Blades steal show from Bedard, pound Pats 5-2

Regina phenom centre gets goal and assist in setback

The Blades celebrate a goal from Lukas Hansen (#28).

The allure of phenom centre Connor Bedard brought out the fans in droves to the SaskTel Centre, and when the dust settled, they had to come away impressed with their hometown Saskatoon Blades.

On Sunday afternoon, the Blades drew their largest crowd of the season with 7,868 spectators cramming into the SaskTel Centre for a late afternoon WHL regular season home clash with Bedard and his Regina Pats. Traditionally in the history of the Blades franchise, a clash with the Pats often captured the attention of the folks of “The Bridge City.”

It can be argued that the hardcore Blades fans in Saskatoon feel more of a rivalry or at least dislike of the Pats and the city of Regina than the Raiders and the city of Prince Albert. That feeling exists even though the Blades and Raiders have had one of junior hockey’s most intense rivalries to help that feud earn archrival status.

Jayden Wiens scored twice for the Blades on Sunday.

Of course, Bedard is the consensus pick to be selected first overall in upcoming NHL Entry Draft in 2023. That adds a different intrigue element to current battles between the Blades and Pats. The 17-year-old North Vancouver, B.C., product entered play on Sunday with a comfortable lead in the WHL’s scoring race.

Bedard didn’t disappoint picking up a goal and an assist on Sunday to run his consecutive game points scoring streak to 19 contests. After failing to register a point in the Pats first regular season game, Bedard has recorded points in every Pats game since that time to top the WHL in goals (18), assists (25) and points (43).

Connor Bedard had a goal and an assist for the Pats.

While Bedard had another good outing, the bigger development on Sunday might have been the fact the Blades took the contest 5-2 in front of their biggest home crowd of the season. The Blades office staff put in a tonne of work resulting in a lot of family bringing their children out to Sunday’s contest.

Bedard may have been the obvious draw, the fans wanted to see the Blades win. The Blades played sound and led the contest pretty much wire-to-wire.

Sunday’s victory was a third straight win for the Blades, who improved to 14-4. Quietly, the Blades have sat in the top four of the WHL standings for most of the current campaign.

Their victory over the Pats on Sunday might be the work of month thing that helps them draw larger crowds for a longer term of time. It was obvious the spectators had a good time in an environment that was family friendly.

Austin Elliott makes one of his 32 saves in goal for the Blades.

As a capper, the Blades made sure to hold a team autograph session in the building’s concourse after their win, and the youngsters enjoyed every moment they could spend with the players from the hometown team.

In the game itself, the Blades came out of the gates playing a smooth puck possession game that created scoring chances and kept them camped in the Regina zone for much of the opening 20 minutes.

At the 13:03 mark of the opening frame, the Blades broke through on the scoreboard when star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky and standout centre Trevor Wong broke into the Regina zone on a two-on-one rush. Lisowsky came down the left wing with the puck and passed it across the front of the Pats goal to Wong, who promptly buried his eighth of the season.

Trevor Wong scored the Blades first goal on Sunday.

The Blades held a 6-1 edge in shots on goal, when Wong scored to put the host side up 1-0.

Just 1:56 later, the Blades pushed their lead out to 2-0 on a power-play goal from Jayden Wiens, who tipped home a point shot from captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere.

The Pats mounted a push back during the final two minutes of the opening frame and kept applying pressure in the second. At that point, Blades 18-year-old rookie netminder Austin Elliott showed he could be pretty good when it came to guarding the goal.

Elliott made a trio of saves in the second to allow the Blades to continue to hold their 2-0 edge. He stoned Bedard on a rush down the right wing, made a glove save on a dangerous bad angle shot from Pats left-winger Sam Oremba and came up with a skate stop on Pats centre Braxton Whitehead.

Connor Bedard (#98) scores his 18th goal of the season.

Despite the Pats pressure, the Blades extended their lead to 3-0 at the 17:02 mark of the second on a beauty effort by 17-year-old centre Lukas Hansen. Hansen got the puck at the right boards from linemate Jordan Keller.

After getting the puck from Keller, Hansen cut across the face the Regina goal and tucked home his third of the season to give the hosts their three-goal edge.

The Pats didn’t go away. They got a big traction moment with 1:25 remaining in the second period from an almost out of nowhere spot.

The Blades tried to clear the puck high out of their zone, and the clearing pass was picked off by Pats right-winger Borya Valis just inside the Saskatoon blue-line.

Aidan De La Gorgendiere had two assists for the Blades.

Valis quickly fed a past to Bedard, who headed in on the Saskatoon net on a short breakaway. Bedard put a deke on Elliott and tucked home his 18th goal of the season.

Just 45 seconds into the third, the Pats cut the Blades lead to 3-2 scoring on the power play. From the right boards in the Saskatoon zone, Bedard fed a seeing-eye pass to import left-winger Alexander Suzdalev, who wired home his 10^th goal of the season to trim the Blades lead to one.

The Blades ensured the Pats comeback was not to be. At the 10:27 mark of the third, Wiens potted his second power-play goal of the contest collecting the rebound of a shot taken by import right-winger Egor Sidorov at the left side of the Regina net and popping the puck into an open cage to push the host’s lead out to 4-2.

A group of young fans cheer the Blades at the SaskTel Centre.

De La Gorgendiere picked up his second assists of the night on the Blades fourth goal.

With 70 seconds remaining in the third, Blades 18-year-old right-winger Vaughn Watterodt rounded out the game’s scoring sliding home a long empty-net tally on a shot taken from his own left faceoff circle to cement the 5-2 final.

Elliott made 32 stops to pick up the win in goal for the Blades (14-4). In his nine starts this season, Elliott has posted an 8-1 record, a 1.55 goals against average, a .941 save percentage and one shutout.  Drew Sim turned away 22 of 26 shots to take the setback in goal for the Pats (9-9-1-1).

Following their setback, the Pats get back at it on Thursday when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Ice at 7 p.m. local time at the Wayne Fleming Arena.

The Blades salute their fans following their win on Sunday.

The Blades return to action on Friday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. While the Tigers haven’t been a big draw for the Blades in recent years, it would be cool if the spectators that came out to the win over the Pats came back for the clash with the Tigers.

It was obvious the people that came out to the SaskTel Centre on Sunday had a good time. Here is hoping they come back to enjoy that same game day experience again and again for the rest of the 2022-23 campaign.

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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