Blades stun Royals with comeback OT win

Fasko-Rudas gets natural Hatty, Wouters extra time winner

Chase Wouters, right, celebrates scoring the OT winner for the Blades.

    A newcomer and the captain put on their superhero capes to save the Saskatoon Blades.
    Training the visiting Victoria Royals 2-0 early in the third period of a WHL regular season game on Tuesday night, Blades received a natural hat trick from Slovakian import right-winger Martin Fasko-Rudas to jump ahead 3-2.

    Fasko-Rudas was acquired a short time ago by the Blades in a deal with the Swift Current Broncos right before the WHL trade deadline on Jan. 10.

    After the surge of goals from Fasko-Rudas, the Royals battled back to force overtime with former Blades right-winger Gary Haden netting the equalizer to force a 3-3 tie with 7:43 remaining in the third period.

Chase Wouters has three OT winners for the Blades this season.

    Just 36 seconds into overtime, Blades captain Chase Wouters received a pass from right-winger Kyle Crnkovic in front of the Victoria goal. Wouters roofed a shot to the top right corner of the Royals goal to give the Blades a 4-3 victory in front of 3,020 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

    The marker was Wouters third overtime winner and fifth game-winner of the campaign.

    “It was pretty cool,” said Wouters, who had an assist to go with his goal. “It was the first one I’ve gotten on home ice besides that playoff one there.

    “It was really a cool experience for sure.”

    Wouters’ playoff overtime winner came in March of last year, when the Blades downed the Moose Jaw Warriors 3-2 in Game 1 of a best-of-seven first round series at the SaskTel Centre. The Blades would go on to sweep that series 4-0.

    Since that post-season overtime winner, Wouters has made a habit of scoring goals in overtime.

Martin Fasko-Rudas had a natural hat trick for the Blades on Tuesday.

    Blades head coach Mitch Love was pleased to see Wouters get his latest overtime winner. While Wouters had goals in four of his last six games, he was held scoreless in the Blades previous two outings, and Love said his captain had strong efforts but wasn’t rewarded.

    The bench boss decided to start Wouters in overtime due to another attribute and hoped a goal would result.

    “Honestly when Chase (Wouters) gets out there in overtime, it is usually to win that first faceoff, because the puck possession is so important,” said Love. “He is usually pretty good at it.

    “For him to get rewarded there, I know he has been a little bit snakebitten of late offensively. That was a big goal for him. Hopefully, that will rally him up here to kind of stay hot.”

Gary Haden had the third period equalizer for the Royals.

    The teams played through a scoreless opening period, where the Royals held a slim 10-9 edge in shots on goal. Both teams did have their chances in the first 20 minutes.

    Early in the frame, Blades rookie right-winger Colton Dach had a golden chance to score from the left slot, but he fired a shot over top of the net.

    Late in the frame, Royals star centre Brayden Tracey tried to score on a wraparound, but he was denied by Blades rookie netminder Koen MacInnes.

    The visitors broke through at the 5:14 mark of the second period, when Royals captain Phillip Schultz scored gritty goal in front of the Saskatoon net to give his side a 1-0 lead.

    The Blades had a glorious chance to even things up late in the second, but rookie 16-year-old centre Jayden Wiens was stoned close in.

    The Royals expanded their edge to 2-0 with a power-play goal coming off the stick of import right-winger Keanu Derungs. 

Captain Phillip Schultz scored in the second period for the Royals.

    Derungs took a backdoor pass at the right side of the Blades goal from linemate Brandon Cutler.
    Just when things looked down, Fasko-Rudas gave the Blades a spark.

    The 19-year-old fired home a natural hat trick in a span of two minutes and 20 seconds with the finally tally of the surge coming at the 8:33 mark of the third. The surge helped the Blades jump ahead on the scoreboard 3-2.

    At the 6:13 mark of third, he sniped home an even-strength goal from the left slot. At the 7:45 mark, Fasko-Rudas tallied his second marker on a two-man advantage converting a backdoor pass at the left side of the Victoria goal that came from defenceman Scott Walford.

    At the 8:33 mark of the third, the Slovakian netted his third goal on the remaining one-man advantage to give the Blades a one-goal edge after taking a smart in close pass from Crnkovic.

Martin Fasko-Rudas (#17) fires home his hat trick goal.

    Fasko-Rudas said he couldn’t ever remember a moment when goals went into the net that fast for him.

    “It happened to me first time,” said Fasko-Rudas. “I have to thank my teammates for great passes and great help.

    “I’m really happy for those goals.”

    Wouters almost couldn’t believe how fast the goals went into the net for Fasko-Rudas.

    “It was really exciting,” said Wouters, who leads the WHL with 625 faceoff wins. “He turned it on there for us.

    “Those were some big goals in the game for sure. It was good.”

    After Fasko-Rudas put the Blades in the lead, that set the stage for Haden to score for the Royals and force overtime and for Wouters to win it in the extra session.
    Fasko-Rudas was pumped to see his club bounce back after the Royals tied the game.

Kyle Crnkovic had three assists in the Blades win on Tuesday.

    “It was a hell of a job from the team and from the guys,” said Fasko-Rudas. “It was great that we didn’t quit, and we came back.”

    MacInnes stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (24-19-2-2). Crnkovic finished with three assists in the win.
    Adam Evanoff turned away 28 shots to take the extra time setback goal for the Royals (25-17-4).

    Love said Tuesday’s game was a big character win for his club as the Blades elected to scratch their leading scorer in centre Tristen Robins moments before warm-ups due to illness.

    “It was pretty gutsy,” said Love. “We looked pretty fatigued through 40 minutes.
    “Our execution offensively wasn’t quite there. Credit to the guys, they really stuck with it. We knew we had to really press in the third to try and generate any sort of offence against a very good defensive team.

The Blades mob Chase Wouters after his OT winner on Tuesday.

    “We generated some power plays, and that was going well for us tonight. It is a gutsy win for us.”

    The Blades are back in action on Friday when they travel to Moose Jaw to face the Warriors (7 p.m., Mosaic Place). Love expects Robins will be ready to go for that contest.

    The Royals return to action on Wednesday when they venture to Prince Albert to face the Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

    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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