Sidorov loves hockey, nets hat trick to push Blades past T-birds

Egor Sidorov celebrates his hat trick goal on Saturday.

The more fun Egor Sidorov has the better he plays.

Taking ice on Saturday against the Seattle Thunderbirds, who entered the night leading the WHL’s overall standings, at the SaskTel Centre, the 18-year-old Belarusian import right-winger, who is residing in Canada full time, set out to be the best version of himself suiting up for the Saskatoon Blades. That meant a smile was on his face that was a mile wide and he approached the game with the joy of a classic Saskatchewan farm kid skating outside on a frozen over slough just outside of a classic “wheat province” town like Borden.

Sidorov proceeded to post his third hat trick of the season to power the Blades to a 4-2 victory. With the two sides locked in a 1-1 tie, Sidorov proceeded to score once late in the second and twice in the third to give the Blades a 4-1 edge. The host side cruised to victory from there.

Egor Sidorov (#19) enjoys his hat trick goal with his teammates.

After each time he scored, Sidorov, who stands 6-feet and weighs 180 pounds, celebrated each of his goals with childlike enthusiasm. When he was named the game’s first star, Sidorov, who is a fan favourite, decided to have some fun with the fans.

For years, the Blades players give souvenir sticks out to the fans to acknowledge three star selections during home games. When Sidorov came out to hand out his souvenir stick, he started to skate across centre ice, but made a quick u-turn to toss his stick to a child aged supporter who was sitting just down the row from the Thunderbirds bench.

Since arriving in Saskatoon before the start of the 2021-22 campaign, Sidorov has gotten better at speaking English, but he kind of sticks to simple sentences. Still, he draws the biggest fan reaction to the live audience post-game interviews Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk does either in the concourse area on the west side of the building that has restaurant style seating or from the building’s main fan lounge.

Egor Sidorov controls the puck in the offensive zone.

Following Saturday’s win over the Thunderbirds, Sidorov was pulled over for an on ice interview next to the Blades bench by game host Clayton Kroeker. The first thing Sidorov did was thank the 4,605 spectators for coming out for that night’s game.

Most of the fans were still in the building to see Sidorov take his first star hours, and they gave the Blades star a nice round of applause. Sidorov was indeed the best version of himself, and the Blades seemed to have their “moxie” going for the whole contest.

Over the past eight games, the Blades, who improved to 27-8-2-1 with the win on Saturday to sit fifth overall in the WHL standings, faced their hardest stretch of quality opponents. On top of taking on the Thunderbirds, they faced the Eastern Conference leading Winnipeg Ice twice, the Red Deer Rebels, who equaled Seattle for most standings points at night’s end, once and the Portland Winterhawks, who sit fourth overall in the WHL standings, once.

Egor Sidorov (#19) goes by Seattle LW Kyle Crnkovic on a rush.

On top of that, the Blades took on the 22-12-3-1 Calgary Hitmen, encountered the 20-17-0-1 Swift Current Broncos on a hot streak and mixed it up with the 21-19-1-1 Regina Pats as they start to get hot with phenom centre Connor Bedard back in the lineup.

Saturday’s victory over the Thunderbirds marked the second time the Blades have posted a win over their challenging last eight game stretch. During that stretch, the Blades had outings where they played well and lost.

That included falling twice to the Ice in Winnipeg 2-0 on Dec. 30, 2022 and 2-1 in overtime on Dec. 31, 2022 along with taking a 3-1 setback against the Winterhawks at home on Wednesday. In those games, the Blades made one or two mistakes that were costly.

Austin Elliott made 30 saves in goal for the Blades on Saturday.

The Blades had other outings where their game went away from them over stretches of like 10 minutes. Along with those losses, the Blades downed the Rebels at home 6-2 on Jan. 7.

The Saskatoon side needed a traction win against a top tier club to get a groove going again. Saturday’s win over the Thunderbirds seemed to provide just that.

The Blades systematically took control of play in the first period and broke through on the scoreboard with 6:07 remaining in the frame. Blades star centre Trevor Wong received a pass in front of the Seattle net from linemate Jake Chiasson and wired home a midrange shot for his 15^th tally of the season to put the hosts up 1-0.

Trevor Wong had a goal and two assists for the Blades.

When the first period came to an end, the Blades were holding a 10-5 edge in shots on goal.

The Thunderbirds pushed back in the second. The visitors evened the score at 1-1 at the 11:12 mark of the frame, when 18-year-old right-winger Nico Myatovic swooped from behind the Saskatoon net into the right faceoff circle and wired home his 16^th goal of the season.

At that point, Sidorov, who is rated 86^th among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s Mid-Term Rankings, went to work. With the Blades working on the power play, Sidorov received a pass from Blades captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere, set up to the left of the right faceoff dot in the Seattle zone and zipped home a shot short side on Thunderbirds netminder Scott Ratzlaff to put the hosts up 2-1 with 1:24 remaining in the second.

Nico Myatovic scored the Thunderbirds first goal on Saturday.

Sidorov netted his second tally of the contest at the 5:46 mark of the third off a two-on-one rush. 

On the play, Wong entered the Seattle zone with the puck on a rush down the left wing. He fed a pass across the front of the Seattle net to Sidorov who quickly snapped home a shot to give the Blades a 3-1 advantage.

At the 11:28 mark of the third, Sidorov completed the hat trick. He got the puck alone at the left side of the Seattle net, put a deke on Ratzlaff and lifted a shot over top the netminder’s blocker to give the Blades a 4-1 advantage.

In 27 games with the Blades this season, Sidorov now has 22 goals, 19 assists and a plus-17 rating in the plus-minus department.

Kevin Korchinski had a goal for the Thunderbirds on Saturday.

The Thunderbirds didn’t go away. With 3:01 remaining in the third, Thunderbirds offensive-defenceman Kevin Korchinski swooped down from the point to the left side of the Saskatoon net and covered a backdoor feed from Thunderbirds right-winger Brad Lambert to cut the Saskatoon lead to 4-2.

Saskatoon proceeded to close out the game defensively to make the 4-2 score hold up as the final outcome of the contest.

Austin Elliott stopped 30 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. Ratzlaff turned away 18 shots to take the setback in net for the Thunderbirds, who fell to 30-7-1-1.

Wong finished the contest with three points picking up two assists to go with his goal.

The Blades celebrate their win on Saturday.

The Thunderbirds return home and are off until Friday, when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The Blades return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Moose Jaw to take on the 26-14-0-2 Warriors (7 p.m., Moose Jaw Events Centre).

The Warriors should provide another stiff test for the Blades. With that said, Saturday’s win over the Thunderbirds should prove as a timely reminder for the Blades that they beat the WHL best teams, and Sidorov showed once again you can have fun doing it too.

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