Wong powers Saskatoon past Swift Current
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| Trevor Wong had three points for the Blades on Wednesday. |
On Wednesday night, the 19-year-old centre collected a goal and two assists to power the Blades to a 3-2 victory over the host Swift Current Broncos to disappoint most of the 1,618 spectators in attendance at the InnovationPlex. Wong leads the Blades in scoring with 81 points coming off 24 goals and 57 assists to go with a plus-20 rating in the plus-minus department appearing in all the team’s 64 games.
With the win, the Blades improved to 45-14-4-1 to sit second in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the WHL’s overall standings. The Blades need to earn just two standings points over their last four games to lock up a second overall finish in the Eastern Conference.
In the Eastern Conference standings race, Saskatoon sits seven points up on the Red Deer Rebels (41-17-3-3), who have locked up first in the Central Division.
In the first round of the WHL Playoffs, the two division winners are given the first and second seeds. From the second round onwards, the teams are reseeded by standings points, which means the Blades would have home ice advantage for any potential post-season encounters with Red Deer by finishing second in the Eastern Conference.
The WHL leading Winnipeg Ice (53-9-1) are assured of a first overall finish in the Eastern Conference.
In Wednesday’s clash with the Broncos, Josh Davies, who is an 18-year-old centre, gave Swift Current a 1-0 lead at the 6:43 mark of the first.
With 7:09 remaining in the opening frame, Wong netted his 24th goal of the season to even the score at 1-1. Overage left-winger Josh Pillar picked up an assist on Wong’s tally.
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| Aidan De La Gorgendiere had the Blades second goal on Wednesday. |
Lisowsky passed the puck to Blades captain and overage offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere. De La Gorgendiere put home an off-speed point shot to give the Blades a 2-1 edge.
With 6.5 seconds remaining in the second, the Blades increased their advantage to 3-1 on Wong’s second assist of the contest. Wong had the puck at the right side point, and fed a smart pass to defenceman and NHL Entry Draft prospect Tanner Molendyk, who was skating to the front of the Swift Current net.
Molendyk got the puck in alone on the Swift Current goal and put his ninth tally of the season past Broncos netminder Joey Rocha. Lisowsky picked up his second assist of the contest on Molendyk’s tally.
At the 1:59 mark of the third, Broncos star 18-year-old right-winger Josh Filmon netted his 44th goal of the season to cut the Blades lead to 3-2, but Swift Current wasn’t able to find the equalizer.
Austin Elliott made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. Rocha turned away 23 shots to take the setback in net for the Broncos.
Thanks to collecting his two assists on Wednesday, Wong now has 100 career regular season assists to go with 54 career goals collected in 193 career WHL regular season games played with both the Blades and the Kelowna Rockets.
With the loss, the Broncos dropped to sit in a tie for the ninth and 10th spots in the Eastern Conference standings with the Brandon Wheat Kings (26-30-8) at 60 standing points. Both clubs sit two points back of the Calgary Hitmen (27-27-5-3) for eighth place and the final post-season berth in the conference.
The Hitmen dumped the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes 7-1 at home on Wednesday, while the Wheat Kings dropped a 6-3 decision to Connor Bedard and the Pats in Regina.
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| Tanner Molendyk scored for the Blades on Wednesday. |
The Prince Albert Raiders (26-34-3) sit 11th in the Eastern Conference and are seven points back of the Hitmen. The Raiders have five regular season contests left to play.
The Broncos return to action on Saturday, when they travel to Red Deer to take on the Rebels (7 p.m. local time, Peavey Mart Centrium).
The Blades are off until Saturday when they host the Wheat Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).
WHL finalizes suspensions in Warriors
conduct saga
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| Connor Ungar in action for the Warriors on January 18. |
Back on February 11, the WHL announced that four Warriors players in Connor Ungar, Max Wanner, Lynden Lakovic and Marek Howell were suspended indefinitely pending an investigation into possible violations of team rules and WHL Standard of Conduct policies.
Ungar is the Warriors star netminder who turned 21-years-old on January 13. In 38 appearance with the Warriors this season, Ungar has posted a 26-7-3 record, a 2.58 goals against average, a .925 save percentage and one shutout.
Wanner is a defenceman who turned 20-years-old on Sunday and has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Edmonton Oilers. Lakovic is a rookie 16-year-old centre, and Howell is a rookie 16-year-old defenceman.
Last Friday, the WHL announced that Ungar, Wanner, Lakovic and Howell have been suspended for the remainder of the regular season due to an off-ice incident during a team road trip to Edmonton in February. The players’ conduct was determined to be a violation of team and league rules including the WHL Standard of Conduct policies as outlined in the WHL Personal Conduct Policy.
All four were dressed when the Warriors beat the Oil Kings in Edmonton 4-1 on February 3. All four played when the Warriors beat the Hitmen in Calgary 2-1 on February 5, and that was the last time all four dressed for a game for the Warriors.
Those players will miss the Warriors last 17 regular season games.
In order to be reinstated by the WHL following the completion of their suspensions, the four players will be required to complete further personal conduct and respect training.
The WHL also announced Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger and head coach Mark O’Leary have been suspended for five regular season games. Ripplinger and O’Leary were subject to discipline on the basis of failing to provide the proper oversight and supervision required to ensure a safe and positive environment for player in particular while traveling.
The Moose Jaw Warriors Hockey Club was fined $25,000.
The WHL said in its released last Friday that once notified of the incident, the WHL Security Network reported the matter to the authorities in Moose Jaw and Edmonton. The Edmonton Police Service confirmed the incident was not criminal in nature.
Following a preliminary review of the incident by the WHL Security Network, the WHL proceeded to commission an independent third party to investigate the matter. That investigation led to the suspensions.
The WHL Security Network consists of liaison officers assigned to each WHL club. The WHL Security Network is responsible for assisting WHL clubs with enforcing the WHL Standard of Conduct policies and ensuring clubs continue to deliver a safe and positive environment at all times.
The WHL statement added the standard of conduct for persons associated with the WHL is considerably higher than simply complying with criminal law. Everyone associated with the WHL or its member clubs is expected to conduct himself or herself lawfully, ethically, and responsibly in a matter that promotes the values upon which the WHL was founded and based.
The WHL never said what the four Warriors players did, and what those players did never game out in any media reports.
The Warriors released a statement last Friday saying they accept the sanctions imposed by the WHL over the incident. Both the WHL and Warriors they wouldn’t provide further details on the matter out of respect of the privacy of all parties involved.
While it is easy to go on Twitter to find criticism about the WHL not saying what the off-ice incident was about involving the four Warriors players, I take this situation is an “it is what it is” type situation.
I believe the WHL set out to show it followed due diligence, and it appeared the league did in this case. It is still a circuit that deals with teenagers in high school and players overall in the young adult age group.
Knowing how hyper the world gets these days on social media, saying what actually happened in the incident would likely be more adverse than keeping quiet since no criminal charges were going to be laid.
Personally, I’m good with how this all came out. I know there will be people who won’t be, and for me, that is fine too.
Bedard racism talk on social media total
garbage, other notes
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| Connor Bedard in action for the Pats on February 17. |
For any media types the regularly cover the Pats and anyone who has dealt with Bedard, it is well known he has a superstition that he doesn’t want anyone touching his hockey stick before a game. For as long as hockey has been played, players have had various superstitions and Bedard has one regarding stick touching.
Early last week, a short video clip surfaced of the Pats walking out to the ice before a home game between two lines of children. The children were cheering the Pats players, and a lot of the players were giving the kids fist bumps.
Bedard safely lifted his stick before walking through the two lines to uphold his superstition.
A number of children in the lines were Indigenousness, and that sparked accusations of racism as the video was spread on various anonymous social media accounts particularly on Twitter.
Likely, the person who first shot the video didn’t know of Bedard’s superstition, and that was likely where the problem started.
In the social media world, Twitter has become in my view the most toxic of all social media lines, and the “t” in Twitter basically stands for “toxic.”
To me, this whole situation was so stupid I didn’t want to write about it. It was bantered briefly on some of the Regina-based sports talk shows.
Veteran all-star sportswriter and columnist Darrell Davis wrote the top piece when it came to Bedard having to deal with these unfounded accusations in the Regina Leader-Post. Davis’s piece can be found by clicking right here.
- In anticipation of the SaskTel Centre selling out for the Saskatoon Blades game Sunday at 4 p.m. against the visiting Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats, the Blades put together a “need to know” piece including different options to get to the game. That piece can be found by clicking right here.
- Saskatoon Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk reported on Twitter on Wednesday night the Blades have surpassed 14,000 tickets sold for Sunday’s game at 4 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre against the visiting Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats. He wrote 13,600 tickets have been sold for the contest between the Blades and Bedard and the Pats set for the SaskTel Centre on Friday, March 24 at 7 p.m. Tickets for Sunday’s game can be found by clicking right here and for the March 24 contest by clicking right here.
- The NLL’s Saskatchewan Rush hold the record for the top two single event attendance records for a sporting event in the history of the SaskTel Centre. The Rush drew a SaskTel Centre record 15,192 spectators on May 21, 2016 for their 12-9 victory over the Calgary Roughnecks in Game 2 of a best-of-three West Division semifinal series that they swept 2-0. On June 4, 2016, the Rush drew the second highest attendance for a sporting event at the SaskTel Centre when 15,182 spectators saw them down the Buffalo Bandits 11-10 in Game 2 of the best-of-three NLL Championships Series on Jeff Cornwall’s winner with 12 seconds left to play. The Rush swept the series 2-0 to capture the NLL title.
- At the moment, Prince George Cougars 17-year-old centre and Saskatoon area product Riley Heidt share the WHL lead in assists this season with Connor Bedard. Both players have 66 assists on the campaign.
- On March 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happening blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a piece on Luca Veeman and Serena Dallaire leading a Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club medal haul at the Canada Winter Games. That piece can be found by clicking right here. I also created a photo roundup that shows the fun of the winter season in its stretch run. That piece can be found by clicking right here.
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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