiders home rink quickly emptied out.

So far this season, the Blades have taken all three head-to-head meetings between the two sides. Saturday’s clash was by far the most lopsided encounter, and the biggest victory the Blades have posted over the Raiders in some time.

With having won six straight, the Blades are jumping at the chance to return to action. They get back at it again on Tuesday, when they host the 11-15-4-1 Medicine Hat Tigers (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders have three days to regroup before hosting the Tigers on Wednesday (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Blades celebrate their 9-0 victory on Saturday night.

For the moment, the Blades will be able to reflect on what was a joyful trip to Prince Albert. For the Raiders and their fans, they likely hope they can wake up on Sunday hoping that Saturday’s clash was a bad dream.

All the Prince Albert side can do starting on Sunday is try to regroup and leave the 9-0 loss to the Blades in the rearview mirror as quickly as possible.

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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