Blades blank Oil Kings 4-0 for third straight win

Saskatoon heads into B.C. road trip on high note

The Blades celebrate a goal from Egor Sidorov (#19).

The Saskatoon Blades did what they were expected to do before heading on their road trip through B.C.

On Tuesday night playing before 2,767 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades blanked the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings 4-0 in a WHL regular season clash. The victory allowed the Blades to extend their winning streak to three games thanks to winning every outing on a three-game home stand. They improved to 33-12-3-1 to sit third in the Eastern Conference and fifth in the WHL’s overall standings.

After downing the WHL leading Winnipeg Ice 3-2 on Saturday and dumping the Brandon Wheat Kings 4-2 on Sunday in the first two contests of the home stand, the Blades faced a mental test taking on the Oil Kings who sit last in the entire WHL. The Oil Kings went all in last season to win the WHL championship, but the cost was that they entered a huge rebuilding season in the current campaign.

Conner Roulette (#34) breaks into the offensive zone for the Blades.

With the loss to the Blades, the Oil Kings fell to 8-38-3 after finishing second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings last season with a 50-14-3-1 mark.

The players on the Saskatoon side could have gotten caught in a trap of looking past their foes on Tuesday. Instead, the Blades methodically posted a sound win that saw them outshoot the Oil Kings 44-21. Saskatoon won all four regular season meetings with Edmonton in the current campaign by a combined score of 19-2.

In Tuesday’s encounter, the Blades broke through on the scoreboard at the 6:41 mark of the opening frame. 

Brandon Lisowsky scored the Blades first goal on Tuesday.

While working the puck in the Edmonton zone, Blades captain and offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere had the puck to the left of the Oil Kings net and fed a pass across the face of the goal to Blades star winger Brandon Lisowsky at the doorstep of the right side of the net.

Lisowsky tapped the puck home for his 27^th goal of the season to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

With 2:10 remaining in the opening frame, Blades right-winger Vaughn Watterodt took a double minor for high sticking. The infraction will automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension. Edmonton wasn’t able to score on the four minutes of power-play time.

Lukas Hansen scored the Blades second goal on Tuesday.

Just a short time after the kill, Blades 17-year-old centre Lukas Hansen drove home his eighth tally of the season on a midrange shot from the front of the Edmonton goal to give the hosts a 2-0 at the 3:29 mark of the second. Blades star left-winger Conner Roulette picked up his first of two assists on the night off Hansen’s goal. Roulette had missed the Blades four previous games with an upper body injury.

Roulette played a big part in helping the Blades extended their advantage to 3-0 with 1:51 remaining in the second. Breaking into the Edmonton zone on a two-on-one break, Roulette burst down the left wing with the puck, fed a pass across the front of Oil Kings goal to star import right-winger Egor Sidorov, who buried his 30^th marker of the season.

Egor Sidorov scored his 30th goal of the season on Tuesday.

With his goal, Sidorov now has points in his last seven consecutive games recording five goals and three assists over that stretch.

Blades 19-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright rounded out the game’s scoring netting his fourth marker of the season driving home a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle with 6:38 remaining in the third. Wright converted a nice little setup pass from rookie left-winger Smyth Rebman, who turned 17-years-old on January 6.

Wright has two goals and five assists in his last seven games.

Ethan Chadwick stopped 21 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. The shutout was the second of the season for the Saskatoon product, and both Chadwick’s shutouts have come against the Oil Kings.

Ethan Chadwick made 21 saves to earn the shutout win.

Kolby Hay, who is one of Edmonton’s few holdovers from last season, turned away 40 shots to take the setback in goal for the Oil Kings.

Hay and the Oil Kings will try to move on in short order returning to action on Wednesday when they travel to Moose Jaw to take on the 32-16-0-3 Warriors (7 p.m., Moose Jaw Events Centre).

The Blades now embark on a five game road trip through the B.C. Division. The trip begins Friday when the Blades travel to Kamloops to take on the Memorial Cup hosting Blazers (7 p.m. local time, Sandman Centre). The Blazers top the B.C. Division with a 31-10-4-2 record and are rated ninth in the CHL’s Top 10 Rankings.

Smyth Rebman had an assist for the Blades on Tuesday.

Saskatoon’s next home game is in 17 days. At that time, the Blades will take on their archrivals the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Going into the B.C. road trip, the Blades got more good news on the injury front to go along with Roulette’s return on Tuesday. Rookie 18-year-old netminder Austin Elliott dressed as the Blades backup goalie after missing two games with a lower body injury.

The Blades injury list consists of centres Jayden Wiens and Josh Pillar due to lower body injuries and right-wingers Tyler Parr and Justin Lies due to upper body injuries. Blades 17-year-old sophomore left-winger Mikhail Volotovskii was added to the injury list after suffering an upper body injury in Sunday’s win over the Wheat Kings.

Volotovskii is listed as day-to-day, while Wiens, Pillar and Lies are all listed as week-to-week. Parr is out indefinitely.

The Blades celebrate their win on Tuesday.

Saskatoon healthy scratched 16-year-old associate player netminder Evan Gardner. Gardner had been playing with the Rink Hockey Academy’s under-18 team in Kelowna.

With the three straight wins, the Blades are heading into their B.C. road trip with some good momentum. Now, all their focus and good energy turns towards a heavyweight showdown with the Blazers on Friday, which could potentially be a display of the WHL at its best.

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