Blades bash Pats 9-1

Sidorov scores 100^th goal of WHL career in win

Egor Sidorov scored his 100th career WHL regular season goal.

Winning Wednesday was a check the box night for the Saskatoon Blades.

Score a season high nine goals – check.

Have goals come from eight different players – check.

Have at least 16 out of 18 skaters register one point – check.

Have no players end up with a negative rating in the plus-minus department – check.

Have your goalie post a save percentage over .950 – check.

Score on over 25 percent of your power play chances – check.

Hudson Kibblewhite scored twice for the Blades on Wednesday.

Go perfect on the penalty kill – check.

Continue to lead the overall WHL standings – check.

And for a bonus, help star import right-winger Egor Sidorov achieve a milestone scoring his 100^th career WHL goal in regular season play – check.

It was pretty safe to say almost all the 3,625 spectators at the SaskTel Centre went home happy on Wednesday night aside from the supporters that came out to back the opposition. The host Blades, who are rated first in the latest CHL Top 10 Rankings, rocked their traditional rivals the Regina Pats 9-1 in a WHL regular season clash.

Misha Volotovskii scored the Blades second goal on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s game marked the last head-to-head encounter between the two sides in the current regular season. The Blades won six of the eight head-to-head meetings with the Pats.

It was about as great of a night as you could have gotten for the host side. The Blades, who improved their WHL leading record to 34-9-2-3, outshot the Pats 37-31, converted on 2-of-6 power plays and successfully killed off all three penalty killing situations they faced.

Even a league leading club hopes to have a few nights during a regular season like this. It is pretty safe to say everyone on the Blades roster came away with something positive to talk about from this game.

Egor Sidorov (#19) celebrates his 100th career regular season goal.

The Blades opened the game’s scoring just 2:22 into the opening frame on a goal from 16-year-old rookie centre Hudson Kibblewhite. Kibblewhite tipped home a point shot from star offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk for his fourth goal of the campaign to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

The officials went to a video review to determine if Kibblewhite deflected home his tally with a high stick, but they determined the goal was good.

A little over six minutes later, the Blades pushed their lead out to 2-0 after 18-year-old centre Misha Volotovskii scored with a spin around backhand shot for his sixth goal of the season.

Vaughn Watterodt scored early in the second period for the Blades.

Moments later, the Blades almost added another goal to their tally, but a drive from 18-year-old right-winger Rowan Calvert was denied by the glove hand of Pats netminder Ewan Huet.

After Huet stopped Calvert, the Pats gained momentum and fired a barrage of shots at Blades rookie netminder Evan Gardner. Gardner was up to the challenged and kept the visitors off the scoreboard.

The momentum then swung back to the host side before the opening frame came to an end. With 24.1 seconds remaining in the first, Sidorov drove down the right wing and snapped a host shot past Hue to give the host side a 3-0 advantage.

It was one of those tough nights for Kelton Pyne and the Pats.

Sidorov’s tally was his 37^th of the season and his 100^th of his regular season career in the WHL. At night’s end, Sidorov had recorded 100 goals, 74 assists and a plus-35 rating in 157 career regular season games in the WHL all played with the Blades. He had a pair of assists to go with his milestone goal on Wednesday.

The Pats pulled Huet after the first period. He turned away 7-of-10 shots to take the loss in net for the Pats, who fell to 17-24-4-2. Kelton Pyne played the final two periods for the Pats in relief turning away 21-of-27 shots he faced.

The onslaught continued in the second. Blades 19-year-old glue guy right-winger Vaughn Watterodt scored at the 4:19 mark of the second and star 19-year-old left-winger Brandon Lisowsky tallied on the power play to put the hosts up 5-0.

Brandon Lisowsky scored a power-play goal for the Blades.

Lisowsky scored his 29^th goal of the season from the left side of the Regina net after receiving spin-o-rama backhand pass from 21-year-old linemate Easton Armstrong.

With 1:56 remaining in the second, Armstrong scored his 26^th goal of the season to push the Blades advantage out to 6-0.

The Pats got a highlight at the 7:38 mark of the third period when 16-year-old rookie left-winger Corban Almen scored on a breakaway off a nice deke to cut the Blades lead to 6-1. Almen is from Saskatoon, so his tally helped perk up the family and friends he had in attendance on Wednesday.

The Blades goal barrage resumed after Almen’s tally.

Corban Almen had the Pats lone goal on Wednesday.

Just 83 seconds later, Kibblewhite scored his second of the night popping home a rebound from a shot taken by Calvert to give the Blades a 7-1 advantage. With 4:44 remaining in the third, 19-year-old defenceman Ben Saunderson netted his fifth goal of the season, and star 19-year-old centre Fraser Minten popped a power-play goal with 60 seconds left in the frame to round out the 9-1 final score in Saskatoon’s favour.

Gardner stopped 30 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Blades. In 20 appearances with the Blades this season, Gardner, who turned 18-years-old on January 25, has posted a 12-5-2 record, a 2.07 goals against average, a .923 save percentage and two shutouts in his debut campaign in the WHL.

Tyler Parr had a pair of assists for the Blades on Wednesday.

Molendyk and left-winger Tyler Parr each had a pair of assists for the Blades. Saunderson, who had an assist to go with his goal, finished the contest with a plus-five rating.

The Pats return to action on Friday when they host the 23-18-3-2 Swift Current Broncos (7 p.m., Brandt Centre).

The Blades also get back at it on Friday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre). The Tigers lead the Central Division with a 29-14-3-1 record.

The Blades celebrate their win on Wednesday.

The Blades, who have won three in a row, know most nights aren’t going to materialize like Wednesday’s win over the Pats did. Still, it is always good to have outings where seemingly everything goes right, because it feels like all the hard work put in up to that point in the campaign is paying off.

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